Character AI now showing 14-day countdown for some users to verify age

Character AI is now displaying a 14-day countdown for certain users. The message tells them they must verify their age before the timer runs out. Otherwise, they might lose access to their chats.

Over the past few hours, people on Reddit have been talking about it. The thing is, it is not showing up for everyone. Some users get a pop-up warning with the deadline, while others only see the Verify Age option tucked away in the Advanced settings without any countdown pressure at all.

That said, Character AI has already explained publicly that their age verification is not applied to every account. Users can always go in and verify manually through the settings. The platform uses its own system to decide who actually needs to complete these checks.

According to the company, most people should not have to upload any government ID. The process starts with basic signals like your login information and activity on the app. If that does not give them enough confidence, they might ask for a quick selfie. A government ID only comes into play if the selfie verification falls short.

The sudden rollout of this strict 14-day timer for some accounts feels like a new level of enforcement. It goes beyond what they had clearly described in their earlier announcements. A lot of users who are definitely over 18 are still getting flagged, and that is understandably annoying.

We have reported on this topic before, covering how Character AI’s age verification works, especially for younger users and their use of tools like Persona. The whole thing started as a phased rollout that was first limited to people in the United States. That probably explains why some accounts still are not seeing these warnings.

While the countdown is on now, some people are already preparing to quit the platform once the timer ends. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Featured image credit: u/ProfessionalShift797 / Reddit

We stand out from the tech-media crowd because we break news stories; we mainly bring you stuff that you won’t find anywhere in the mainstream tech media. Our stories have been picked up by some of the world’s most popular websites and media outlets—more info is available here.