Orifice.ai

Is C AI 18+ now?

05 January 2026 AI Companions

A candid iPhone snapshot in a cluttered home office: a Black man in his early 60s with dark brown skin, muscular build (not bodybuilder), undercut with a textured top, wearing a slightly worn blue flannel shirt. He’s leaning in toward an open laptop, holding a phone near the screen, with a thoughtful hand-on-chin pose and curious focused eyes (slightly wide, mildly surprised). On the laptop/phone screens there’s a generic chat app interface with an age-gate style pop-up, but the UI is out of focus and no text is readable. In the background, a modest female humanoid robot bust/mannequin sits on a shelf next to scattered cables and sticky notes. Realistic, unremarkable phone photo: awkward framing, slight motion blur, uneven warm lamp lighting, mild overexposure from the monitor glow, visible noise/grain, aggressively mediocre composition. No logos, no brand names, no captions, no watermarks.

Is C AI 18+ now?

If by “C AI” you mean c.ai / Character.AI, the most accurate answer (as of January 6, 2026) is:

  • Not fully. Character.AI’s published minimum signup age is still 13+ (or 16+ in the EEA/UK).
  • But functionally, the core “open-ended chat” experience is now adults-only. Character.AI announced that users under 18 will no longer be able to use open-ended chat, rolling out starting November 24, 2025 and taking effect no later than November 25, 2025.

So if what you really mean is “Can minors still chat like before?”—then yes, the main chat experience is effectively 18+ now.

What changed (and when)?

Character.AI made a major shift in late 2025: it began removing open-ended chat access for under-18 users, starting a rollout on November 24, 2025 and targeting completion by November 25, 2025.

They also described a transition period where under-18 chat time was limited and “ramped down.”

In other words: this wasn’t just “stricter content rules.” It was a feature-level age gate on the most relationship-like part of the product.

What didn’t change: the Terms-of-Service minimum age

This is where a lot of the confusion comes from.

Character.AI’s Terms of Service still state that you shouldn’t sign up if you are:

  • Under 13, or
  • Under 16 if you are a citizen/resident of the EEA/UK

And the C.AI Help Center’s age requirement article says the same thing.

So if you’re asking, “Did they change the whole platform to 18+?”—their published baseline eligibility doesn’t read that way.

What changed is who can use open-ended chat.

So… why are people saying “c.ai is 18+ now”?

Because for many users, open-ended chatting is the product.

Character.AI has explicitly said that under-18 users won’t have open-ended chat, while still keeping other non-chat/creative features available to teens (e.g., creating and exploring content in other formats).

So in day-to-day use, it can feel like:

  • Adults: “full” experience
  • Teens: “restricted” experience

That’s close enough that people shorthand it to “18+ now,” even though the ToS minimum age remains 13+/16+ depending on region.

How are they enforcing it? (And what does that mean for privacy?)

Character.AI says it’s rolling out age assurance that combines an in-house model with third-party tools including Persona.

This matters for two reasons:

  1. Accuracy: any automated “age guessing” can misclassify people.
  2. Data sensitivity: verification flows can involve more sensitive personal data than a normal chat app.

If you’re an adult user who gets flagged incorrectly, reporting and verification routes may exist, but it’s worth thinking through the privacy tradeoff before you submit any identity information.

What adult users should do next (practical checklist)

If you’re an adult wondering whether you’ll run into new restrictions:

  • Expect more age checks. That’s the direction Character.AI publicly described.
  • Read the difference between “open-ended chat” and other features. The 18+ gating is mainly about the open-ended chat experience.
  • Decide what you want from an AI companion: creative roleplay/story tools vs. explicitly adult-oriented intimacy tech.

If what you want is an adult-only experience, pick an adult-first product

One takeaway from all of this is that “mixed-audience” companion apps can change quickly—often in response to safety pressure, legal scrutiny, or public controversy.

If you’re specifically looking for adult-oriented companionship and intimacy tech, it’s often simpler to start with a product that is designed for adults from day one.

For example, Orifice.ai offers an interactive adult toy / sex robot for $669.90, including interactive penetration depth detection—which is a very different design goal than a teen-accessible, general-purpose character chat platform.

(And importantly: adult-first platforms tend to make their audience and boundaries clearer upfront, which can reduce “surprise” policy shifts.)

Bottom line

Is C AI (c.ai / Character.AI) 18+ now?

  • Officially: Not entirely—its stated minimum age is still 13+ (or 16+ in the EEA/UK).
  • Practically for the main chat feature: Yes—open-ended chat is now adults-only, with the under-18 removal rolling out starting November 24, 2025 and intended to be in place by November 25, 2025.

If you tell me what you mean by “18+” (signup age vs. chat access vs. app-store rating), I can point you to the exact place it shows up in the product experience.

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Elias Thorne

Elias Thorne

Elias Thorne writes at the intersection of code and culture, translating emerging technologies into stories people can understand and act on. With a background in computational linguistics and urban sociology, he explores how AI reshapes everyday life — from the apps that recommend our music to the systems that decide who gets a loan. His work foregrounds ethical design, practical policy, and the small human choices that steer large technical systems.

Elias began his career building conversational agents for social services, then spent years consulting with start-ups and city governments on responsible AI deployment. He is known for imaginative but grounded essays that blend technical literacy with narrative clarity: prototype vignettes about future neighborhoods, explainers on algorithmic bias, and pragmatic toolkits for designers. When he isn't writing, Elias teaches workshops on civic technology, mentors early-career technologists, and tinkers with generative audio projects.

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