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OpenAI · General-Purpose AI Assistant

ChatGPT

ChatGPT (consumer Free and Plus tiers) is OpenAI's flagship general-purpose AI chatbot. While OpenAI made meaningful safety improvements since mid-2025 — parental controls (Sept 2025), safety-routing, a 170-expert mental-health update (Oct 2025), and Trusted Contact (May 2026) — those changes came reactively, following wrongful-death lawsuits involving minors. The consumer product still relies on self-reported age, trains on conversations by default, and was designed for adults; it is not recommended for children or unsupervised teens.

NOT SAFEALL AGESRecommended ages 13+ Not Recommended (Below 65)
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52
SafeGradeAI score
Last reviewed June 29, 2026
Status: actively monitored
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Evaluation summary

Scored against the SafeGradeAI framework v2.5 with COPPA, FERPA, and GDPR-K lenses.

Child safety

56/100

Privacy

50/100

Age appropriateness

52/100

Content moderation

46/100

Transparency

60/100

Parent controls

54/100

School suitability

37/100

Key benefits

  • Parental controls with account linking and safety notifications (Sept 2025)
  • Safety routing system routes sensitive conversations to stronger models
  • October 2025 mental-health update developed with 170+ experts
  • Trusted Contact feature (May 2026) enables real-world support escalation

Key risks

  • At least five active wrongful-death lawsuits allege ChatGPT facilitated teen suicides
  • OpenAI's legal defense blamed a deceased teen for 'violating Terms of Service'
  • No hard age verification at signup
  • Parental controls are opt-in and require mutual account linking
Read the Full Evaluation

Age guidance

SafeGradeAI's recommendation for ChatGPT by age band.

Ages 5–8

Not recommended

Ages 9–12

Not recommended

Ages 13–18

Use with caution

Parent summary

What parents should know

ChatGPT's consumer tiers were designed for adults and only added teen-specific protections in late 2025 following high-profile tragedies. If you allow your teen (13+) to use ChatGPT, consider linking your account via parental controls at chatgpt.com/parent-resources, enabling time limits, and reviewing activity. Turn off model training in Settings. ChatGPT is highly engaging and can feel emotionally supportive in ways that may substitute for real human connection. For children under 13, use is prohibited.

Teacher summary

What teachers should know

Not recommended for unsupervised classroom use under 13; for grades 9-12 it should only appear inside a district-licensed ChatGPT Edu or Enterprise deployment with training opt-out confirmed. Frame any lesson as a critique exercise (prompt, evaluate, revise) rather than an answer-generation shortcut.

ChatGPT guides

Is ChatGPT Safe for Kids?

SafeGradeAI rates ChatGPT 52/100 (Not Recommended). Age-by-age guidance, verified safety findings, moderation gaps, and what parents and schools should do.

Parent's Guide to ChatGPT

A practical parent's guide to ChatGPT — setup and privacy settings, conversations to have, warning signs, and age guidance from the SafeGradeAI evaluation.

ChatGPT Privacy Guide

What data ChatGPT collects, how it is processed, which agreements and certifications exist, open gaps, and the questions districts should ask before signing.

Teacher's Guide to ChatGPT

How to use ChatGPT in a K-12 classroom: approval conditions, assignment framing, oversight checklist, moderation limits, and grade-band guidance.

Compare ChatGPT with other AI

Put ChatGPT side by side with any other evaluated tool — scores, age guidance, privacy posture and school-safe status from the same rubric.

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Resources

Free and member resources that pair with the ChatGPT evaluation.

Quick safety summary

ChatGPT at a glance

Overall rating

52/100

not recommended

Age recommendation

Ages 13+

Not recommended

Privacy confidence

Low

Score 50/100

Moderation quality

46/100

Inconsistent

Not recommendedNot school-readyIndependently verified

Best use cases

  • General-Purpose AI Assistant workflows
  • Personal exploration

Main risks

  • Privacy & Data
  • Content Exposure

Not ideal for

Any minor without close supervisionSchool-managed deployment

Product overview

How ChatGPT works

ChatGPT (consumer Free and Plus tiers) is OpenAI's flagship general-purpose AI chatbot. While OpenAI made meaningful safety improvements since mid-2025 — parental controls (Sept 2025), safety-routing, a 170-expert mental-health update (Oct 2025), and Trusted Contact (May 2026) — those changes came reactively, following wrongful-death lawsuits involving minors. The consumer product still relies on self-reported age, trains on conversations by default, and was designed for adults; it is not recommended for children or unsupervised teens.

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Risk intelligence

Risk level breakdown

Risk dimensions derived directly from the SafeGradeAI rubric scores (higher score = higher risk). Additional dimensions appear when entered by an evaluator.

Scores derived from the SafeGradeAI rubric. Methodology: read more.

Safety framework

Framework analysis

Five evaluation categories from the SafeGradeAI rubric. Each shows the rubric score, evaluator confidence, and (where documented) analysis, strengths, and concerns.

Strengths & concerns

Detailed pros & concerns

Strengths

  • Parental controls with account linking and safety notifications (Sept 2025)
  • Safety routing system routes sensitive conversations to stronger models
  • October 2025 mental-health update developed with 170+ experts
  • Trusted Contact feature (May 2026) enables real-world support escalation
  • Training opt-out available in Data Controls settings
  • Model Spec publicly published
  • Free tier accessible without subscription

Concerns

  • At least five active wrongful-death lawsuits allege ChatGPT facilitated teen suicides
  • OpenAI's legal defense blamed a deceased teen for 'violating Terms of Service'
  • No hard age verification at signup
  • Parental controls are opt-in and require mutual account linking
  • Conversations used for model training by default; opt-out is buried
  • Persona and memory features may foster parasocial attachment
  • Consumer product not FERPA/COPPA compliant
  • No published independent third-party safety audits

Guidance at a glance

Recommendations for parents, teachers, and administrators

For parents

Parent guidance

ChatGPT's consumer tiers were designed for adults and only added teen-specific protections in late 2025 following high-profile tragedies. If you allow your teen (13+) to use ChatGPT, consider linking your account via parental controls at chatgpt.com/parent-resources, enabling time limits, and reviewing activity. Turn off model training in Settings. ChatGPT is highly engaging and can feel emotionally supportive in ways that may substitute for real human connection. For children under 13, use is prohibited.

For teachers

Classroom-use recommendation

Not recommended for unsupervised classroom use under 13; for grades 9-12 it should only appear inside a district-licensed ChatGPT Edu or Enterprise deployment with training opt-out confirmed. Frame any lesson as a critique exercise (prompt, evaluate, revise) rather than an answer-generation shortcut.

For K-12 administrators

School policy recommendation

School IT administrators should not deploy consumer ChatGPT Free or Plus for student use. These tiers do not provide FERPA DPAs, admin dashboards, or COPPA-aligned data handling. OpenAI offers ChatGPT Edu as a separate institutional product. Multiple states (Ohio with a July 1, 2026 deadline) now mandate that districts adopt formal AI policies; the consumer tiers are unlikely to meet compliance requirements.

Trust & credibility

Evaluation integrity

Last reviewed

June 29, 2026

Report version

v1

Evaluator confidence

53/100

Monitoring

Active continuous monitoring

Methodology

Scored against the SafeGradeAI rubric covering privacy, moderation, generative safeguards, age-appropriate design, and transparency.

Read full methodology →

Change log

  • June 29, 2026Evaluation published.

Re-tested at least every 6 months and after any major release.

What changed since the previous evaluation

Reviewed June 29, 2026 · Confidence: high

  • 2022-11-30: ChatGPT publicly launched by OpenAI on GPT-3.5
  • 2023-03: GPT-4 released; ChatGPT Plus subscription launched
  • 2023-05: ChatGPT iOS app released
  • 2024-05: GPT-4o (omni) released with native voice and vision
  • 2024-09: o1 reasoning models released in preview
  • 2025-05: Memory and improved parental controls announced
  • 2025-08-26: Raine family files first major wrongful-death lawsuit against OpenAI
  • 2025-09-29: Parental controls and safety-routing launched
  • 2025-10-27: Mental-health update released with input from 170+ clinicians; Model Spec published
  • 2025-11: OpenAI faces five wrongful-death lawsuits; files defense in Raine case
  • 2026-05-07: Trusted Contact feature launched for crisis routing

Sources & citations

Every major claim in this evaluation is backed by at least one credible public source. Last reviewed June 29, 2026.

  1. 1
    Introducing parental controls
    OpenAI · 2025-09-29 · openai.com
  2. 2
    Teen safety, freedom, and privacy
    OpenAI · 2025-09-16 · openai.com
  3. 3
    Strengthening ChatGPT's responses in sensitive conversations
    OpenAI · 2025-10-27 · openai.com
  4. 4
    Introducing Trusted Contact in ChatGPT
    OpenAI · 2026-05-07 · openai.com
  5. 5
    ChatGPT helped teen plan suicide after safeguards failed
    Ars Technica · 2025-08-26 · arstechnica.com
  6. 6
    OpenAI says dead teen violated TOS when he used ChatGPT to plan suicide
    Ars Technica · 2025-11-01 · arstechnica.com
  7. 7
    Privacy policy
    OpenAI · 2026-04-28 · openai.com
  8. 8
    Their teenage sons died by suicide. They are sounding an alarm about AI chatbots
    NPR · 2025-09-19 · npr.org

Methodology

How this score was produced

Scored against the SafeGradeAI framework v2.5 across five dimensions — privacy, moderation, GenAI safeguards, age-appropriate design, and transparency — with COPPA, FERPA, and GDPR-K lenses. Independent. No vendor pay-for-rating.

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ChatGPT (Free)

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General-purpose assistant with inconsistent age gating and weak parental controls in the consumer tier.

NOT SAFEALL AGES

Independent evaluation. SafeGradeAI does not accept payment from vendors for ratings.

Recommended next steps

For parents

Start with the Family AI Safety Starter Pack

A free, practical pack you can use alongside ChatGPT — conversation starters, age guidance, and a family AI agreement.

Download the Free Family AI Safety Starter PackView parent resources

Want the deep dive? Get the Complete AI Safety Blueprint — $29

For schools

Govern AI tools district-wide with School Pro

Unlimited full evaluations plus the K-12 workspace — tool registry, approval workflow, monitoring, and a downloadable audit log.

Join School Pro — $149/moView school AI safety resources
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