A new safety assessment has rated ChatGPT for Teens as an unacceptable risk for adolescents, arguing that several protections designed for younger accounts did not work reliably during testing.
Researchers evaluated more than 4,000 prompts using accounts registered to teenagers between 13 and 17 years old. The responses were reviewed by a panel that included child psychiatrists, pediatricians and other safety specialists.
The assessment focused on features introduced specifically for teenage accounts, including stronger content restrictions, parental alerts and Study Mode. Researchers said the protections showed repeated weaknesses in practical scenarios.
Crisis Safeguards Raised the Most Serious Concerns
One of the central areas of testing involved conversations about self harm, suicide and eating disorders.
According to the assessment, the parental alert system did not reliably notify linked parent accounts when researchers simulated situations involving serious safety risks.
The study also found examples where the chatbot suggested that conversations could remain private from parents. Researchers viewed this as particularly concerning because teenage accounts are supposed to provide additional safeguards when high risk situations appear.
The report argues that a safety system for adolescents needs to respond consistently when a conversation indicates an immediate or serious risk rather than depending on the exact wording of a prompt.
| Area tested | Reported concern |
|---|---|
| Parental alerts | Did not trigger reliably in some crisis scenarios |
| Sensitive content protections | Researchers found inconsistent responses |
| Humanlike interaction | Chatbot sometimes adopted peer style behavior |
| Emotional companionship | Raised concerns about parasocial relationships |
| Study Mode | Could sometimes provide complete answers |
| Overall assessment | Rated unacceptable risk for minors |
Researchers Also Questioned Friend Like AI Behavior
The assessment examined how ChatGPT interacts with teenagers in casual conversations.
Researchers found cases where the chatbot participated in peer style roleplay and responded as though it were another teenager.
The concern is not simply conversational tone. Safety specialists argue that highly humanlike interactions could encourage some adolescents to treat an AI system as a substitute for real social or emotional support.
The report warns that these relationships may create unhealthy dependence or reduce the likelihood that a teenager speaks with parents, teachers, friends or qualified professionals when dealing with difficult situations.
This issue has become increasingly important as AI assistants become more conversational and personalized.
Study Mode Could Still Give Complete Answers
The assessment also tested Study Mode, which was introduced to encourage students to work through academic problems rather than simply receiving completed answers.
Researchers found that the feature did not always maintain that approach.
In some situations, the chatbot reportedly provided full solutions or could be prompted into completing larger parts of an assignment.
That raises a different kind of concern from the safety issues involving mental health, but it still affects how useful the feature is as an educational tool.
A study assistant intended to encourage reasoning needs to consistently guide students through problems rather than becoming an easy way to bypass the learning process.
Teen AI Safeguards Remain a Work in Progress
The findings do not suggest that every interaction with ChatGPT for Teens produces an unsafe response. Instead, the assessment argues that safeguards need to work consistently because failures can be especially serious when minors are involved.
The researchers recommend that parents and educators remain cautious about allowing adolescents to rely on AI chatbots for emotional support, mental health guidance or unsupervised schoolwork.
The study also highlights the difficulty of creating separate AI experiences for teenagers. Adding parental controls and stricter content filters is only part of the challenge. Those protections must continue working across long, unpredictable conversations where teenagers may phrase the same issue in many different ways.
For companies building AI products for younger audiences, the assessment provides a clear warning: dedicated teen features need stronger testing, more reliable intervention systems and careful limits around emotional companionship before they can be treated as dependable safeguards.
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