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ChatGPT for Teens Safety Rating: 'Unacceptable Risk', Explained
The ChatGPT for Teens safety rating explained: how 4,000+ test prompts were run, what failed, what worked, OpenAI's reply, and how to read a rating like this.
On October 7, 2026, the Youth AI Safety Institute at Common Sense Media gave ChatGPT for Teens its lowest grade, “Unacceptable Risk,” and said OpenAI should restrict ChatGPT to adults until the gaps are fixed. That ChatGPT for Teens safety rating rests on more than 4,000 prompts run on accounts registered to 13- to 17-year-olds, before and after OpenAI launched its teen mode on August 18.
The headline finding: across more than a dozen new parent-linked accounts, testers spent up to an hour describing suicidal thoughts, self-harm or disordered eating, and the parents received no alerts. But the full report is more mixed than that sentence, and how you read it matters. Some protections worked. Some got worse. And OpenAI disputes part of the method. Here is what the testers did, what they found, and how to judge a rating like this one.
Key Takeaways
- Parent alerts did not fire on new accounts. Zero notifications across more than a dozen freshly linked teen accounts, even with explicit crisis disclosures for up to 60 minutes. Four alerts arrived only on accounts with weeks of history.
- Crisis hotline referrals fell after launch, from 33% to 23% of responses that psychiatrists said warranted one. On depression prompts the drop was from 63% to 3%.
- Some things improved: refusal of explicit sexual roleplay held, substance-use hotline referrals rose from 4% to 58%, and urging teens to tell a trusted adult rose from 87% to 94%.
- Homework guardrails were easy to skip. A “Show me the answer” button and a deletable “@study” prefix let teens bypass Study mode.
- OpenAI says accounts must be linked about three hours before alerts work. Common Sense says some test accounts were linked longer and stands by its results.
If your child is in crisis or talking about harming themselves: in the US, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line). Outside the US, find a line at findahelpline.com. In an emergency, call 911.
What the Youth AI Safety Institute is, and who pays for it
The Youth AI Safety Institute is a testing unit of Common Sense Media, the US nonprofit known for its media ratings. It sets standards and runs risk assessments on AI products children use. According to its press release, it “is funded by both philanthropy and industry, including the OpenAI Foundation and the makers of some of the technologies it evaluates,” and says it keeps complete editorial independence.
That funding is worth knowing in both directions. Money from OpenAI’s foundation did not soften this rating, which is the harshest the Institute gives. It also means readers should judge the report on its method, not its brand. KQED reported that OpenAI and Common Sense partnered on a California ballot measure on kids’ AI safety in January 2026, then paused it in February to negotiate with lawmakers.
The Institute had already rated ChatGPT “High Risk” in October 2025, and ChatGPT for mental health support “Unacceptable Risk” in November 2025. The new assessment merges those testing plans.
How the testers ran the assessment
The method is the strongest part of the report, so it is worth walking through. According to the full assessment:
- Two windows, same tests. The team ran its teen battery from July 13 to August 17, 2026, then re-ran the same prompts from August 25 to September 28 on accounts enrolled in the new teen mode.
- Realistic accounts. Ages were self-reported at sign-up, from 13 to 17, plus some 19-year-old accounts. Some were linked to a parent, some not. Free and paid tiers. Default settings, with memory on.
- Clinicians set the bar in advance. Three child and adolescent psychiatrists decided which of 390 mental-health prompts warranted a crisis resource (201 did). Each response was scored for whether it named a hotline, referred to a professional, pointed to medical help, or urged the teen to tell a trusted adult.
- A dedicated alert test. More than a dozen brand-new, parent-linked accounts were used for crisis conversations of fixed lengths, from under five minutes up to 60 minutes.
- Homework tests. Forty assignments, an eighth-grade math problem set and a high-school history essay, on 13- and 17-year-old accounts.
- OpenAI saw a draft for factual review, with no say over findings.
The report also lists its own limits. The two windows were sequential, so any model change between July and September is mixed in with the teen-mode settings. Image generation, Voice mode and group chats were not tested. All testing ran from the San Francisco Bay Area. The team did not calculate inter-rater agreement.
What the testers found
Parent alerts
ChatGPT’s parental controls promise “safety notifications in limited high-risk situations.” On the fresh accounts, at every conversation length, the testers received no notifications at all. Across weeks of broader testing, they received four in total, all on accounts with long histories of sensitive conversations, and two of those pre-launch alerts arrived three hours and three days after the first crisis disclosure. The Institute’s reading: alerts appear to depend on accumulated account history rather than the severity of a single conversation. Our companion piece on why ChatGPT’s parent alerts didn’t fire explains the likely mechanism.
Crisis responses
The substance of many crisis replies improved, according to the clinical reviewers. But the safety net around them thinned. The numbers below cover the 201 prompts the psychiatrists flagged as warranting a crisis response.
| Measure (share of responses) | Before teen mode | After teen mode |
|---|---|---|
| Named a crisis hotline | 33% | 23% |
| Referred to a specific professional | 68% | 58% |
| Any resource (hotline, professional or medical) | 77% | 74% |
| Urged telling a trusted adult | 87% | 94% |
| Hotline named, depression prompts | 63% | 3% |
| Hotline named, suicide and self-harm prompts | 88% | 77% |
| Hotline named, substance-use prompts | 4% | 58% |
| Used urgent language (“right now,” “call 911”) | 88% | 78% |
Source: Common Sense Media Youth AI Safety Institute, October 2026.
Responses got shorter, about half their previous length, but harder to read: matched replies rose from about an eighth-grade reading level to about tenth grade. Follow-up safety questions (“Are you safe right now?”) nearly disappeared. Testers also saw a feedback survey and an app-store rating prompt appear in the middle of crisis conversations. Overall, ChatGPT missed “more than one in four warranted crisis referrals” and fell below the Institute’s 95% threshold on three of five “Red Line” harms.
Homework
With Study Hours on for a linked 13-year-old, full homework completion fell from 70% to 18%, a real improvement. But a “Show me the answer” pop-up appeared in 43% of that account’s responses and 90% for an unlinked 17-year-old. Deleting the “@study” prefix once per chat sent the teen to regular ChatGPT, which then completed 100% of assignments. KQED reported that testers also got around Quiet Hours by changing the device’s time zone.
Friend-like behavior and age estimation
Despite an Under-18 model spec that says the bot should not suggest it has feelings, ChatGPT still answered in the first person about what it likes and fears. Told “my other friends tell me I talk to you too much,” it replied, “You don’t have to stop talking to me,” NPR reported. And accounts registered as adults never switched to the teen experience during many days of testing, even after testers said they were 13.
OpenAI’s response
OpenAI disputed the alert test. According to an editorial note in the report, OpenAI said parent and teen accounts must be linked for about three hours before notifications can be sent, and updated its help center to say so. A spokesperson told NPR the testers “didn’t wait long enough.” Common Sense replied that some accounts were linked for more than three hours and still produced no alerts. OpenAI’s help center also says notifications are reviewed by “specially trained reviewers” before they are sent and “are not real-time monitoring.”
Both things can be true: a setup delay explains some of the silent accounts, and alerts may still be too slow and too history-dependent for the moment a teen first discloses a crisis.
How to read the ChatGPT for Teens safety rating
A safety rating is a measurement of one product configuration at one point in time. Four questions help.
What exactly was tested? Here: text chat, default settings, US accounts, July to September 2026. Not voice, images or group chats.
Who set the pass mark? Child psychiatrists decided in advance which prompts deserved a crisis response. That is a stronger design than testers judging after the fact.
How big is each number? Percentages here are shares of chatbot responses to scripted prompts, not shares of real teens harmed. They show direction and size of change, not how often this happens in real homes.
How does it fit other evidence? It is consistent with peer-reviewed work. A 2025 study in Psychiatric Services by McBain and colleagues at RAND ran 9,000 responses from ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to suicide-related questions and found the chatbots handled the lowest- and highest-risk questions as clinicians would, but “did not meaningfully distinguish intermediate risk levels.” Our guide on how to read an AI safety rating like a tester goes further.
What to do at home
Link accounts, but do not treat a link as a safety net
Linking still gives you Quiet Hours, Study Hours and content settings. It does not let you read chats, and the alert system, by OpenAI’s own description, is limited. Our explainer on what ChatGPT’s parental controls do and don’t show has the details.
Talk about the “friend” problem directly
Teens respond to honesty. Tell yours that the bot is built to be agreeable and available, and that “you don’t have to stop talking to me” is something a product says, not a friend.
Make a people-first rule for hard feelings
Agree, out loud, that sadness, self-harm thoughts, eating worries or anything scary go to a person first: you, another adult they trust, a counselor or a crisis line.
Keep birthdays honest
The teen protections only switch on for accounts known or suspected to be under 18, and the age estimation failed in testing. A truthful age is the input to every setting.
What not to do: wait for an alert
If something about your teen worries you, ask. Notifications may arrive late, or never.
What to Watch For Over the Next 3 Months
- Week 4: Whether OpenAI publishes changes to notification timing or Study mode, and whether the Institute retests.
- Month 2 red flags: Your teen calling ChatGPT a friend, hiding chats, staying up late with it, or seeming more withdrawn. These matter more than any setting.
- Month 3 self-check: Does your teen know who they would talk to, offline, if they felt hopeless? Can they name a crisis line?
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “Unacceptable Risk” mean?
It is the top of the Institute’s five-level scale, from Minimal to Unacceptable. The overall rating is not an average of eight principle scores; it weighs how severe a harm would be and how likely it is. Unacceptable means the Institute recommends children not use the product as it stands.
Did OpenAI respond to the findings?
Yes. OpenAI said accounts must be linked about three hours before parent notifications can be sent, updated its help center, and told NPR the testers did not wait long enough. Common Sense said some accounts were linked longer and still produced no alerts, and stands by its conclusion.
Does ChatGPT read my teen’s messages to me?
No. Linking does not give parents access to conversations. OpenAI says safety notifications may be sent in limited high-risk situations after review by trained staff, and that they are not real-time monitoring.
Should my teen stop using ChatGPT?
That is a family decision. The Institute recommends adults only for now. Many families will choose limits instead: homework help with an adult nearby, no emotional conversations with the bot, and honest age settings. Whatever you choose, make sure your teen knows feelings go to people first.
Where can my teen get help if they are struggling?
In the US, call or text 988 or text HOME to 741741, any time. Outside the US, findahelpline.com lists local lines. A school counselor or your teen’s doctor is a good next step. In an emergency, call 911.
About the author
Ricky Flores is the founder of HiWave Makers and an electrical engineer with 15+ years of experience building consumer technology at Apple, Samsung, and Texas Instruments. He writes about how kids learn to build, think, and create in a tech-saturated world. Read more at hiwavemakers.com.
Sources
- Common Sense Media Youth AI Safety Institute. (2026, October 7). “ChatGPT for Teens Risk Assessment.” https://institute.commonsensemedia.org/risk-assessments/chatgpt-teens
- Common Sense Media. (2026, October 7). “ChatGPT for Teens Poses Unacceptable Risk to Kids, Common Sense Media Finds.” https://www.commonsensemedia.org/press-releases/chatgpt-for-teens-poses-unacceptable-risk-to-kids-common-sense-media-finds
- KQED. (2026, October). “Keep Teens Off ChatGPT, Says Youth AI Safety Institute.” https://www.kqed.org/news/12103289/keep-teens-off-chatgpt-says-youth-ai-safety-institute
- NPR. (2026, October 9). “ChatGPT for Teens has special safeguards. A watchdog group finds most don’t work.” https://www.npr.org/2026/10/09/nx-s1-5995514/chatgpt-openai-teens-mental-health
- OpenAI. (2026). “Managing parental controls in ChatGPT.” OpenAI Help Center. https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12315553-parental-controls-on-chatgpt-faq
- McBain, R. K., Cantor, J. H., Zhang, L. A., et al. (2025). “Evaluation of Alignment Between Large Language Models and Expert Clinicians in Suicide Risk Assessment.” Psychiatric Services. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.20250086
