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OpenAI adds open source tools to help developers build for teen safety

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Why This Matters

OpenAI's release of open-source safety prompts aims to help developers create safer AI applications for teens by providing clear, adaptable policies to address sensitive content and behaviors. This initiative enhances safety standards across the AI ecosystem and encourages collaborative improvement. It underscores the importance of proactive safety measures in AI development to protect vulnerable users.

Key Takeaways

OpenAI said Tuesday it is releasing a set of prompts that developers can use to make their apps safer for teens. The AI lab said the set of teen safety policies can be used with its open-weight safety model known as gpt-oss-safeguard.

Rather than working from scratch to figure out how to make AI safer for teens, developers can use these prompts to fortify what they build. They address issues like graphic violence and sexual content, harmful body ideals and behaviors, dangerous activities and challenges, romantic or violent role play, and age-restricted goods and services.

These safety policies are designed as prompts, making them easily compatible with other models besides gpt-oss-safeguard, though they’re probably most effective within OpenAI’s own ecosystem.

To write these prompts, OpenAI said it worked with AI safety watchdogs, Common Sense Media and everyone.ai.

“These prompt-based policies help set a meaningful safety floor across the ecosystem, and because they’re released as open source, they can be adapted and improved over time,” said Robbie Torney, Head of AI & Digital Assessments at Common Sense Media, in a statement.

OpenAI noted in its blog that developers, including experienced teams, often struggle to translate safety goals into precise, operational rules.

“This can lead to gaps in protection, inconsistent enforcement, or overly broad filtering,” the company wrote. “Clear, well-scoped policies are a critical foundation for effective safety systems.”

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