The OpenAI company, the developers of ChatGPT, have added new parental control features for users 18 years and younger on the ChatGPT platform, in order to enhance safety precautions for teenagers who interact with the accessible artificial intelligence. 

This was due to the company’s immense pressure from several individuals, who were expressing their thoughts on regulating the subjects and or topics being shown or asked for on the website. 

After August, OpenAI had to face a death lawsuit by the parents of a 16-year-old boy who allegedly asked the platform methods to take his own life. Additionally, the updates also came from the push of the Federal Trade Commission, a U.S. government agency that aims to protect consumers from fraud, data, and information. They recently inquired about several of the tech companies, similar to OpenAI, which asked how AI platforms can create a negative effect on children and teenagers. 

The agency is asking each of the companies what steps they will be taking to “evaluate the safety of these chatbots when acting as companions.”    

Now OpenAI has released features onto the platform, ChatGPT, allowing teens to understand topics under their parents’ eyes. New controls added will allow parents to link their account with their teens via email, set blackout hours for their children to not use AI, manage the disabling of many features, and be able to guide the platform’s responses, and receive any notification if the teen is in an acute state of distress.

With the added-on features, the company has additionally restricted the following topics on teenager-linked accounts, such as graphic content, viral challenges, “sexual, romantic, or violent” role play, and extreme beauty ideals, according to the company. Along with the content on the platform being moderated, if the system detects any potential harm, “a small team of specifically trained people review the situation,” the company said. Reinforcing that again, any signs of acute distress will be forwarded to the parents, unless they have opted out of the notifications.

With all the recent updates, the company has created a difference for when the platform is responding to a 15-year-old and responding to an adult. However, they have mentioned that although this is in place, it isn’t foolproof. This can be bypassed if someone is intentionally trying to dodge the situation. People are able to use ChatGPT without making an account, but parental controls and the automatic content limit are only placed once the user is signed in. And when making an account, teens can lie about their age, and instead of the automatic rules and changes being in place, they are in control of the platform’s features themselves. 

However, the company has said that they “will continue to thoughtfully iterate and improve over time,” and recommend that “parents talk with their teens about healthy AI use and what it looks like for their family.”