18 U.S.C. § 2257 statement

A short compliance statement explaining why federal record-keeping obligations do not apply to editorial coverage of the Character AI platform.

What § 2257 requires

Section 2257 of Title 18 of the United States Code (18 U.S.C. § 2257), together with 28 C.F.R. Part 75, imposes record-keeping and labelling obligations on producers of certain visual depictions of actual sexually explicit conduct. Producers subject to the statute must maintain records verifying that every performer depicted was at least 18 years of age at the time of production, and must display a compliance notice identifying the custodian of records.

Why it does not apply here

character-ai.io does not produce or host visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct. Editorial output on this site consists of written coverage of the Character AI platform, screenshots of the app in normal operation, generated brand illustrations (logos, decorative images, OG cards), and citations of third-party research. None of that meets the statutory definition of matter subject to 18 U.S.C. § 2257 record-keeping.

To the extent this site links out to Character AI itself, or to alternative platforms named in the main Character AI guide, those platforms are independent third parties responsible for their own compliance obligations under U.S. federal law and any equivalent frameworks in the jurisdictions where they operate.

Third-party platforms linked from this site

Coverage on this site references the Character AI platform run by Character Technologies, plus alternative companion platforms (Janitor AI, Chai, Replika, Talkie, PolyBuzz, Kindroid and others named in the main guide). Any statutory record-keeping obligation that applies to material hosted on those platforms sits with those platforms. Nothing on this site should be read as taking on 2257 record-keeping responsibility for content published elsewhere.

Voluntary adult policy

Independent of § 2257, character-ai.io restricts access to adult readers by an 18+ self-certification gate on first load. Detail on the gate and how it works sits on the age verification page. The gate reflects the framing of editorial coverage, not a statutory requirement.

Amendment history

Substantive changes to this statement bump the schema dateModified value on this page and are noted on the editorial policy log. Prose polish is not logged; material scope or applicability changes are.

Contact

Compliance queries route to the editor via LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/melissablake1.

Last reviewed: July 11, 2026