tragic case. Character.ai is full of depravity, and it seems that is also unmoderated; every user can publish a bot of their own liking/design, then the gullible nature of kids (or even adults) and a non safely stored gun. I hope there will be consequences for every involved party (so character.ai and the "parents"), perhaps even stricter policies in regards to LLMs.
The time of reckless software really has to end. They will bemoan that it "stifles" innovation, but so much damage has resulted from irresponsible software just in the last couple of decades.
We humans used to be technologically limited by how fast we could innovate. Not enough RAM or CPU or a sensor didnt exist. There is no technological throttle anymore, we need to govern one.