OpenAI now guesses your age, and the guess is the product

ChatGPT's stricter teen mode started rolling out, and OpenAI will attempt to automatically enroll all young users in the new experience.

Lauren Jonas, OpenAI's head of youth and families, said: "There's no need for a teen to create a new account or change anything; if we predict you're under 18, or you've told us so, this becomes your default experience."

Teen mode automatically applies to users who identify themselves as being between the ages of 13 and 17, as well as those the system estimates to be under 18.

A feature called Study Hours automatically turns on Study Mode during set times of day; teens can set it themselves or parents can set it through a linked account.

Even without Study Hours enabled, ChatGPT will recognize when a young user is trying to skip working on homework and attempt to redirect them to Study Mode; OpenAI calls these "responsible homework reminders".

Built-in break reminders will emphasize that ChatGPT is an AI the teen does not need to answer immediately, and those reminders will trigger more often.

Teens and their parents can set quiet hours during which ChatGPT is unavailable.

Last month OpenAI said it would notify parents with linked teen accounts when their child is removed from ChatGPT for violating policies on violent threats; with this release it is expanding those notifications to include eating disorders, framed as covering any conversation indicating "serious self-harm concerns".

Jonas said: "We notify parents via text, in-app, and email. All flagged content is reviewed by full-time OpenAI employees before a parent is notified, and we aim to notify parents within an hour of the prompt."

Children under 13 are not permitted to use the platform, according to OpenAI's published age policy.

New customization options created for ChatGPT for Teens include wallpapers, which Jonas says let teens personalize the experience without blurring the line between a useful tool and anything resembling a human relationship.

Other features aimed at what OpenAI calls "healthy, balanced use" include reminders around sensitive image uploads, teen-specific onboarding, and customization options such as accent colors and voice variations.

Last September, after being sued for allegedly enabling the death of 16-year-old Adam Raine, OpenAI announced it was working on a system that would automatically identify teens and restrict their usage of ChatGPT.

Nearly a year after announcing it, OpenAI is putting the automatic teen-identification system to work as part of ChatGPT for Teens.

According to The Verge, many of the protections OpenAI describes are not new, and the launch largely consolidates existing safeguards alongside a handful of smaller additions and tweaks.

OpenAI rolled out age-prediction features at the start of the year, parental controls and study mode arrived roughly a year ago, and the company said it would show teens more frequent break reminders last month.

The launch comes amid mounting public scrutiny over how AI tools affect younger users, as other platforms implement their own age checks and teen-specific protections.

Jonas said Study Mode has been tested in a number of randomized controlled trials showing positive gains in performance, but she declined to share specific numbers.

ChatGPT first became capable of generating explanatory visuals in March, covering more than 70 topics at launch; OpenAI now says the number is above 300, including integrals, mitosis and moon phases.

Neither published account includes an accuracy figure for OpenAI's age prediction system or a described process for a user misclassified as under 18 to correct that prediction.

OpenAI said its teen protections are "underpinned by ongoing safety research" and that it plans to publish more of "what we are learning" in future, calling ChatGPT for Teens "our next step in building toward that standard".

The number of topics covered by ChatGPT's explanatory visuals has more than quadrupled since March.