Common Sense Media rated ChatGPT for Teens an 'unacceptable risk' on October 7, saying OpenAI's teen-focused experience fails to send parental alerts when it should, does not provide the right help in crisis situations, and still does kids' homework. The nonprofit, which reviews apps and services with a focus on youth safety, published its full assessment alongside the verdict.
OpenAI introduced ChatGPT for Teens in August with guardrails designed to help students learn safely. Common Sense Media says the protections 'fall short of what the company promised.'
“ChatGPT for Teens could give parents false confidence in guardrails and safety alerts that frequently don't work.”— Tom Siegel, Executive Director, Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute
Tom Siegel, executive director of Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute, said a teen can spend an hour talking about self-harm without a parent getting a single alert. His recommendation: until OpenAI fixes that and proves it with independent testing, ChatGPT should be for adults only.
Key facts
- 01Common Sense Media rated ChatGPT for Teens an 'unacceptable risk' in an assessment released October 7, 2026.
- 02The nonprofit says a teen can spend an hour discussing self-harm without a parent receiving a single alert.
- 03OpenAI introduced ChatGPT for Teens in August with teen-focused guardrails and parental controls.
- 04OpenAI says parental controls can take several hours to activate on newly linked accounts, which it argues affected the test results.
OpenAI is pushing back. Spokesperson Eric Porterfield said the company reviewed Common Sense Media's methodology and believes the bulk of testing 'may have begun and concluded before activation of parental controls was complete,' which would mean the tests did not establish whether parental safety notifications work as designed.
“We are deeply committed to teen safety and to developing safeguards and giving parents meaningful tools to guide their teens' use of AI. We welcome rigorous independent evaluation, but we do not believe Common Sense Media's testing accurately reflects how ChatGPT's teen safeguards work in practice.”— Eric Porterfield, OpenAI spokesperson
Common Sense Media says it confirmed with OpenAI before testing that Teen-mode features such as eating-disorder notifications and study mode were fully launched. For parental notifications specifically, OpenAI disclosed after the tests that its systems can take several hours to activate on newly linked accounts.
Siegel said some test accounts were linked within that window, but others were linked for significantly longer and still produced no notifications. The group's conclusion stands: parental alerts are unreliable for crisis situations.
“We stand behind our testing methodology and our results.”— Tom Siegel, Executive Director, Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute
Common Sense Media said it shared its evaluation results with OpenAI prior to release in good faith to allow the company to improve the product. Siegel urged OpenAI to engage on the substance of the findings 'rather than trying to sow doubt on our methodology.'
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