ISLAMABAD: In a move that aims to address growing concerns about the impact of chatbots on youth mental health, American company OpenAI has announced new parental control features for its chatbot, ChatGPT. The announcement comes as the company faces legal and public scrutiny, with some claiming the chatbot has negatively affected young people.
A Safer Chat Experience for Teens
According to a company blog post, these new features are designed to help families set “healthy guidelines” for their teens. Within the next month, parents will be able to link their own ChatGPT accounts to their children’s accounts. This will give them a new level of control over their child’s usage, including the ability to:
- Disable certain features such as chat history and the chatbot’s memory.
- Control how the chatbot responds to queries through “age-appropriate model behavior rules.”
Perhaps the most significant new feature is a notification system that will alert parents when ChatGPT detects that their teen may be in a moment of “acute distress.” To ensure this feature is both effective and trustworthy, OpenAI is seeking input from a network of experts, including over 90 physicians from 30 countries. The company has stated that these new measures are just the beginning and that more improvements will be rolled out over the next 120 days. OpenAI’s goal is to make ChatGPT as helpful as possible for everyone, while also prioritizing the safety of its youngest users.
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