Sept 29 (Reuters) - OpenAI is rolling out parental

controls for ChatGPT on the web and mobile on Monday, following

a lawsuit by the parents of a teen who died by suicide after the

artificial intelligence startup's chatbot allegedly coached him

on methods of self-harm.

The controls let parents and teenagers opt in for stronger

safeguards by linking their accounts, where one party sends an

invitation and parental controls activate only if the other

accepts, the company said.

U.S. regulators are increasingly scrutinizing AI companies

over the potential negative impacts of chatbots. In August,

Reuters had reported how Meta's AI rules allowed flirty

conversations with kids.

Under the new measures, parents will be able to reduce

exposure to sensitive content, control whether ChatGPT remembers

past chats, and decide if conversations can be used to train

OpenAI's models, the Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed company said on X.

Parents will also be allowed to set quiet hours that block

access during certain times and disable voice mode as well as

image generation and editing, OpenAI said. However, parents will

not have access to a teen's chat transcripts, the company added.

In rare cases where systems and trained reviewers detect

signs of a serious safety risk, parents may be notified with

only the information needed to support the teen's safety, OpenAI

said, adding they will be informed if a teen unlinks the

accounts.

OpenAI, which has about 700 million weekly active users for

its ChatGPT products, is building an age prediction system⁠ to

help it predict whether a user is under 18 so that the chatbot

can automatically apply teen-appropriate settings.

Meta had also announced new teenager safeguards to its AI

products last month. The company said it will train systems to

avoid flirty conversations and discussions of self-harm or

suicide with minors and temporarily restrict access to certain

AI characters.