OpenAI says ChatGPT is not intended for children under 13. Ages 13–18 require parental or guardian consent, and younger children using it for education should interact directly through an adult.
Safety is a habit, not a checkbox
A child can be safe in one activity and exposed in another. A supervised story exercise is different from an unsupervised emotional conversation, personal advice request or open-ended browsing session.
Four risks parents should understand
Confident mistakes
ChatGPT can invent facts, sources or calculations. Teach children to pause and verify important answers.
Private information
Children may overshare without realising that a school, name, photo or family detail can identify them.
Dependence
If every difficult task goes straight to a chatbot, the child gets less practice in persistence and independent thought.
Age-inappropriate output
Filters and guardrails reduce risk but are not perfect. Adult involvement still matters.
A safer family setup
- Choose a clear purpose: quiz, brainstorming, explanation or creative project.
- Use an adult-owned or appropriately supervised setup for younger children.
- Set quiet hours and screen limits so AI does not replace sleep, play or conversation.
- Keep personal details out of prompts.
- Review one response together and ask, “What evidence would we need?”
Questions that build judgement
- How do we know this answer is correct?
- What part did the AI generate and what part did you decide?
- Could this answer hurt, embarrass or expose someone?
- Who could we ask if the topic is serious?
When to stop and involve an adult
Stop the interaction if the child sees sexual, violent, frightening or manipulative content, receives dangerous advice, feels pressured to keep a conversation secret, or is using the tool for a crisis. A chatbot is not a replacement for a parent, teacher, doctor, counsellor or emergency service.
Read OpenAI’s current parental-control guidance and UNICEF’s overview of generative AI risks and opportunities for children.
A safer way to begin
AI Explorers keeps the learning goal visible: short, parent-guided missions that help children ask better questions, notice errors and practise responsible use. It is designed to start a family conversation—not to give a child a private digital companion.