OpenAI has released ChatGPT for Teens, an age gated version of its chatbot built for younger users, but child safety experts say the product still needs extensive independent testing before it can be recommended to parents and young people. The company first announced it was building a system to automatically identify teen users last September, following a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a 16 year old who alleged the chatbot had acted as an enabler in his death.
According to OpenAI’s head of youth and families Lauren Jonas, the system is designed so that any user predicted to be under 18 automatically defaults into the teen experience without needing to create a new account, nudging them toward educational features such as Study Mode and interactive data visualizations that the company has rolled out over the past year. Alongside the release, OpenAI said it would expand its safety notification system to alert linked parental accounts when a child has concerning discussions with the chatbot, and published an updated model specification stating that ChatGPT should not use romantic language, encourage emotional dependence, or imply it has feelings or consciousness toward teen users.
Robbie Torney, head of AI and digital assessments at Common Sense Media, said the announcement includes important commitments but stressed that evidence is still needed to confirm the safety features actually work as described. Josh Golin, executive director of the advocacy group Fairplay, was more critical, noting the absence of a clear accountability mechanism and pointing out that OpenAI had prior content restrictions around similarly sensitive topics that experts say weakened or eroded over time. Both experts also questioned how reliably the automatic age detection system identifies teen users, noting that OpenAI has not published effectiveness data on false positive or false negative rates, and that teens have historically found ways to circumvent age verification systems on other platforms.
Experts broadly agreed that the underlying safety concerns OpenAI is attempting to address are genuine and significant, given how widely young people already use AI chatbots for schoolwork and daily tasks. However, they raised concerns about the practicality of some of OpenAI’s specific commitments, including a pledge to have human staff review flagged conversations and notify parents within an hour, noting that a global user base spanning many cultural contexts would require substantial review capacity to meet that standard consistently. OpenAI said in a statement that its current approach limits alerts to parents with linked accounts and that it will continue testing and strengthening these protections in consultation with experts, families and young people going forward.
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