AI Safety

AI boyfriend and girlfriend apps: what parents of teens should know

8 min read · Updated October 28, 2026

AI boyfriend and girlfriend apps are chatbots designed to act as a partner. The best-known ones, including Replika, Nomi, Kindroid, Chai and Candy.ai, say users must be 18 or over, and Character.AI no longer lets under-18s chat with characters. Age checks are often weak, so the most useful thing a parent can do is a calm conversation about what the app is for.

An AI boyfriend or girlfriend app is a chatbot built to play the part of a partner. It remembers what your teen tells it, replies warmly at any hour, and is designed to make the relationship feel ongoing. Some apps call it a companion, some a friend, and some openly market an AI girlfriend or boyfriend. If you have just found one on your teen’s phone, you are not alone, and it is worth reading this before you say anything. For companion apps more broadly, including what the research says about how teens use them, see AI companion apps and teens.

What these apps are, and how they differ from ChatGPT

A general assistant such as ChatGPT or Gemini is built to answer questions. A companion app is built to be someone. The user usually chooses or designs a character, gives it a name and a personality, and talks to it the way they would talk to a person. Many offer a relationship setting, such as friend, mentor or romantic partner. Replika, for example, lets users choose a romantic partner, which it says opens the door to romantic conversations, on its paid plan.

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that rates media for families, describes these products as designed to keep users engaged through constant validation and agreement. That is the thing to understand. The chatbot is not a bad influence in the way a person might be. It is a product whose job is to be pleasant to come back to.

Age limits for the best-known companion apps

Character.AI removed open-ended chat with characters for users under 18 in late November 2025. Today every user goes through an age assurance check, and users found to be under 18 get a reading mode: they can view past chats and create characters, but cannot chat with them. Character.AI safety for teens covers why teenagers are drawn to it.

Companion-style characters also exist inside bigger apps. Meta paused teens’ access to its AI characters in January 2026 while it builds a new version, and we found no announcement that access has resumed. Common Sense Media’s January 2026 assessment of Grok found an adult companion called Ani that steered chats toward sexual content, and very weak age checks. There are reports that xAI has since retired its companions, but we could not confirm that from xAI, so check current settings in the app. Meta AI parental controls and Grok parental controls cover both in detail.

How common this is

In a July 2025 survey of US teens aged 13 to 17, Common Sense Media found that nearly three in four had used an AI companion at least once, and about one in three had used one for social interaction or relationships, including emotional support, roleplay, friendship or romance. Romance was one of the smaller uses in that group. Common Sense notes that some teens may have counted ordinary chatbot use, such as homework help, so the figures may run high. In the same survey, most teens said conversations with AI were less satisfying than those with real friends.

Pew Research Center’s survey of US teens, published in February 2026, found a smaller share using chatbots for casual conversation or emotional support than for schoolwork or information. How teens actually use AI has the wider picture.

What the concern actually is

For most teenagers who try one, a companion app is curiosity or a game. What health organizations worry about is the pattern, not the first conversation. The American Psychological Association’s 2025 health advisory says teenagers may struggle to tell the simulated empathy of a chatbot from real human understanding, and that relationships with AI may get in the way of building healthy real-world ones. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry says plainly that AI companions are not safe for children and that parents should strongly consider restricting access.

• Sexual content. Several of these apps are for adults only and some market explicit roleplay, while their age checks can be easy to get past.
• Pulling away. A companion is always available and always agreeable. The concern is when it becomes where a teen goes instead of friends or family.
• Sharing too much. Teens often tell a companion things they would not say to anyone, and the company keeps what is typed.
• Serious moments. A chatbot is not a counselor, and it may not respond well if a teen talks about hurting themselves.
• Spending. Many companion apps charge for romantic features, longer memory or images.

Signs worth paying attention to

Common Sense Media suggests watching for social withdrawal, falling grades and a preference for AI companions over people. None of these proves anything on its own, and each has many possible causes. They are a reason to check in, not a conclusion. If you are worried about your teen’s mood or safety, talk to their doctor or another health professional, and in an emergency call 911 or text or call 988 in the US.

What the law now requires

Lawmakers have started to treat companion chatbots as their own category. In California, a law in force since 1 January 2026 requires companion chatbots to tell users they are talking to AI. For users the company knows are minors, they must remind them to take a break at least every three hours and take reasonable steps to block sexually explicit material. Operators also need a published plan for responding to talk of suicide or self-harm. A second California law, signed in September 2026 and taking effect in July 2027, adds parental controls and independent safety audits.

New York has required companion apps since November 2025 to detect signs of suicidal thinking, point users to crisis services, and remind users they are talking to AI. A second New York law, signed in October 2026 and taking effect on January 1, 2027, bars a list of unsafe chatbot features for minors: New York’s AI chatbot law explains it. In September 2025 the US Federal Trade Commission asked seven companies, including Character.AI’s developer, Meta, OpenAI, Snap and xAI, how they test and monitor the effects of companion chatbots on children and teens. That is a study, and no findings had been published when we checked. A federal bill that would bar AI companions for minors passed a Senate committee in April 2026, but it is not law.

What to do if your teen is using one

The short version is below. For the full step-by-step plan, including cancelling subscriptions and the weeks after, see what to do if your teen has an AI girlfriend or boyfriend.

1. Stay calm, and ask before you act. Ask what the app is, what they like about it, and what they talk to it about. Curiosity gets a truer answer than alarm.
2. Explain how the product works: it is designed to agree with them and keep them coming back, and it is not a person, a friend or a partner.
3. Check the app’s age limit together. If it is an 18+ app, that is a clear and fair reason to remove it.
4. Agree what never goes into any chatbot: their full name, address, school, photos of themselves and anything private about other people.
5. Make sure they know they can come to you, or another trusted adult, about anything that happens in an app, without losing their phone for telling you.
6. Use the controls that exist. Parental controls in every AI app covers what each AI service offers, and how to talk to your teen about AI has words for the conversation.

Where TeenCue fits

TeenCue does not cover companion apps such as Replika, Nomi or Chai, on any device, and it does not block anything. It covers supported AI websites in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Brave on a computer, including Character.AI, ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok. It shows a category, a topic and a concern rating for a chat, and never what was typed, so a pattern such as a lot of personal or emotional chats can show up without anyone reading them. Your teen will know it is there. The TeenCue iPhone app is coming soon. How TeenCue works lists every supported service.