Parents of teenage ChatGPT users will soon be able to receive a notification if the platform thinks their child is in “acute distress”
It is among a number of parental controls announced by the chatbot’s maker, OpenAI.
Its safety for young users was put in the spotlight last week when a couple in California sued OpenAI over the death of their 16-year-old son, alleging ChatGPT encouraged him to take his own life.
OpenAI said it would introduce what it called “strengthened protections for teens” within the next month.
When news of the lawsuit emerged last week, OpenAI published a note 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.
The company, however, did acknowledge “there have been moments where our systems did not behave as intended in sensitive situations”.
Now it has published a further update outlining additional actions it is planning which will allow parents to:
Link their account with their teen’s account
Manage which features to disable, including memory and chat history
Receive notifications when the system detects their teen is in a moment of “acute distress”
OpenAI said that for assessing acute distress “expert input will guide this feature to support trust between parents and teens”.
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”.
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, according to OpenAI.
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