ChatGPT for Teens Fails Alerting Parents in Crisis Conversation Tests

ChatGPT for Teens replied without the expected parent alerts in simulated teen crisis tests. OpenAI disputes whether the parental controls had been fully activated. ChatGPT, OpenAI’s chatbot, sent no parent alerts during a series of simulated teen crisis conversations, according to a new assessment by youth-safety nonprofit Common Sense Media. Those alerts are meant to reach linked parents when ChatGPT detects serious self-harm risk. OpenAI says much of the testing may have preceded full activation of parental protections. Common Sense Media’s Youth AI Safety Institute rated ChatGPT for Teens an unacceptable risk and urged OpenAI to restrict it to adults until the gaps are addressed. ChatGPT for Teens is an experience within OpenAI’s chatbot that combines youth safeguards, learning features and optional linked-parent controls.