{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-03T08:37:12.123Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"automated-support","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"contextual","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":0,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":1,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-characterai-age-verification-judged-adult-user-a-minor-account-locked-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'came back a month ago to verify my age'; 'the AI verification by Persona and the system is severely faulty'; 'adamant on assuming me as a minor'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they returned to Character.AI about a month before the post to verify their age and that the AI verification by Persona assumed they were a minor, which they say they are not.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account; the poster's age is not documented."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'photos as well but the AI verification system keeps sending the error message'; 'replies from their automated bots'; 'I think it has been more than 5 tickets already'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they sent ID photos and the verification system kept returning an error, and that more than five support tickets drew only replies from automated bots.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'now the age verification system has locked out from my account'; reply by the poster: 'locking it out on permenent basis'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says the age verification system has locked them out of their account and, in a reply, complains of the system \"locking it out on permenent basis\".","causal_attribution":"Poster attributes the lockout to the AI age verification."}],"effects":[{"label":"adult judged a minor by AI age verification and locked out of their Character.AI account (poster's account)","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterAI/comments/1ww66zl/age_verification/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-03: full self-text, the post's three screenshots and the thread's 4 comments, two of them replies by the poster, retrieved through the arctic_shift archive API by post ID and from i.redd.it. The poster handle and the display name visible in a screenshot are not recorded.","independence_group":"reddit-characterai-age-verification-poster"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life","privacy"],"unknowns":["The exact dates of the verification attempts and the lockout; the post says the poster came back 'a month ago'.","What age the system estimated, the poster's actual age and what the lockout covers. The post's screenshots show the app's profile, library and settings screens still open beneath the age error; the post does not say whether they were taken before the lockout.","Whether Character.AI or Persona has reviewed the tickets."],"geography":{"basis":"The post does not say where the poster lives. Unknown after review.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the 2026-09-15 charter's public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account of an adult locked out of an account after an AI age check judged them a minor, described with attribution and without corroboration. The poster's handle is not recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-03"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster says Character.AI's age verification is an AI verification by Persona and that it repeatedly assumed they were a minor. The post's three screenshots show the app's \"Unable to verify age\" error with a prompt to contact support; they show no age estimate, no vendor name and no lockout notice. No company statement was published.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_decision_about"]},"name":"First-person forum account: a long-time Character.AI user who says they are an adult says the app's AI age verification, run through Persona, kept judging them a minor despite ID photos, answered more than five support tickets only with automated replies, and locked them out of their account","summary":"In a public post to r/CharacterAI at 21:47 UTC on 2 October 2026, a person who describes themselves as a veteran user of the Character.AI app says they returned about a month earlier to verify their age, and that the AI verification by Persona assumed they were a minor although they are not. They say they sent photos of their ID, tried desktop and different lighting, and kept getting an error message; that more than five support tickets asking for manual verification drew only replies from automated bots; and that the age verification system has now locked them out of their account. In a reply they say the system should identify people properly instead of \"locking it out on permenent basis\". A commenter says the same check called them underage. The account is uncorroborated, and Character.AI's and Persona's handling is described only by the poster.","incidentDate":"2026-09-02","incidentEndDate":"2026-10-02","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-10-02","aiSystem":"Character.AI's age verification, which the poster says is an AI verification run through Persona, plus automated support replies to the poster's tickets","aiProduct":"Character.AI age verification","aiCompany":"Character.AI","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The poster says Character.AI's AI age verification through Persona wrongly judged them a minor, that support tickets drew only automated replies, and that the system locked them out of their account (first-person account, uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster. A commenter who says the check also called them underage gives no further detail and is not counted. Exact 1.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"companion","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterAI/comments/1ww66zl/age_verification/","primarySourceLabel":"r/CharacterAI, 2 October 2026: \"Age verification\"","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-03T03:17:17.653606+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-03T03:17:17.653606+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","character-ai","persona","age-verification","age-estimation","account-lockout","automated-support","made-decision-about"]}]}