First, Social Media Came after Teens - Now AI Is Doing the Same Thing

Two major things that may at first seem unconnected are happening in tech this week. In a California court, 29 attorneys general are bringing a lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, alleging the company knowingly designed Facebook and Instagram to addict children, misled the public about the harms its platforms posed to young users and illegally collected data from children under 13 without parental consent.

At the same time, OpenAI announced the release of ChatGPT for Teens, which automatically places users who are either actually, or estimated to be, ages 13 to 17 into a version of ChatGPT with stronger safety protections, reminders about their use of the tool and additional parental controls.

OpenAI’s teen-specific version arrives nearly four years after ChatGPT was unleashed on the world in November 2022. Instagram, by comparison, had been around for 14 years before Meta introduced dedicated Teen Accounts in September 2024 (Meta products had other child safety features long before this, however).

Please select this link to read the complete article from Fast Company.