- OpenAI is rolling out ChatGPT parental controls today
- With parental controls, parents and teens can link their accounts
- New tools to adjust features and set limits are available to parents
OpenAI is rolling out its long-awaited ChatGPT parental controls feature, starting today.
The age limit for ChatGPT is 13-years old, but there has never been a way for parents to control how their children used ChatGPT until now. Using the new controls, parents and teens can link their accounts to get stronger safeguards including new tools to adjust features and set time limits for children.
In a post on X.com, OpenAI outlines exactly what the new features are. Firstly, you’ll be able to “reduce sensitive content”, which refers to graphic content and viral challenges, and is turned on by default when a teen account is connected.
Parents will also be able to control ChatGPT’s memory, deciding if it will be able to remember past chats for more personalized responses. They’ll also get the ability to set quiet hours, which will enable them to set times when their teen cannot use ChatGPT.
Parental controls can turn off access to the ChatGPT Voice model and image creation. Finally, parents will also be able to decide if their teens chats can be used by OpenAI to improve its future models, or not.
Controlling by consent
Parents will not be able to impose parental restrictions on their teens without some consent. To link two ChatGPT accounts together, a parent or teen must send an invitation in parental controls, and the other party needs to accept it. OpenAI will notify parents if their teens disconnect their account at any point.
In any case, parents will not have access to their teen’s chats. Some elements of the chat can be sent to parents, but that will only happen in rare cases where OpenAI and its trained reviewers detect that there are possible signs of a serious safety risk.
While the new parental controls may not go far enough for some people, a statement from OpenAI reads: “We’ve worked closely with experts, advocacy groups, and policymakers to help inform our approach – we expect to refine and expand on these controls over time.”
How to set up parental controls
Once your account has been upgraded, the new Parental Controls option will sit under Accounts in the Settings menu.
A series of sliders will be available to manage your teen’s options:
Breathe, just breathe
The new parental controls feature arrives just as OpenAI has implemented a new safety routing system in ChatGPT for all users. Posting on X.com, Head of ChatGPT Nick Turley wrote: “As we previously mentioned, when conversations touch on sensitive and emotional topics the system may switch mid-chat to a reasoning model or GPT-5 designed to handle these contexts with extra care”.
It seems, however, that the system is currently triggered very easily and overreacts to any potentially sensitive content, sparking a furious response from ChatGPT users who objected to being switched to what they consider as an inferior model, even if they are paying for a ChatGPT Plus account.
One user on Reddit described how he told ChatGPT that his plant had been knocked over in a storm and it responded to him by saying: “Just breathe. It’s going to be okay. You’re safe now.” We would expect the model switching system to improve over time.
Strengthening safeguards
These new features are part of OpenAI’s general push towards stronger safeguards, which it described in a September 2 blog post called “Building more helpful ChatGPT experiences for everyone” after several highly publicized controversies from users in crisis while using the AI chatbot.
The new ChatGPT parental controls are rolling out to all ChatGPT users today on the web, and will be on mobile soon. OpenAI has created a new resources page to help parents understand how the new controls will work best for them and their children.
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