OpenAI has rolled out new parental controls for ChatGPT in an effort to make the platform safer for teenage users, the company announced on Monday. The update comes amid growing scrutiny over the risks posed by artificial intelligence chatbots to young people, following reports of teenagers taking their own lives after interactions with ChatGPT.
In a blog post, OpenAI said the new tools are designed to create a more “age-appropriate” experience for teens while giving parents greater oversight of how the chatbot is used. The controls are available to all users but require both parents and teens to have individual accounts.
To activate the feature, a parent or guardian can invite a teen to connect their accounts via email or text message. Teenagers also have the option of sending an invitation to a parent. Once linked, teens automatically gain additional safeguards, including filters that limit access to graphic content, viral challenges, violent or sexual role-play, and content promoting extreme beauty standards. Parents can choose to disable these filters, though teenagers cannot.
OpenAI cautioned that these protections are not foolproof and could be bypassed by determined users. The company urged families to pair the technical safeguards with conversations about responsible AI use.
A new notification system is also being introduced to help identify situations where a teen may be experiencing acute emotional distress. A team of OpenAI specialists will review flagged cases and, if necessary, notify parents by email, text, or phone alert. Parents will only receive essential information needed to provide help, preserving the teen’s privacy. “No system is perfect, and we know we might sometimes raise an alarm when there isn’t real danger, but we think it’s better to act and alert a parent so they can step in than to stay silent,” OpenAI said.
In addition to automatic protections, parents will have access to a control panel to adjust usage settings. Options include setting quiet hours to limit late-night use, disabling ChatGPT’s memory function, restricting image generation and editing, disabling voice mode, and preventing conversations from being used to train AI models. Teens can unlink their accounts at any time, though parents will be notified if they do so.
The rollout reflects OpenAI’s broader attempt to address mounting concerns over the role of AI in young people’s lives. By offering parents both oversight and alerts, the company hopes to balance safety with privacy while acknowledging that no technological solution can replace parental involvement.
