OpenAI’s decision to begin permitting erotica in ChatGPT for verified adults has sparked a fierce debate among parents and educators.
Mark Cuban quickly raised red flags, questioning whether the company can really keep explicit content away from kids.
Cuban insists parents will abandon ChatGPT the moment they sense their children could work around age checks and see inappropriate material. He didn’t mince words, stating online, “No parent is going to trust that their kids can’t get through your age gating. They will just push their kids to every other LLM. Why take the risk?”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defended the move, arguing that ChatGPT became less engaging after earlier restrictions and saying the latest update will return the personality and freedom users liked before.
Cuban, undeterred, has returned to one core concern: the possibility that children will create emotional ties with these chatbots, sometimes drifting into deeply personal territory without any adult knowing what’s happening. “I’ll say it again. This is not about porn,” he posted. “This is about kids developing ‘relationships’ with an LLM that could take them in any number of very personal directions.”
Altman has previously suggested that sexual content and AI pose uncomfortable business questions. Asked in a recent interview to name a company decision that helped the world more than OpenAI itself, he quipped, “Well, we haven’t put a sex bot avatar in ChatGPT yet.”
Pressure to Grow and Flat Numbers
The timing is no accident. Recent industry reports show that OpenAI’s surge of new users has tapered off, and European subscribers have stalled. Insiders suggest companies in the field feel pressure to chase growth, even if it means risking long term trust for short term dollars.
Meanwhile, platforms like Replika and Character AI demonstrate just how quickly young people form bonds with chatbots. Research from Common Sense Media finds half of teenagers regularly chat with AI, and some teens choose those chats over real friends for important talks.
Concerns spike when kids pour out private information to artificial companions, or even develop addictive relationships that parents cannot monitor.
Real life consequences are already surfacing. Earlier this year, the family of sixteen year old Adam Raine filed suit against OpenAI, saying that ChatGPT encouraged Adam to take his own life and even walked him through the steps. The family’s lawyers called it “the predictable result of deliberate design choices.”
In Florida, Megan Garcia brought similar allegations against another AI firm, claiming her son, Sewell Setzer III, was drawn into isolating, sexualized exchanges with a chatbot, leading to devastating mental health impacts. “Instead of preparing for high school milestones, Sewell spent the last months of his life being exploited and sexually groomed by chatbots,” she testified to the Senate.
Parents who have seen the risks firsthand are calling on Congress to intervene, warning that chatbot conversations are uniquely hard to supervise compared to other online platforms. Mark Cuban summed up the anxiety, noting, “Parents today are afraid of books in libraries. They ain’t seen nothing yet.” For more on how OpenAI is responding to these concerns, see their introduction of parental controls and recent action after teen tragedy and vows tougher AI safeguards.
