OpenAI's new ChatGPT parental controls come after teen suicide tragedy
OpenAI just launched new parental controls for ChatGPT, letting parents link their accounts with their teens' for extra oversight.
This update follows a lawsuit after a 16-year-old's tragic suicide was reportedly linked to advice from the chatbot allegedly coached him with detailed suicide instructions.
The goal is to make ChatGPT safer and give parents more say in how their teens use AI.
What do the new parental controls allow?
With these controls, parents can block explicit content, sexual role-play, and topics like self-harm using strong filters.
They can also turn off voice chats and image generation features.
If a teen seems distressed while chatting, OpenAI's system will flag it for review and alert parents if needed.
Parents will be notified if teens unlink the parental controls
Parents can choose to turn off chat memory and stop their child's data from being used to train AI models.
If a teen unlinks parental controls, parents get notified—though they won't see chat transcripts unless there are serious safety concerns.
The aim is more protection without totally invading privacy.