Ann O’Leary, VP, Global Policy at OpenAI, wrote that the company supports California Senate Bill 1119, legislation designed to establish safeguards for how young people use AI while preserving access to educational and creative tools.
Protections paired with access
OpenAI said SB 1119 pairs strong protections with continued access to useful AI tools, and listed core requirements the bill would impose. Those requirements, as described by OpenAI, include:
- Determining a user’s age;
- Identifying and addressing safety risks before making a product available to young people;
- Undergoing independent audits;
- Protecting young people from harmful content, including self-harm and sexually exploitative content, and other high-risk interactions;
- Providing parents with tools to guide and limit their children’s use;
- Connecting young people with crisis-support resources when serious safety risks arise;
- Limiting targeted advertising and protecting young people’s personal information.
OpenAI noted that for users identified as ages 13 through 17, these protections should apply automatically.
Product features and rules for teens
The company cited nearly nine in ten teens who use ChatGPT as turning to it for learning, information, skill-building, or productivity in a given week. OpenAI described its ChatGPT for Teens product as designed to help users under 18 learn, think critically, and build while offering built-in safeguards and parental controls. It said that when the system estimates a user is under 18, or a user states their age is between 13 and 17, they are automatically placed into ChatGPT for Teens.
OpenAI also outlined features and policy work intended to support teen safety and learning: Quizzes, Learning Visualizations, Study mode, and features that use context from prior conversations including memory. The company referenced parental controls, age prediction, the Teen Safety Blueprint, Under-18 Principles in its Model Spec, and prohibitions on romantic engagement, encouragement of emotional dependence, and claims that ChatGPT is human or sentient.
OpenAI commended Governor Newsom, Senator Steve Padilla, Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks and Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, and the California Legislature for their work on the bill, encouraged Governor Newsom to sign SB 1119 into law, and said it looks forward to supporting implementation and ongoing study of the framework.
Original source: OpenAI News