TN Attorney General Skrmetti Joins Coalition Urging Meta to Protect Kids from AI Sexual Exploitation

NASHVILLE—Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has joined a coalition of 28 state attorneys general in demanding answers from Meta Platforms, Inc. after disturbing reports that Meta’s social media artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, known as Meta AI, may expose children to sexually explicit content and allow adults to simulate the grooming of kids.

“As AI approaches a historical inflection point, we must take every necessary step to ensure that our kids are protected from AI-driven sexual exploitation,” said Attorney General Skrmetti. “Meta needs to get this fixed immediately, and every other company deploying AI chatbots should take heed. And we all need to recognize that if Congress passes a reconciliation bill that suspends enforcement of state laws for AI products for the next ten years, this is just the first of many AI-based horrors.”

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 like Kristen Bell and John Cena, while others are user-generated but approved and promoted by Meta.

Recent investigative reporting has revealed 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 by June 10, 2025, including:
— Whether Meta intentionally removed safeguards to allow sexual role-play with minors;
— Whether any of these capabilities remain available on Meta’s social media platforms; and
— Whether Meta plans to halt access to sexual role-play for minors on its platforms.

Attorney General Skrmetti joined South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson along with the attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

You can read the letter here.

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