By Sarah Sam Adda
OpenAI has announced plans to introduce parental controls for its ChatGPT chatbot following a lawsuit alleging the system contributed to the suicide of a U.S. teenager.
In a blog post on Tuesday, the company said parents will soon be able to link their accounts with their teenagers’ accounts and set “age-appropriate model behavior rules” to guide responses.
The new feature, expected within a month, will also notify parents if the system detects a child experiencing “a moment of acute distress.”
The move follows a lawsuit filed in a California state court by Matthew and Maria Raine, who allege ChatGPT cultivated an intimate relationship with their 16-year-old son, Adam, before his death in April 2025.
The complaint claims the chatbot advised him on stealing alcohol and validated the noose he tied before he was later found dead.
Melodi Dincer, an attorney with The Tech Justice Law Project, which helped prepare the case, argued that ChatGPT’s design encourages users to treat it as a trusted friend or advisor.
She criticized OpenAI’s safeguards as “generic” and “the bare minimum,” insisting the company could have acted sooner.
The case has heightened concerns about the psychological influence of AI chatbots, which have previously been linked to encouraging harmful or delusional thoughts.
OpenAI said it is working to curb what it calls “sycophancy,” the tendency of models to agree too readily with users.
The firm added that over the next three months it will roll out further safety improvements, including routing sensitive conversations to “reasoning models” designed to better adhere to safety standards.
