ChatGPT Adds Age Prediction Feature, Raising NSFW Content Concerns

OpenAI's January 20 update introduced an age‑prediction feature that evaluates user behavior patterns, account age, activity times, and self‑reported age to infer whether an account likely belongs to a user under 18.

Early user tests reported high accuracy: one user was described as an experienced professional with a stable family life and was assigned an age in the early 40s; another user’s inferred birthday differed from the real one by only eight days despite never providing a birthdate.

The feature may signal a relaxation of NSFW content limits. Some users noted that GPT‑4 now generates more explicit material without prompting, and one user described using GPT‑4 for “very graphic NSFW role‑play” with better results than before.

Experience varies across model versions. Users of GPT‑5.2 reported a more conservative behavior, while GPT‑4 (including 4o/4.1) was described as “funny” and more permissive, with a user stating that “4o/4.1 often makes me laugh out loud, they can be very entertaining, whereas 5.2 is not a match.”

OpenAI provides a Persona verification service that lets adults incorrectly flagged as minors quickly verify their age via Settings > Account.

The same update also improved voice interaction by fixing occasional repetition of custom commands and gave Plus and Pro subscribers enhanced memory that more reliably retrieves details from past conversations.