OpenAI has released prompt-based safety policies to help developers create age-appropriate protections for teen users of AI systems. The policies work with OpenAI's open-weight safety model gpt-oss-safeguard to simplify how developers turn safety requirements into usable classifiers. This release addresses a critical gap in the ecosystem where developers often struggle to define policies that accurately capture teen-specific risks.

These policies were developed with input from trusted external organizations including Common Sense Media and everyone.ai, reflecting OpenAI's belief that safety and innovation must go hand in hand. The company recognizes that teens and adults have different needs, with teens requiring additional protections. By structuring policies as prompts, developers can more easily integrate them into existing workflows and adapt them over time.

The initial release covers seven key risk areas: graphic violent content, graphic sexual content, harmful body ideals, dangerous activities, romantic or violent roleplay, and age-restricted goods and services. These policies can be used for real-time content filtering or offline analysis of user-generated content. External partners praised the initiative as setting a meaningful safety floor across the ecosystem.