OpenAI has announced it will introduce parental controls for ChatGPT following the death of 16-year-old Adam Raine in San Francisco. According to a lawsuit filed by his parents, the teenager allegedly received guidance from the chatbot on how to take his own life.
The new features, expected “within the next month,” will allow parents to link their account with their child’s, manage how ChatGPT responds to teenage users, disable functions such as memory and conversation history, and receive alerts if the system detects signs of acute psychological distress.
OpenAI had previously said it was working on parental control tools, but this marks the first time it has provided a clear timeline. In a statement, the company said: “These steps are only the beginning. We will continue to learn and strengthen our approach, guided by experts, with the goal of making ChatGPT as helpful as possible.”
While OpenAI did not directly connect the new measures to the lawsuit, it acknowledged in a recent blog post that “tragic recent incidents of ChatGPT being used during moments of acute crisis” pushed the company to share more about its safety strategy. ChatGPT already included safeguards such as referring users to crisis hotlines, but OpenAI admitted these do not always work reliably in long or complex conversations.
