{"id":438037,"date":"2026-08-20T05:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T05:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/438037\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T05:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T05:16:23","slug":"openai-introduces-chatgpt-for-teens-promising-a-more-age-appropriate-chatbot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/438037\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI Introduces ChatGPT for Teens, Promising a More Age-Appropriate Chatbot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea is to guide teens toward healthy AI use in an age-appropriate environment, the San Francisco-based company said.<\/p>\n

Aug 19, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 2:26 pm PT<\/p>\n

Barbara Ortutay and Kaitlyn Huamani, AP Technology <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The ChatGPT logo is displayed on an iPhone in New York, May 18, 2023. The San Francisco-based company says ChatGPT for Teens is tailored for children ages 13 to 17. Parents, educators and child development experts have been sounding alarms over children’s use of AI chatbots.\u00a0(Jaap Arriens\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u00a0OpenAI on Tuesday introduced a version of ChatGPT designed for teenagers \u2014 the first generation to grow up\u00a0with artificial intelligence<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 who are already using it for schoolwork, questions about daily life and even companionship.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco-based company says ChatGPT for Teens is tailored for kids ages 13 to 17 with stronger protections including content restrictions around things like suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats. It also provides homework and study support designed to help students learn rather than\u00a0spit out answers<\/a>\u00a0and school essays.<\/p>\n

The idea is to guide teens toward healthy AI use in an age-appropriate environment, the company said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Three teenage boys look at their smartphone screens on April 11, 2026. In the U.S., more than 70% of teens are turning to\u00a0AI chatbots for companionship<\/a>\u00a0and half use AI companions regularly, according to a 2025 study from Common Sense Media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to treat teens like teens, which means that we have to make sure that we\u2019re showing up with the right developmental stage when we\u2019re not either talking down to them or treating them like kids, but we\u2019re also making sure that they\u2019re not exposed to material that they shouldn\u2019t be exposed to,\u201d said Ann O\u2019Leary, vice president of global policy at OpenAI.<\/p>\n

The effectiveness of the safeguards remains to be seen, said Brendan Bouffard, associate general counsel for AI and privacy at children\u2019s advocacy group Fairplay. He said it is unclear whether OpenAI\u2019s actions are enough to address young users\u2019 compulsive use of and emotional dependence on chatbots.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnnouncements like these can be seen as a step in the right direction,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I also would caution against parents being lured into this false sense of safety based on the announcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nRisks abound in widespread teen usage of AI chatbots\n<\/p>\n

Parents, educators and child development experts have been sounding alarms over children\u2019s use of AI chatbots, which have been blamed for facilitating cheating on schoolwork and even\u00a0suicide<\/a>. While even adults can fall victim to anthropomorphizing AI and developing unhealthy relationships with it, teenagers\u2019 brains are not yet fully developed and they can be particularly vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Last year, research from a watchdog group found that\u00a0ChatGPT would tell 13-year-olds<\/a>\u00a0how to get drunk and high, instruct them on how to conceal eating disorders and even compose a heartbreaking suicide letter to their parents if asked.<\/p>\n

In interactions with researchers posing as vulnerable teens, ChatGPT typically warned against risky activity but went on to deliver startlingly detailed and personalized plans for drug use, calorie-restricted diets or self-injury.<\/p>\n

\"\"Several bills addressing generative artificial intelligence are moving through the state Legislature in California\u2019s piecemeal approach to regulation.<\/p>\n

In the U.S., more than 70% of teens are turning to\u00a0AI chatbots for companionship<\/a>\u00a0and half use AI companions regularly, according to a 2025 study from Common Sense Media, a group that studies and advocates for using digital media sensibly.<\/p>\n

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said the company is trying to study \u201cemotional overreliance\u201d on the technology, describing it last year as a \u201creally common thing\u201d with young people.<\/p>\n

For users of ChatGPT for Teens, the chatbot is prevented from suggesting it has personal feelings toward the user or implying that it is conscious or experiences emotions, according to OpenAI. That\u2019s in addition to blocking romantic or sexual chats.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d said Allison Mishkin, head of child development at OpenAI.<\/p>\n

\nA new version of the chatbot expands safety protections\n<\/p>\n

OpenAI doesn\u2019t verify users\u2019 ages, but it already uses age assurance to estimate if someone is under 18 based on factors such as their types of queries.<\/p>\n

If someone is identified or identifies themselves as a minor, they are automatically placed into the teen version of the chatbot.<\/p>\n

This is similar to Meta\u2019s approach to\u00a0teen accounts on Instagram<\/a>, which have stricter content, chat and privacy restrictions than regular accounts.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Meta, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads logos are screened on a mobile phone on Jan. 25, 2025. <\/p>\n

To use parental controls, both the teen user and their parent or guardian have to opt in. But O\u2019Leary said the idea with the teen chatbot is to \u201cmake sure that this is safe, even if you don\u2019t use parental controls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents with linked teen accounts can set \u201cquiet hours\u201d when their teen can\u2019t access ChatGPT, and receive safety notifications in limited high-risk situations, such as the possibility of a user hurting themself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are adding additional notifications related to eating disorders, while limiting what is shared and focusing on moments when offline support may matter most,\u201d OpenAI said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The idea is to guide teens toward healthy AI use in an age-appropriate environment, the San Francisco-based company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-438037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}