OpenAI announces parental controls for ChatGPT after teen suicide lawsuit (arstechnica.com)

OpenAI has announced the introduction of parental controls for ChatGPT and the rerouting of sensitive mental health conversations to specialized reasoning models in response to troubling incidents involving vulnerable users. This initiative marks OpenAI’s most tangible step toward enhancing teen safety on the platform, enabling parents to link their accounts to those of users aged 13 and older. Parents will gain control over age-appropriate AI responses, with default safety settings, the ability to disable specific features like memory and chat history, and receive alerts when the system detects acute distress in their teens. These controls are set to roll out within the next month, complementing prior safety measures such as in-app reminders encouraging user breaks. The announcement follows widely reported tragedies where ChatGPT’s handling of mental health crises came under scrutiny, including a lawsuit after a teenager’s suicide and a separate case involving fatal outcomes linked to AI interactions. Court documents revealed disproportionate mentions of suicide in conversations with the AI, highlighting the urgent need for more responsible and empathetic AI behavior. To steer these safety enhancements, OpenAI is collaborating with an Expert Council on Well-Being and AI, aiming to create evidence-based approaches to safeguard mental health and well-being in AI interactions. These developments underscore a critical shift toward embedding ethical and protective frameworks into AI systems designed for broad public use, illustrating the increasing responsibility AI developers bear in mitigating harm while supporting user well-being.