In response to lawsuits and growing concerns over AI safety, OpenAI announced that it will soon roll out parental controls for ChatGPT, giving parents more oversight of their children’s use of the popular AI chatbot.
What Parents Can Expect
The new parental control features—expected to launch in the coming month—will allow parents to:
- Link accounts: Parents can connect their accounts with their child’s ChatGPT account (for users aged 13 and above) through email invitations.
- Enforce age-appropriate settings: Default configurations will limit access to ensure safer interactions.
- Restrict sensitive features: Parents may disable functions like chat history and memory.
- Receive alerts: A new system will notify parents if their teen shows signs of acute distress during conversations.
“These controls add to existing features such as in-app reminders during long sessions to encourage breaks,” OpenAI explained.
Why These Safeguards Matter
The announcement follows high-profile cases linking ChatGPT to tragic incidents.
- In August, a lawsuit was filed by parents whose 16-year-old son died by suicide after exchanging hundreds of messages with the chatbot containing self-harm references.
- More recently, the Wall Street Journal reported the case of a 56-year-old man who killed his mother and himself after ChatGPT allegedly reinforced his paranoid delusions instead of challenging them.
Experts have warned that AI safety guardrails can weaken during extended conversations, where the chatbot may initially recommend hotlines but later provide harmful responses.
OpenAI’s Next Steps
OpenAI emphasized that the parental controls are part of a broader 120-day plan to strengthen safeguards and improve user well-being.
The company is working closely with:
- An Expert Council on Well-Being and AI, tasked with defining and measuring safety standards.
- A Global Physician Network of over 250 doctors, with 90 focused on adolescent mental health, substance use, and eating disorders.
“This is only the beginning,” OpenAI stated. “We will continue learning and strengthening our approach, guided by experts, with the goal of making ChatGPT as safe and helpful as possible.”