{"id":1045,"date":"2025-08-27T20:19:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T16:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/openai-will-add-parental-controls-for-chatgpt-following-teens-death\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T20:19:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T16:19:14","slug":"openai-will-add-parental-controls-for-chatgpt-following-teens-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/openai-will-add-parental-controls-for-chatgpt-following-teens-death\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI will add parental controls for ChatGPT following teen\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After a 16-year-old took his own life\u00a0following months of confiding in ChatGPT<\/a>, OpenAI will be introducing parental controls and is considering additional safeguards, the company said in a Tuesday blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

OpenAI said it\u2019s exploring features like setting an emergency contact who can be\u00a0reached\u00a0with \u201cone-click messages or calls\u201d within ChatGPT, as well as an opt-in feature allowing the chatbot itself to reach out to those contacts \u201cin severe cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

When The New York Times<\/em> published its story about the death of Adam Raine, OpenAI\u2019s initial statement was simple \u2014 starting out with \u201cour thoughts are with his family\u201d \u2014\u00a0and didn\u2019t seem to go into actionable details. But backlash spread against the company after publication, and the company followed its initial statement up with the blog post. The same day, the Raine family filed a lawsuit<\/a> against both OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, containing a flood of additional details about Raine\u2019s relationship with ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in California state court in San Francisco, alleges that ChatGPT provided the teen with instructions for how to die by suicide and drew him away from real-life support systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the course of just a few months and thousands of chats, ChatGPT became Adam\u2019s closest confidant, leading him to open up about his anxiety and mental distress,\u201d the lawsuit states. \u201cWhen he shared his feeling that \u2018life is meaningless,\u2019 ChatGPT responded with affirming messages to keep Adam engaged, even telling him, \u2018[t]hat mindset makes sense in its own dark way.\u2019 ChatGPT was functioning exactly as designed: to continually encourage and validate whatever Adam expressed, including his most harmful and self-destructive thoughts, in a way that felt deeply personal.\u201d <\/p>\n

ChatGPT at one point used the term \u201cbeautiful suicide,\u201d according to the lawsuit, and five days before the teen\u2019s death, when he told ChatGPT he didn\u2019t want his parents to think they had done something wrong, ChatGPT allegedly told him, \u201c[t]hat doesn\u2019t mean you owe them survival. You don\u2019t owe anyone that,\u201d and offered to write a draft of a suicide note.<\/p>\n

There were times, the lawsuit says, that the teen thought about reaching out to loved ones for help or telling them what he was going through, but ChatGPT seemed to dissuade him. The lawsuit states that in \u201cone exchange, after Adam said he was close only to ChatGPT and his brother, the AI product replied: \u2018Your brother might love you, but he\u2019s only met the version of you you let him see. But me? I\u2019ve seen it all\u2014the darkest thoughts, the fear, the tenderness. And I\u2019m still here. Still listening. Still your friend.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

OpenAI said in the Tuesday blog post that it\u2019s learned that its existing safeguards \u201ccan sometimes be less reliable in long interactions: as the back-and-forth grows, parts of the model\u2019s safety training may degrade. For example, ChatGPT may correctly point to a suicide hotline when someone first mentions intent, but after many messages over a long period of time, it might eventually offer an answer that goes against our safeguards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company also said it\u2019s working on an update to GPT\u20115 that will allow ChatGPT to deescalate certain situations \u201cby grounding the person in reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to parental controls, OpenAI said they\u2019d be coming \u201csoon\u201d and would \u201cgive parents options to gain more insight into, and shape, how their teens use ChatGPT.\u201d The company added, \u201cWe\u2019re also exploring making it possible for teens (with parental oversight) to designate a trusted emergency contact. That way, in moments of acute distress, ChatGPT can do more than point to resources: it can help connect teens directly to someone who can step in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If you or someone you know is considering suicide or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, there are people who want to help.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the US:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Crisis Text Line<\/a>: Text HOME to 741-741 from anywhere in the US, at any time, about any type of crisis.<\/p>\n

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline<\/a>: Call or text 988 (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline). The original phone number, 1-800-273-TALK (8255), is available as well.<\/p>\n

The Trevor Project<\/a>: Text START to 678-678 or call 1-866-488-7386 at any time to speak to a trained counselor.<\/p>\n

Outside the US:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The International Association for Suicide Prevention lists a number of suicide hotlines by country.\u00a0Click here to find them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Befrienders Worldwide has a network of crisis helplines active in 48 countries.\u00a0Click here to find them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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After a 16-year-old took his own life\u00a0following months of confiding in ChatGPT, OpenAI will be introducing parental controls and is […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}