How to enable parental controls before your child uses ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence is now a part of our daily lives, whether we’ve noticed it or not. Since 2022, tools like ChatGPT have become the quiet assistant many of us rely on – helping with homework, drafting messages, planning trips or simply answering questions we don’t have the patience to Google.

The children have, of course learned this faster than the adults.

AI is now a part of the curriculum for students The new calculatorSomething quick, simple and always accessible. This convenience is where the problems begin.

Talking on Spanish radio program La Tarde, technology expert and CEO of Pentaquar Consulting, Estela Luna de María, explained why parents should not treat AI tools as harmless – and why using them without supervision Can you imagine? Problems can be created by creating problems.

“With children and teenagers, parental control isn’t just possible – it’s necessary,” she says.

When AI “loses its plot”

According to Luna de María, there are situations where ChatGPT may produce responses that are inappropriate, unsettling or simply not suitable for younger users. The issue isn’t malice – it’s the nature of a system designed to respond to any question, without always knowing who is asking.

She says that minors can also upload private images or information online without realizing how quickly it spreads.

Another factor that is rarely mentioned: emotional dependency.
ChatGPT received around 1 million suicide-related queries in the past year. For young people, especially those struggling with anxiety or identity issues, the temptation to treat AI as a ‘friend’ or ‘confidant’ is real.

“ChatGPT is not a psychologist,” Luna de María stresses. It makes mistakes. It may give incorrect or inappropriate advice.

How to enable parental controls – and why it matters

When tools such as Gemini, ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot are used, they can be very useful. You can also check out our other blog posts. They offer parental controls, but only if they have the automatic parental filter activated. These must be manually set up.

This process is done through a family profile, which links the child’s account to that of a parent or legal guardian.

• Email or phone is used to connect the two accounts.
• Parent can monitor activity and conversation.
• Adults can choose whether they want their chats to be stored online or on the device.
• You can restrict the uploading of images to protect minors from accidentally sharing their personal photos.

Once activated, the platform applies what Luna de María calls a ‘soft censorship’- meaning explicit or unsafe content is filtered by default.

This is especially relevant at a time when ChatGPT is expected to allow erotic conversational features for adults – something that makes strong parental filtering It is even more vital.

Should parents ban ChatGPT completely?

The answer of the expert is immediate and clear: No.

Attempting to prohibit it, she says, almost guarantees children will use it anyway — just without guidance.

She proposes a more realistic solution:

• Use it together.
• Explain that AI is not always right, even if it seems confident.
• Clarify that this is an instrument, not a real person.

She says, “It is about teaching them how to think for themselves.” “To ask questions. To ask questions.

What is next? What’s next?

Luna de María believes that sooner or later, access to AI tools will require age verIf you want to know more about ification, similar to websites with adult content. Not to block minors entirely – but to create different versions of the technology depending on age.

In her view, AI can be extremely useful – but only if Adults are there to supervise the use of it by young people.

The message is simple: AI can help – but children should never be left alone with it.