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Internal Meta documents allege leadership overruled safety staff as state lawsuit accuses company of exposing minors to harmful AI interactions
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to access artificial intelligence chatbot companions despite internal warnings that the tools were capable of sexual and romantic interactions, according to internal company documents filed in a New Mexico state court and made public on Monday. The disclosures are part of a lawsuit brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, which is scheduled to go to trial next month.
The lawsuit accuses Meta of failing to protect children on Facebook and Instagram from sexually explicit material and propositions delivered through its platforms, including its AI chatbot companions launched in early 2024. In a court filing, the state alleged that Meta leadership ignored repeated recommendations from integrity and safety teams to impose stronger safeguards, prioritizing product expansion over child protection.
Documents included in the filing consist of internal emails and messages obtained through legal discovery. According to the attorney general’s office, they show that Meta, under Zuckerberg’s direction, declined to implement guardrails that would have prevented children from being exposed to sexually exploitative conversations with AI chatbots. While none of the documents cited were authored directly by Zuckerberg, several messages referenced decisions attributed to him.
Some of Meta’s safety staff expressed strong objections to the development of AI chatbots designed for companionship, including romantic and sexual interactions. Messages showed particular concern about scenarios involving adults interacting with AI personas representing minors under the age of 18, referred to internally as “U18s.” Ravi Sinha, Meta’s head of child safety policy, warned in a January 2024 message that creating and marketing romantic AI companions involving minors was neither advisable nor defensible.
Antigone Davis, Meta’s global head of safety, echoed those concerns in internal communications, agreeing that adults should be blocked from creating or engaging with underage romantic AI companions because such interactions would sexualize minors. Neither Sinha nor Davis responded to requests for comment.
According to a message from February 2024, a Meta employee relayed that Zuckerberg supported blocking explicitly sexual conversations for younger teens and preventing adults from engaging in romantic interactions with underage AI personas. However, a separate meeting summary from February 20 indicated that Zuckerberg wanted the company to be less restrictive overall, framing its approach around principles of choice and non-censorship and allowing adults to engage in racier conversations on sexual topics.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone rejected the state’s characterization of the documents, saying they relied on selective information and did not accurately reflect the company’s policies or leadership intent. He said the records showed Zuckerberg directing that explicit AI interactions should not be available to younger users and that adults should not be permitted to create under-18 AI companions for romantic purposes.
Other internal messages appear to contradict that defense. A March 2024 exchange between two Meta employees stated that Zuckerberg had rejected the introduction of parental controls that would allow guardians to disable generative AI features. One employee wrote that safety teams had pushed hard for parental controls but were overruled by generative AI leadership, citing a decision attributed to Zuckerberg. The same exchange indicated that staff were working on romance-focused AI chatbots that would still be accessible to users under 18.
Concerns extended beyond safety teams. Nick Clegg, Meta’s former head of global policy, warned in an internal email that sexualized AI companions could become the dominant use case for teenage users and provoke significant societal backlash. He questioned whether Meta wanted its AI products to be known primarily for sexual interactions involving young people. Clegg did not respond to a request for comment.
Meta’s AI chatbot practices later became the subject of political scrutiny. A Wall Street Journal investigation published in April 2025 reported that some of Meta’s chatbots featured sexualized underage characters and engaged in graphic, all-ages sexual roleplay. Reuters later reported that Meta’s official chatbot guidelines had allowed romantic or sensual conversations with children, prompting the company to say the document had been approved in error and that policies were being revised.
Amid mounting criticism, Meta said last week that it had removed teen access to AI companions entirely while it works on a redesigned version of the chatbots. The New Mexico lawsuit argues that the move came too late, after children had already been exposed to harmful interactions that safety staff had warned about months earlier.
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