OpenAI introduces parental controls in ChatGPT to safeguard teenage users

OpenAI has introduced parental controls in ChatGPT, giving parents greater oversight while enhancing safety measures for teenage users.

The company announced the update on X (formerly Twitter), stating: “Introducing parental controls in ChatGPT. Now parents and teens can link accounts to automatically get stronger safeguards for teens. Parents also gain tools to adjust features & set limits that work for their family.”

The new feature allows parents and teens to link accounts, enabling parents to set usage limits, adjust features, and tailor the ChatGPT experience according to their family’s needs.

How to set up parental controls Parents can invite their children to link accounts, or teens can send an invite to their parents. Once enabled, the settings remain active until manually switched off, regardless of the teen’s age. The parental controls are now available to all ChatGPT users on the web, with a mobile rollout planned soon.

Adjustable features for parents include:

Reduce sensitive content: Extra safeguards to protect teens from graphic content or viral challenges, enabled by default when a teen account is connected.

Memory: Control whether ChatGPT remembers past chats for more personalised responses.

Model training: Decide if conversations can be used to improve OpenAI models.

Quiet hours: Restrict usage during set times.

Voice mode: Enable or disable voice access.

Image generation: Turn off image creation or editing within ChatGPT.

Access to teen conversations Parents do not have routine access to their teen’s chats. However, in rare cases where the system or trained reviewers detect serious safety risks, parents may be notified with only the information necessary to protect the teen.

Opt-in requirements Both the parent and teen must accept an invitation to link accounts in order to activate parental controls.