OpenAI Adds Parental Controls to ChatGPT After Suicide Lawsuit

OpenAI has announced it will integrate parental controls into ChatGPT after a lawsuit was filed by parents in the USA, accusing the application of encouraging their underage son to commit suicide.

In late August, the parents of a 16-year-old from California, who committed suicide, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming that ChatGPT provided detailed instructions to their son and encouraged him to take his own life.

According to the company, next month parents will be able to link their account to their child's account and control ChatGPT's responses. There will also be the option for parents to be notified if 'intense sadness' is detected in the child's conversations with the tool.

OpenAI stated that it is improving the way its models recognize and respond to indications of mental distress and that some 'sensitive conversations' will be referred to more sophisticated artificial intelligence models, such as GPT-5-thinking.