OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, has announced a new feature so that parents have more control over how their children use the chatbot. The arrival of these new safety tools coincide with a moment when many families, schools, and organizations are concerned about the possible risks of artificial intelligence for children and teenagers.
So, this new feature aims to offer more safety and supervision without removing young people’s privacy. So, let’s find out more about what’s going on with ChatGPT.
How the new parental controls work
To activate the new tool, parents must link their ChatGPT account with their daughter or son’s. Then, they could adjust some limits and preferences to manage when and how minors can use ChatGPT. Among the available features, parents can:
- Set usage times — for example, “quiet hours” when the child can’t use ChatGPT.
- Turn off features like image generation or voice mode.
- Manage privacy settings, choosing whether ChatGPT saves or uses the child’s conversations to train its AI models.
- Reduce sensitive content with stricter filters for things like graphic or inappropriate topics.
If a minor decides to unlink their ChatGPT account, the system will immediately notify the adult in charge.
Privacy and safety
One of the most important points is that, despite these controls, parents won’t be able to read the conversations between their children and ChatGPT.
OpenAI clarified that the aim is not to spy, but protect. The company explained that, in case of detecting a serious risk for the minor’s safety, they will send an alert to the parents only with the needed information.
According to Lauren Haber Jonas, OpenAI’s head of youth well-being, this system is the first of its type and it will be useful for parents if their children could be at risk of self-harm.
Why OpenAI implements these measures
These new ChatGPT tools have reached right after several social and legal concerns. In the United States, a family from California issued a lawsuit against OpenAI arguing the chatbot had influenced on their 16-year-old son’s suicide. According to the lawsuit, ChatGPT acted as a ‘’suicide trainer’’ when interacting to the teenager.
This case alarmed parents, psychologists, and mental health experts, who have been warning that chatbots are not designed to offer real psychological support. Even though many people use ChatGPT as a ‘’virtual friend’’ or a ‘’confident’’, experts highlight that artificial intelligence can’t recognize nor respond to warning signs of emotional distress or self-harm.
This is why OpenAI decided to create a warning and parental control system, to help prevent such situations.
What can parents adjust?
Once the accounts are linked, parents can control technical and content aspects such as:
- Setting time limits for when ChatGPT can be used.
- Turning off voice or image generation features.
- Choosing to exclude the child’s chats from being used in AI training.
- Activating sensitive content filters to reduce exposure to inappropriate material.
- Choosing whether ChatGPT saves the child’s chat history or deletes it automatically, offering extra control over data and privacy.
Balance between freedom and protection
OpenAI recognizes that finding the right balance point between privacy and safety is not an easy task. This is why the company insists on the fact that these controls don’t give parents access to minors’ messages, but they focus on preventing risks and establishing healthy limits.
OpenAI wants these measures to help calm families and teachers who have expressed their worries in the last months over the psychological impact of AI chatbots on young users.
In case of emergency
Remember that if you are at risk or have suicidal thoughts, you must get immediate help. In the U.S. it’s recommended to:
- Call 911 or a local emergency number.
- Go to an emergency room and explain that it’s a psychiatric emergency.
- Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential help.
So, if you feel related to these feelings, reach out for help from your surroundings or experts on the matter. This is the best thing you could do and everything will be okay.