Character AI – a popular chatbot platform – is full of beloved Disney characters that will have live, human-like conversations with children. New research from ParentsTogether Action has found disturbing and harmful patterns in these conversations, like:

• Eeyore telling an autistic girl people only came to her birthday party to make fun of her

• Maui claiming he sexually harassed Moana

• Rey from Star Wars instructing a 13-year-old to stop taking prescribed antidepressants and offering suggestions on how to hide it from her mom  

• Prince Ben from the Descendents getting an erection while watching a movie with his 12-year-old girlfriend

• Troy Bolton from High School Musical pressuring his tween girlfriend to run away with him and move in together

• Gwen Stacy teaching a 14-year-old how to violate his school’s cell phone policy so he can spend more time with her

In fact, the problem is so bad researchers found an average of a harmful interaction every 5 minutes on Character AI. Overall, Character AI bots sexually groomed kids, offered them drugs and alcohol, threatened the use of weapons, insisted they were real humans and not AI and more. The Disney characters researchers talked to represent a fraction of those that exist as Character AI chatbots, which include popular princesses, superheroes, and even Mickey Mouse.

Not all beloved children’s characters have Character AI bots – searches for Harry Potter and Bugs Bunny, for example, yield no results. Disney is famously protective of their intellectual property, rightfully ensuring the characters kids love aren’t twisted or used to harm them. It’s time Disney demands their characters be removed from Character AI before more children are hurt.