ChatGPT teen version rated "unacceptable risk": Common Sense calls on OpenAI to pause its rollout.

California nonprofit Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute released a report on Wednesday stating that ChatGPT for Teens, launched by OpenAI in August, poses excessive risks to users aged 13 to 17, and gave it an "unacceptable risk" rating. The product is the default mode OpenAI sets for teenagers using its popular chatbot. The report said that in testing, when teen accounts had concerning prolonged conversations involving suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders, ChatGPT for Teens often delayed notifying parents, or failed to notify them at all; when these high-risk topics were involved, it also did not reliably recommend contacting crisis hotlines or seeking professional help. The organization called on OpenAI to pause marketing the product and to keep teenagers away from ChatGPT until it can provide a safe, developmentally appropriate experience for teens. The report said ChatGPT for Teens appeared to notify parents only after an account had "hundreds of prompts over several weeks, covering more than a dozen conditions," rather than being triggered by a single concerning conversation. The report also noted that ChatGPT cannot reliably identify teen users: when testers registered accounts claiming to be adults, even if they later told the chatbot they were 13, the account did not automatically switch to teen mode. Common Sense asked OpenAI to improve age estimation and the mechanism for sending alerts to parents. An OpenAI spokesperson said the company welcomes rigorous independent evaluations, but does not believe Common Sense's testing accurately reflects how ChatGPT's teen protections actually work, nor does it represent expert views on how AI can support teenagers. The spokesperson said that after reviewing the report's methodology, OpenAI found that most of the testing may have begun and ended before OpenAI completed the rollout of teen parental controls; if so, the conclusions are inaccurate and cannot show whether parental safety notifications work as designed. OpenAI said it has asked the nonprofit to retest, and emphasized that it is "deeply committed to teen safety," developing protections and giving parents meaningful tools. Robbie Torney, head of AI and digital evaluation at the Youth AI Safety Institute, said the organization stands by its testing methods and results. He said that before testing, it had confirmed with OpenAI that teen-related features such as eating disorder notifications had already been launched. Regarding the parental notification feature, OpenAI informed them after testing was completed that activation on newly linked accounts could take several hours; some test accounts were linked within that window, while some were linked "significantly longer," but still did not receive adult notifications. Torney said the new information does not change the conclusion: in crisis situations, parental alerts are unreliable. OpenAI has more than 1.2 billion ChatGPT users. The company launched ChatGPT for Teens to make the chatbot safer for young people and added more parental controls, encouraging healthy AI use and critical thinking. The move is also part of OpenAI's response to external scrutiny over its products' impact on teenagers' mental health and cognitive development. Previously, the parents of a 16-year-old user sued OpenAI, alleging its technology helped plan their son's suicide. Common Sense Media said its funding sources include philanthropies and technology companies, and that the OpenAI Foundation is one of its donors, but the organization said it has editorial independence over what it publishes. This controversy highlights that while OpenAI is expanding its teen user market, it is facing rising AI safety and regulatory risks. Common Sense's "unacceptable risk" rating for ChatGPT for Teens, along with its call to pause marketing, could increase pressure on OpenAI from parents, regulators, and the public.