You must be at least 13 to use OpenAI's services, and if you're under 18 you need a parent or guardian's permission — the parent is also legally responsible for everything the child does on the platform.
Parents who allow their children to use ChatGPT become legally bound by OpenAI's Terms of Use — including the arbitration clause and content licensing provisions — and are responsible for their child's activity, including any content their child generates or submits.
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See how other platforms handle Age Restrictions and Minor Use and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →The minimum age of 13 aligns with COPPA in the US, but OpenAI places the enforcement burden on users and parents rather than implementing robust age verification, creating risk that minors access services without consent.
(1) REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision directly implicates COPPA 16 CFR Part 312 (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act — operators must obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13, enforced by the FTC); GDPR Art. 8 (digital consent age set at 16 by default, with member states able to lower to 13 — parental consent required below threshold); UK Age Appropriate Design Code (Children's Code, enforced by the ICO); and the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) Art. 28 (prohibition on profiling minors). (2)
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Watcher: regulatory citations. Professional: full compliance memo.