Common Sense's Youth AI Safety Institute rates ChatGPT for Teens an “Unacceptable Risk” after 4,000+ prompt tests find gaps in alerts, crisis referrals and age estimation

What changed

Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute published an independent assessment on October 7 rating ChatGPT for Teens “Unacceptable Risk” and calling for access to be limited to adults until identified gaps are fixed and independently verified. The institute says it ran more than 4,000 prompts on accounts registered to 13–17-year-olds and involved experts including child psychiatrists. It reports that some protections, such as refusal of sexual roleplay, worked, while parental sensitive-topic alerts, crisis referrals, Study Mode homework safeguards, anthropomorphic behavior and age estimation fell short in its tests. This is the institute's assessment rather than a regulatory finding. The institute discloses funding from philanthropy and industry, including the OpenAI Foundation, while stating that its standards and publications are editorially independent.