OpenAI launches ChatGPT for teens with stronger safety protections

OpenAI is launching a new version of ChatGPT on Tuesday specifically designed for teenagers, aiming at making the artificial intelligence accessible to them with stronger safety protocols.

According to the US-based company, ChatGPT for Teens is meant to deliver stronger protections for youngsters aged 13 to 17.

The new safety protection includes content restrictions related to obscene and self-harm things like suicide, sexual and romantic chats. It will be tailored to provide study support while helping students learn rather than rote memorization and regurgating answers for homework.

The company emphasized that the purpose behind launching teen-specific chatbot is to guide teens towards healthy use of AI models in an age-appropriate environment.

“We want to treat teens like teens, which means that we have to make sure that we’re showing up with the right developmental stage when we’re not either talking down to them or treating them like kids, but we’re also making sure that they’re not exposed to material that they shouldn’t be exposed to,” said Ann O’Leary, vice president of global policy at OpenAI.

OpenAI estimates user age based on query types and behaviours rather than imposing strict up-front age verifications. Users identified as minors will automatically be placed into the teen version of ChatGPT.

“We went through and identified what are the hypothetical cues that a model could give that might make a teenager kind of develop a relationship to it,” said Allison Mishkin, head of child development at OpenAI.

Speaking about safety and parental control, the chatbot is designed to be completely safe by default even in the case of lack of enabling parental controls.

Parents or guardians and teen users can opt in to link accounts. Linked parents can set "quiet hours" to block access during specific times.

They will also receive safety notifications in high-risk scenarios for instance self-harm indicators or eating disorder concerns, balanced with privacy limitations to highlight moments where offline support is crucial.

For homework-related help, the company has worked on creating a chatbot that will not provide direct answers. Instead, it will guide students to solve problems independently.

“We continue to also invest in expanding interactive learning because research shows that people learn more effectively when they actively engage and struggle with concepts,” Mishkin said.