Some of the guardrails that OpenAI included in its ChatGPT for Teens product don’t work as intended and the chatbot poses an “unacceptable risk” to children, according to a report by Common Sense Media, a group that advocates for using digital media sensibly. The watchdog group urged OpenAI to restrict the chatbot to adults “until it can offer a safe, developmentally appropriate experience.”
OpenAI said the group’s testing doesn’t reflect how the chatbot’s safeguards work. Parents, educators and child development experts have been sounding alarms over children’s use of AI chatbots, which have been blamed for facilitating cheating on schoolwork and even suicide.
While even adults can fall victim to anthropomorphizing AI and develop unhealthy relationships with it, teenagers’ brains are not yet fully developed and they can be particularly vulnerable, child development experts say.
Its report said that some teen-mode features worked as intended, including the chatbot’s refusal of explicit sexual role-play. Others that did not work as intended included alerts meant to notify parents if their child is at risk for suicide, self-harm or eating disorders, along with support for teens in crisis, Common Sense Media said.
“ChatGPT still talks like a friend when teens treat it like a person,” the group said, though OpenAI had promised that the chatbot is prevented from suggesting it has personal feelings toward the user or implying that it is conscious or experiences emotions.
OpenAI said it is “deeply committed to teen safety,” to developing safeguards and giving parents tools to guide their teens’ use of AI. The company said its review of the report’s methodology shows “the bulk of their testing may have begun and concluded before activation of parental controls was complete, making their findings inaccurate.”
Making ChatGPT 18+ would be a big change. It’s already woven into how many teens do homework, search for information, and talk through problems. And until OpenAI strengthens its guardrails, simply telling a teen “don’t use it” may just be asking for a fight.
In the meantime, families whose teens keep using ChatGPT should talk plainly about what ChatGPT can and can’t safely do. Ask your teen what they use it for. Make clear that it isn’t a friend or a crisis counselor, and don’t treat its parental controls as a substitute for checking in with each other. You could even try a no-ChatGPT week together and compare what felt harder—and what felt better—without it.
But parents can’t fix the problems we found. OpenAI can.
“The burden of making a high-risk product work for teens should be with its maker, not parents,” says Tom Siegel, the executive director of the Youth AI Safety Institute
Before marketing ChatGPT to teens again, OpenAI should demonstrate through independent testing that it can reliably identify minors, get teens in crisis to real human help, and enforce the learning and relationship protections it promises families.
Source: AP. Common Sense Media. Youth AI Safety Institute
