OpenAI Details New ChatGPT Experience for Teens

OpenAI is developing a new ChatGPT experience for teenagers under 18 that prioritizes safety. In addition to new parental controls that will be coming to the chatbot later this month, the company has developed a new age-prediction system that will apply stricter safety rules to ChatGPT when there’s doubt about a user’s age.

The new under-18 experience for ChatGPT will prevent the chatbot from engaging in flirtatious talk and discussions about suicide of self-harm even in a creative writing setting. “If an under-18 user is having suicidal ideation, we will attempt to contact the users’ parents and if unable, will contact the authorities in case of imminent harm,” explained OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Altman acknowledged that the company’s age-prediction system that prioritizes teen safety over privacy could well ruffle some feathers. “If there is doubt, we’ll play it safe and default to the under-18 experience. In some cases or countries we may also ask for an ID; we know this is a privacy compromise for adults but believe it is a worthy tradeoff,” the CEO added.

Later this month, new parental controls in ChatGPT will allow parents to link their account with their teen’s account, control how ChatGPT responds to their needs, and disable some features such as ChatGPT memory and chat history. Adults will also receive notification when ChatGPT detects that their teen is in a state of acute distress. “If we can’t reach a parent in a rare emergency, we may involve law enforcement as a next step,” the company explained in a separate post.

If ChatGPT already offers in-app reminders to take breaks during long sessions, the new parental controls will also allow parents to make the chatbot inaccessible during certain hours.