OpenAI launches ChatGPT for teens with tighter safety and study support

OpenAI is launching ChatGPT for Teens with stronger safety guardrails and study support. The move targets growing concerns over harmful content, dependency and cheating risks among younger users.OpenAI is launching ChatGPT for Teens, a version of its chatbot aimed at users aged 13 to 17, as young people increasingly use artificial intelligence for schoolwork, everyday questions and companionship. The company said the new version, launching on Tuesday, is designed to offer stronger protections and age-appropriate support.The San Francisco-based company said the teen version includes tighter content restrictions around suicide, self-harm, and romantic or sexual chats. It also offers homework and study support meant to help students learn rather than simply produce answers or school essays.OpenAI said the aim is to guide teenagers towards healthy AI use in an age-appropriate setting. “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.The launch comes amid growing concern among parents, educators and child development experts over children’s use of AI chatbots. Such tools have been blamed for helping students cheat on schoolwork and have also been linked to suicide. Experts have also raised concerns that while even adults can start to humanise AI and form unhealthy attachments to it, teenagers can be particularly vulnerable because their brains are still developing. Last year, research by a watchdog group found that ChatGPT would tell 13-year-olds how to get drunk and high, explain how to conceal eating disorders, and even write a suicide letter to parents if asked. In tests where researchers posed as vulnerable teens, ChatGPT often warned against risky behaviour but still went on to provide detailed and personalised plans for drug use, calorie-restricted diets or self-injury.According to a 2025 study by Common Sense Media, more than 70 per cent of teens in the United States turn to AI chatbots for companionship, and half use AI companions regularly. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has said the company is studying “emotional overreliance” on the technology, describing it last year as a “really common thing” with young people. OpenAI said ChatGPT for Teens is designed to stop the chatbot from suggesting that it has personal feelings for a user or from implying that it is conscious or experiences emotions. This is in addition to blocking romantic or sexual chats. “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.The company does not verify users’ ages, but it already uses age assurance to estimate whether someone is under 18 based on factors such as the kind of queries they make. If a user is identified, or identifies themselves, as a minor, they are automatically moved to the teen version of the chatbot. OpenAI said this is similar to Meta’s approach for teen accounts on Instagram, which have stricter content, chat and privacy restrictions than regular accounts.Parental controls require both the teenager and a parent or guardian to opt in. But O’Leary said the idea behind the teen chatbot is to “make sure that this is safe, even if you don’t use parental controls”. Parents with linked teen accounts can set “quiet hours” during which their teen cannot access ChatGPT, and can receive safety notifications in limited high-risk situations, such as the possibility of a user hurting themselves. “We are adding additional notifications related to eating disorders, while limiting what is shared and focusing on moments when offline support may matter most,” OpenAI said.On homework help, OpenAI said the teen chatbot is meant to guide students towards working out answers on their own instead of giving them ready-made responses. The company already offers a version of ChatGPT for teachers, and said tailoring the model for studying and homework could create more ways to bring it into schools. “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. Overall, OpenAI said the teen version is meant to combine tighter safety measures with tools that support learning and everyday use among younger users.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 18, 2026 17:52 IST