Tech companies repeat past patterns with new teen-focused AI tools

A California court has seen 29 attorneys general file a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the company of intentionally designing Facebook and Instagram to be addictive for children, misleading the public about the harms to young users, and illegally collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent. Meanwhile, OpenAI has launched ChatGPT for Teens, which automatically directs users aged 13 to 17—whether they are actually that age or estimated to be—into a version of the tool with enhanced safety measures, reminders, and parental controls. This version of ChatGPT comes nearly four years after the original ChatGPT was released in November 2022. Instagram, by contrast, had been in existence for 14 years before Meta introduced dedicated Teen Accounts in September 2024. Experts note that this pattern of first engaging young users and then imposing restrictions is a familiar one in the tech industry. OpenAI claims that ChatGPT for Teens builds on safety measures introduced over the past year, including parental controls, age prediction, and an under-18 version of its Model Spec. A spokesperson for OpenAI stated that the tool is designed to help young people learn, create, and be useful in their lives, with stronger protections by default. Meta did not respond to a request for comment.