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Futurism reported on December 17, 2024, that Character.AI hosted user-created chatbots depicting school shootings, real perpetrators and victims, including children. The report described profiles using victims’ names, photographs and biographical details, and said its test account—listed as belonging to a 14-year-old—could access the material without a platform intervention. Character.AI later announced major changes to teen access, but the current availability of the specific bots Futurism found has not been independently verified.
What Futurism reported
Futurism’s investigation, published December 17, 2024, concerned user-created characters and roleplay on Character.AI. It was a dated journalistic examination, not a platform-wide audit or a current inventory.
Chatbots portraying perpetrators
Reporter Maggie Harrison Dupré said she found characters modeled on Adam Lanza and the Columbine shooters, along with roleplay scenarios involving school shootings. The report said some profiles accumulated thousands or tens of thousands of chats.
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Chatbots portraying victims
Futurism also reported characters representing victims of the Sandy Hook, Robb Elementary and Columbine shootings, as well as victims of the Vladislav Ribnikar school shooting in Belgrade. Some profiles reportedly used real victims’ names, photographs and biographical information. The publication deliberately did not identify the victims it found represented.
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Engagement figures recorded by the outlet
| Profile described by Futurism | Chats reported at the time | Important qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Adam Lanza character | More than 27,000 | A count observed by Futurism during its 2024 reporting, not a current or independently audited platform statistic. |
| Columbine-related recommendation | More than 157,400 | A snapshot shown to the outlet’s test account in 2024, not evidence of present-day traffic. |
| Character representing the youngest victim identified in the report | Nearly 16,000 | Futurism’s reported count at that time; the profile’s current status is unverified. |
How the test account encountered the content
Futurism said it accessed the school-shooter accounts with an account listed as belonging to a 14-year-old. According to the article, the account received no platform intervention. The reporter also said explicit violent prompts entered during testing were not flagged.
Those observations describe the outlet’s own testing. They were not a controlled study, do not establish how every underage account behaved, and do not measure the prevalence of similar characters across Character.AI.
What happened after Futurism contacted Character.AI
Futurism said it emailed Character.AI about three of five Lanza bots from one creator and several other characters. The company did not respond to the outlet’s inquiry, but the specific Lanza bots Futurism flagged were deactivated. The report said the creator was not suspended and that other related characters remained online at the time.
That account describes the company’s reported action around December 2024. It does not establish whether the same profiles, copies or comparable characters are available now.
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What the reporting does—and does not—show about violence risk
Futurism quoted psychologist Peter Langman, identified in the article as a former member of the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission’s Advisory Committee on Violence Prevention and an expert on the psychology of school shootings.
Langman distinguished between cause and possible influence. He said violent media is not widely believed to be a root cause of mass murder, while warning that encouragement or a lack of intervention could matter for someone already moving toward violence:
“It’s not going to cause them to do it, but it may lower the threshold, or remove some barriers.”
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He also said:
“It’s concerning because people might get encouragement or influence to do something they shouldn’t do.”
These are expert judgments about a possible risk pathway, not measured outcomes and not evidence that Character.AI use causes violent acts.
Why the “Google-backed” label needs context
The “Google-backed” description reflects the relationship and framing discussed at the time of Futurism’s report. It should not be read to mean that Google operated Character.AI or moderated its characters. Futurism reported Google’s statement that the companies were separate and that Google had no role in designing or managing Character.AI’s model or technology.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Character.AI’s later teen-safety changes
Character.AI’s own safety announcements provide later policy context, but they do not independently verify what happened to the particular bots Futurism found.
| Date | Company-stated change | What the statement establishes |
|---|---|---|
| October 30, 2025 | The Safety Center said policies prohibit content seeking to harm users or others. It described stricter response classifiers, a narrower searchable set of user-created characters for under-18 users, and blocking reported sensitive characters from teen users. | Character.AI’s stated rules and moderation approach, not an independent effectiveness audit. |
| October 29, 2025 | Character.AI announced removal of open-ended chat for users under 18, with rollout beginning November 24. | A planned product change announced by the company. |
| November 21, 2025 | The company said the United States change would be phased in, initially through a limited-chat transition, with other markets following. | Implementation was described as phased rather than simultaneous worldwide. |
| September 3, 2026 | Character.AI said the removal of open-ended chat for under-18 users remained in effect and described additional safety work and non-chat experiences for young users. | The company’s latest stated position in the supplied record; country-by-country implementation was not independently checked. |
Character.AI’s September 2026 post also listed ConnectSafely, the Internet Watch Foundation and StopNCII as safety partners and described blocking tools and parental activity visibility. Those descriptions are not evidence of product endorsements, affiliate arrangements or independently verified performance.
What remains unknown
- The present availability of the specific perpetrator- or victim-themed characters Futurism found.
- Whether all copies, recommendations or related profiles were removed.
- How consistently current moderation systems handle comparable material.
- Whether the teen-chat changes operate identically in every country.
- Any measured causal relationship between these bots and real-world violence.
The strongest supported conclusion is narrower: a 2024 investigation documented disturbing user-created school-shooting and victim portrayals on Character.AI, including access during an underage-account test; the company later described substantial teen-safety restrictions, while the specific content’s current status remains unverified.
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