Contributor: OpenAI says ChatGPT is safer for teens. Now it needs to show proof. - Los Angeles Times
Contributor: OpenAI says ChatGPT is safer for teens. Now it needs to show proof. - Los Angeles Times
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Ryan McBain
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Aug. 27, 2026
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Ryan McBain
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Aug. 27, 2026
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Last week,
OpenAI began rolling out ChatGPT for Teens
, a new user experience crafted to help young people “learn, think critically, deepen understanding, and use AI with confidence.” Maybe most importantly, OpenAI vowed that it would place any users its system “estimates” to be under 18 into the system “automatically.”
For nearly a year, parents have been able to link their children’s ChatGPT accounts to their own, restricting features, setting quiet hours and receiving alerts in high-risk situations. Those parental controls remain available, but account linking is still voluntary: The invitation must be accepted, and either party can sever the connection.
ChatGPT for Teens sets a different default. When a user reports being age 13 to 17, or when OpenAI’s system predicts that an account belongs to someone under 18, teen protections are automatically applied without waiting for a parent to activate them.
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This shift matters because nearly
60% of U.S. teens
now use ChatGPT, according to Pew, even though parents often have no idea what their children are discussing.
In a nationally representative survey my RAND colleagues and I conducted last year, we found that nearly
1 in 5 Americans ages 12 to 21
— about 8.2 million young people — reported using an AI chatbot for mental health advice. Nearly two-thirds hadn’t told anyone. A parent who never learns a conversation is occurring cannot be expected to activate safeguards around it. Automatic protections at least have a chance to reach that user.
Independent testing conducted with Common Sense M