On Tuesday, August 18, 2026, a report that OpenAI intends to launch a teen version of ChatGPT for children aged 13 to 17, with stronger safeguards, drew strong online commentary.
In the various technology-related forums that I belong to on LinkedIn, the news was received with a positive reaction because the intended solution is to include content protections on self-harm and sexual chats. This has long been of interest to many.
This is how the Guardian online, the UK-based news portal, reported the story: “OpenAI is launching a version of ChatGPT designed for teenagers – the first generation to grow up with artificial intelligence – who are already using it for schoolwork, questions about daily life and even companionship”.
“The San Francisco-based company says ChatGPT for Teens, which launches on Tuesday (August 18, 2026), is tailored for children aged 13 to 17 with stronger protections including content restrictions around things such as suicide, self-harm and romantic or sexual chats.
It also provides homework and study support designed to help students learn rather than spit out answers and school essays.
According to Ann O’Leary, the vice-president of global policy at OpenAI “We want to treat teens like teens, which means that we have to make sure that we’re showing up with the right developmental stage when we’re not either talking down to them or treating them like children, but we’re also making sure that they’re not exposed to material that they shouldn’t be exposed to.”
The idea is to guide teens toward healthy AI use in an age-appropriate environment, the company said.
“We are adding additional notifications related to eating disorders, while limiting what is shared and focusing on moments when offline support may matter most,” OpenAI said.
Because teenagers can become particularly vulnerable to the dangers of developing unhealthy relationships with AI, there have been several advocates for some guardrails in its application. And the calls, often directed at governments and AI developers, have been loud.
In fact, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, has said that the company is trying to study “emotional overreliance” on the technology, describing it last year as a “really common thing” with young people.
It is not only teenagers who are at risk when AI development is not backed by strong ethical principles. But it is not zero-sum either! As I have repeatedly reported in past editions of this column, Public First, a UK-based think tank, has highlighted in a report commissioned by Google that there were more benefits to be derived from the application of Artificial Intelligence to work processes than the possible downside risks.
The study, which was primarily based on the British economy, stressed that AI could enhance almost two-thirds of British jobs, estimating further that 31 per cent of jobs would be insulated from AI.
Significantly, the research report, which was published on July 25, 2025, said AI would radically transform 61 per cent of jobs.
Commenting on the research report, Debbie Weinstein, the Managing Director of Google UK said: “Fewer than 50 per cent of people are actually taking advantage of these tools in their working life on a day to day basis,” and that “The uptake of these tools is very low, and I think the only way we’re going to unlock the potential of what AI can do is actually by getting people to use them, and to feel confident and capable about them.”
In effect, what the report portrayed was that instead of us worrying about job losses arising from AI applications, we need to focus on how it could make us work smarter and in a faster way.
I have referred to this report to explain the good benefits of AI, but it is not all that rosy at all times!
In the May 6, 2023, edition of this column, for example, under the headline: AI Ethics: Why does it matter?
I told the story of the resignation of Geoffrey Hinton from Google, a man described as the godfather of AI. In fact, announcing his resignation, one report captured the following headline: Godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton quits Google and warns over dangers of misinformation.
Hinton is often touted as the godfather of AI because of his pioneering work on neural networks.
It is common knowledge that Hinton, together with two of his students at the University of Toronto, built a neural network in 2012, which has pioneered current systems and applications such as ChatGPT.
Both The Guardian newspaper of the United Kingdom and the New York Times of the United States of America stressed that Hinton was leaving due to concerns over the flood of misinformation, and “the possibility for AI to upend the job market, and the ‘existential risk’ posed by the creation of a true digital intelligence”.
In fact, that was the identified risk then, regarding the adult job market, but at the teen level, the concerns were more about the moral hazards and AI’s possible distortion of the true fabric of society.
Here this out: In an interview with the New York Times, Hinton stated that until 2022, he was confident that Google had been a “proper steward” of the technology he had pioneered, but his confidence dipped once Microsoft started incorporating a chatbot into its Bing search engine, and Google became concerned about the risk to its search business.
That aside, I have my own concerns too. Over the years, I have also become concerned about the ethics of AI and Machine Learning (ML). In the April 1, 2023 edition of this column, for example, I explained how the quantum leap in the application of AI models had caused confusion among even the big adopters of the technology.
This was based on an open letter signed by major AI players, including Elon Musk. In the letter, the authors opined that: “Recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control…... Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.”
The move on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, by OpenAI to address the broader concerns over AI adoption on children's development and mental health is most welcome and must also be adopted by all developers in the space.
