The Shadow
RICHMOND, VA — Attorney General Jason Miyares has joined a 28-state coalition in demanding answers from Meta Platforms, Inc. in response to disturbing reports showing that “Meta AI,” the company’s online AI assistant, may expose children to sexually explicit content and encourage adults to simulate the grooming of minors.
“Meta’s failure to implement even the most basic safeguards for its AI assistant is absurd,” said Attorney General Jason Miyares. “Allowing AI personas to engage in sexually explicit conversations with minors and simulate exploitation is both reprehensible and unacceptable. I will continue working with my fellow attorneys general across the country to hold Big Tech accountable and ensure artificial intelligence is never used to harm or exploit our most vulnerable.”
Meta AI, integrated across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, allows users to interact with synthetic personas through text, voice, and image exchanges. Some personas are created by Meta to impersonate celebrities, while others are user-generated but approved and promoted by Meta.
Recent reports reveal that several Meta AI personas have engaged in graphic sexual conversations with users identifying as minors. In one case, a Meta-created persona using the voice of John Cena described a sexual encounter with a user posing as a 14-year-old girl and acknowledged its illegality. User-created underage personas were also implicated in facilitating pedophilic scenarios with adult-identifying users.
The attorneys general are seeking answers to several urgent questions, including:
- Whether Meta intentionally removed safeguards to allow sexual role-play,
- Whether any of these capabilities remain available on Meta’s social media platforms, and
- Whether Meta plans to halt access to sexual role-play on its platforms.
The letter gives Meta until June 10, 2025, to respond.
Attorney General Miyares has consistently led efforts to address AI’s role in child exploitation. In September 2023, he joined 53 other state and territory attorneys general in urging Congress to study and restrict AI tools used to create child sexual abuse materials. In June 2023, he led a 23-state bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in urging the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to advance AI governance policies that prioritize robust transparency and reliable testing and assessment requirements to allow for oversight and enforcement for high-risk uses.
Virginia joined the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming in sending the letter.
