ChatGPT prepares to predict user age: this is how OpenAI separates adults and minors
It is already active in the United States and will arrive in Europe shortly: OpenAI has switched on a system that tries to tell, from behaviour and not only from declared data, whether an adult or an under-18 is behind an account
OpenAI will automatically check our age on Chatgpt and if it thinks we are underage it will adapt its behaviour, in the conversations and images created. The announcement, made yesterday, already applies to US users. The system will be extended to us Europeans 'in the coming weeks', in compliance with EU laws, the company writes.
The system tries to work out, with algorithms, whether an adult or a person under 18 is behind an account. Parameters analysed: how long the account has existed, at what times and how often it is used, how usage habits change over time, what age is declared during registration.
When the system estimates that an account may belong to someone under 18, Chatgpt automatically activates a number of additional protections. The experience is cleansed of content deemed more sensitive for a young audience, such as descriptions of graphic violence, gory content, viral challenges that may encourage risky behaviour, sexual, romantic or violent role-plays, explicit depictions of self-harm, content pushing extreme beauty standards, unhealthy diets or body shaming.
In parallel, those who explicitly declare that they are under 18 at the time of registration receive a dedicated set of protections, in line with the principles OpenAI has codified for the use of models with under-18s.
If, on the other hand, an adult is classified as a minor by mistake, he or she has the possibility of contesting the evaluation. To restore full access, however, he or she must go through an identity verification procedure using a selfie, managed by Persona, an external provider specialising in identity verification. This verification is not necessary to use ChatGPT at all, but becomes the obligatory step for those who want to get out of the 'teen mode' applied by the system.
