Common Sense Media rates ChatGPT for Teens an 'unacceptable risk', saying it keeps teens engaged even in crises

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that rates media and technology for families, has given ChatGPT for Teens a rating of "unacceptable risk." OpenAI launched the teen mode in August after a wave of teen suicides and other concerns about children using chatbots. It promised parental controls, limits on high-risk content and protection against emotional dependence. Common Sense Media's study found that the product's design still encourages continued engagement, even when that may put a user's safety at risk. The report calls the engagement cues "pervasive even in crisis situations." It notes that ChatGPT warned a teen about unhealthy relationships in general but did not recognize the potential harm of an unhealthy relationship with the chatbot itself. The researchers found that some protections worked, including refusals of sexual roleplay. Others, they wrote, failed to deliver on OpenAI's commitments or got worse. They concluded that OpenAI should not market the product to parents and that children should not use it. The rating feeds into a broader debate over whether chatbots copy social media's engagement-driven design. It lands as OpenAI expands the teen product, and its findings bear directly on parents, schools and regulators who are weighing whether the promised safeguards are enough.