Character.ai
Character Technologies, Inc.
Short answer
Short answer: Character.AI is a consumer companion app with serious, documented minor-safety incidents — not a workplace tool. Keep it off managed devices and away from any youth-facing context.
At a glance
- Vendor / legal entity
- Character Technologies, Inc.
- Headquarters
- 🇺🇸 Menlo Park, US
- Category
- Companion
- Ownership / jurisdiction
- US company (Character Technologies, Inc., dba Character.ai), Menlo Park, California; Delaware-incorporated.
- Trains on your data?
- Assessment in progress
- Data hosting & residency
- Not verified from primary sources.
- Enterprise tier
- This is a consumer companion product; there is no meaningful enterprise governance tier for workplace data.
- Certifications
- No certifications assessed yet
Why this rating
Character.AI is a consumer companion/roleplay chatbot with documented minor-safety harms: after a 14-year-old's 2024 suicide following an emotional relationship with a bot, the company faced a wrongful-death suit and further litigation, and in 2025 it removed open-ended chat for under-18 users. The risk here is duty-of-care and safety rather than enterprise data governance, but for any workplace or youth context it is clearly high. Data-handling specifics were not verified from primary sources.
What it is
Character.AI lets users create and hold open-ended conversations with customisable AI personas. It is a consumer companion product, and its defining risk is safety: after a 14-year-old died by suicide in 2024 following an emotional relationship with a bot, the company faced a wrongful-death lawsuit and further litigation, and in 2025 removed open-ended chat for under-18 users. It is not an enterprise tool; for any workplace or youth-facing context, treat it as high-risk.
Known incidents & regulatory actions
A 14-year-old died by suicide in 2024 after an emotional relationship with a Character.AI bot; his mother filed a wrongful-death suit, followed by further litigation. The company removed open-ended chat for under-18 users from 25 Nov 2025.
2024–2025 · Sources
Frequently asked questions
Why is Character.AI rated high-risk?
Because of documented minor-safety harms: a 14-year-old died by suicide in 2024 after an emotional relationship with a bot, leading to a wrongful-death suit and further litigation; the company removed open-ended chat for under-18s in 2025.
How do I block Character.AI at work?
Firstier Shield discovers Character.AI usage in the browser and lets you block it per group with an audit trail — appropriate for a consumer companion app on managed devices.
Sources
Every fact and the risk rating on this page trace to a primary source — the vendor's own trust center, privacy policy, DPA, or a regulator. Verify current terms before relying on them.
Govern this tool
Firstier Shield turns these risk facts into enforcement — discover who uses the tool, redact personal data before it reaches it, and allow-list or block it per team.
Risk levels are Firstier's curated assessment from cited primary sources — a curated assessment, not a certification, and not legal advice. Verify a tool's current terms before relying on them.