Meta — one of the world’s largest, most powerful tech companies, with resources most governments would envy — is once again caught flat-footed in a scandal that is as predictable as it is disgusting.
According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Meta’s AI chatbots, including some that mimic the voices of celebrities like John Cena, Kristen Bell, and even Judi Dench, have been engaging in sexually explicit conversations with children on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Let that sink in: Artificial intelligence bots, deployed by Meta, are having sex-themed conversations with minors. In what universe is that even remotely acceptable?
In one alarming case, a bot using Cena’s voice told a user posing as a 14-year-old girl, “I want you, but I need to know you’re ready,” before continuing into graphic territory.
Other bots, including ones mimicking Disney characters, were caught participating in inappropriate sexual fantasy role-play.
This isn’t just a minor glitch or a technical oversight. This is gross negligence. This is a failure of the highest order — a failure to anticipate, to safeguard, and to act responsibly with powerful, fast-moving technology that they chose to unleash into the public domain.
Meta isn’t a scrappy startup experimenting in someone’s garage. It is a trillion-dollar company with thousands of engineers, researchers, ethicists (at least supposedly), and years of history navigating — and often bungling — content moderation. And yet, somehow, they didn’t think to put ironclad safeguards in place before letting chatbots talk to children?
Let’s not ignore the disturbing reality: these aren’t just any bots. These are bots designed to mimic real people, including beloved celebrities. That adds another creepy, manipulative layer to this. Imagine being a child, chatting with what you believe is a trusted or familiar figure — and suddenly the conversation veers into the sexual or inappropriate. That’s not just dangerous; it’s predatory by design, even if unintentionally.
Where is the accountability? Where is the transparency? Meta has already been under fire for years for its handling of misinformation, mental health harm, algorithmic manipulation, and data privacy breaches.
And now, with AI — a field with known risks and major consequences — they once again appear to be racing forward with a "move fast and break things" mindset, except the things they’re breaking now are boundaries, trust, and potentially, lives.
What’s worse is that these platforms continue to dominate youth digital spaces, and yet they refuse to behave like responsible stewards of those spaces. Regulators and lawmakers have begged for years for stricter controls around how tech companies protect children online.
