{"id":109817,"date":"2025-09-02T19:21:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109817\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T19:21:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:21:05","slug":"chatgpt-to-tell-parents-when-their-child-is-in-acute-distress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/109817\/","title":{"rendered":"ChatGPT to tell parents when their child is in ‘acute distress’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graham FraserTechnology Reporter<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Parents of teenage ChatGPT users will soon be able to receive a notification if the platform thinks their child is in “acute distress”.<\/p>\n

It is among a number of parental controls announced by the chatbot’s maker, OpenAI.<\/p>\n

Its safety for young users was put in the spotlight last week when a couple in California sued OpenAI<\/a> over the death of their 16-year-old son, alleging ChatGPT encouraged him to take his own life.<\/p>\n

OpenAI said it would introduce what it called “strengthened protections for teens” within the next month.<\/p>\n

When news of the lawsuit emerged last week, OpenAI published a note<\/a> on its website stating ChatGPT is trained to direct people to seek professional help when they are in trouble, such as the Samaritans in the UK.<\/p>\n

The company, however, did acknowledge “there have been moments where our systems did not behave as intended in sensitive situations”.<\/p>\n

Now it has published a further update<\/a> outlining additional actions it is planning which will allow parents to:<\/p>\n

Link their account with their teen’s accountManage which features to disable, including memory and chat historyReceive notifications when the system detects their teen is in a moment of “acute distress”<\/p>\n

OpenAI said that for assessing acute distress “expert input will guide this feature to support trust between parents and teens”.<\/p>\n

The company stated that it is working with a group of specialists in youth development, mental health and “human-computer interaction” to help shape an “evidence-based vision for how AI can support people’s well-being and help them thrive”. <\/p>\n

Users of ChatGPT must be at least 13 years old, and if they are under the age of 18 they must have a parent’s permission to use it<\/a>, according to OpenAI.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit filed in California last week by Matt and Maria Raine, who are the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, was the first legal action accusing OpenAI of wrongful death.<\/p>\n

The family included chat logs between Adam, who died in April, and ChatGPT that show him explaining he has suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n

They argue the programme validated his “most harmful and self-destructive thoughts”, and the lawsuit accuses OpenAI of negligence and wrongful death.<\/p>\n

Big Tech and online safety<\/p>\n

This announcement from OpenAI is the latest in a series of measures from the world’s leading tech firms in an effort to make the online experiences of children safer.<\/p>\n

Many have come in as a result of new legislation, such as the Online Safety Act in the UK.<\/p>\n

This included the introduction of age verification on Reddit, X and porn websites.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Meta – who operate Facebook and Instagram – said it would introduce more guardrails<\/a> to its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots – including blocking them from talking to teens about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.<\/p>\n

A US senator had launched an investigation into the tech giant after notes in a leaked internal document suggested its AI products could have “sensual” chats with teenagers.<\/p>\n

The company described the notes in the document, obtained by Reuters, as erroneous and inconsistent with its policies which prohibit any content sexualising children.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Graham FraserTechnology Reporter Getty Images Parents of teenage ChatGPT users will soon be able to receive a notification…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-109817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}