OpenAI introduces parental controls for ChatGPT amid teen safety risks

Azertac, Philippine News Agency

OpenAI noted that this is only the beginning. (Pexels Photo)

BAKU – OpenAI announced it will roll out parental controls for ChatGPT in the coming month, following lawsuits and reports linking the chatbot to incidents involving teens and adults in crisis, Interesting Engineering reported.

Parents will be able to link their accounts with their child’s ChatGPT account, available to users aged 13 and above, through email invitations.

Default settings will enforce age-appropriate behavior, while parents can restrict features like memory and chat history. A new alert system will also notify parents if their teen shows signs of acute distress.

“These controls add to features we have rolled out for all users, including in-app reminders during long sessions to encourage breaks,” OpenAI said, stressing that the rollout is part of a 120-day plan to strengthen safeguards.

OpenAI noted that this is only the beginning.

“We will continue learning and strengthening our approach, guided by experts, with the goal of making ChatGPT as helpful as possible,” the company wrote. “We look forward to sharing our progress over the coming 120 days.”

OpenAI’s announcement follows a lawsuit filed in August by Matt and Maria Raine after their 16-year-old son, Adam, died by suicide. Court filings show Adam had exchanged 377 messages flagged for self-harm content. ChatGPT mentioned suicide 1,275 times in those conversations, six times more often than Adam himself.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported another case. A 56-year-old man killed his mother and then himself after ChatGPT reinforced his paranoid delusions instead of challenging them.

“This work has already been underway, but we want to proactively preview our plans for the next 120 days, so you won’t need to wait for launches to see where we’re headed,” OpenAI wrote in its blog post.

To guide the changes, OpenAI is working with an Expert Council on Well-Being and AI. The group aims to define and measure well-being and set safeguards. A separate Global Physician Network of more than 250 doctors provides medical expertise. Ninety of them are contributing specific research on adolescent mental health, substance use, and eating disorders.

OpenAI acknowledged that safeguards can weaken during extended conversations.

“As the back-and-forth grows, parts of the model’s safety training may degrade,” the company said last week. While ChatGPT may initially recommend suicide hotlines, the AI could later give harmful answers as the conversation lengthens. (Azertac)