{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-11T08:02:50.638Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"account-restriction","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":0,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":1,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":0,"contextualRelations":1,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-chatgpt-adult-subscriber-says-account-classified-as-teen-and-restricted-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'Then age verification rolled out and I got classified as a teen account, no kidding, on my 36 th birthday.' ... 'But not when I got put on a restricted account, go figure.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster, who says they are 36, says that when OpenAI's age checks rolled out their ChatGPT account was classified as a teen account and was put on a restricted account.","causal_attribution":"The poster's own account, uncorroborated, so reported."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'After I had already emailed them about non-ID/photo options to verify like your credit card if I should get hit by this. They just sent me a canned answer about how great Persona is and when I escalated it to data protection, they basically said that I had to be profiled first'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they had earlier emailed OpenAI asking for verification options without ID or a photo, received a canned reply about Persona, and on escalating to data protection was told they had to be profiled first.","causal_attribution":"The poster's own account of correspondence that is not published, so reported."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'So I cancelled my subscription'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster cancelled their ChatGPT subscription after the classification.","causal_attribution":"The poster's own statement; the connection to the classification is the poster's sequence of events."},{"id":"c4","status":"documented","evidence":[{"locator":"'If ChatGPT predicts that an account may belong to someone under 18 and the account is eligible, ChatGPT automatically enables the ChatGPT for Teens experience.' ... 'ChatGPT uses an age prediction system. It looks at different signals linked to your account.' ... 'No system is perfect. Sometimes ChatGPT may get it wrong.' ... 'If you are 18 or older and were placed in the ChatGPT for Teens experience by mistake, you can verify your age.' ... 'Your account stays active, and you can still use ChatGPT to learn, create, and ask questions.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"OpenAI's Help Center says ChatGPT uses an age prediction system that reads account signals, automatically enables the ChatGPT for Teens experience when it predicts an account may belong to someone under 18, can get this wrong, and lets adults placed there by mistake verify their age; it says the account stays active.","causal_attribution":"Directly established by OpenAI's own published page as a description of the system; it does not establish what happened to this account."}],"effects":[{"label":"An adult subscriber's ChatGPT account was classified as a teen account and restricted, according to the poster","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTcomplaints/comments/1x2x24z/done_with_chatgpt_and_what_i_realized_after/","kind":"forum_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English post read in full from the subreddit's Atom feed and the post's own comment feed (HTTP 200 each, 11 Oct 2026); the comment feed held only the post, with no replies. The URL carries no username; the poster's handle is not recorded.","independence_group":"reddit-poster-1x2x24z"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/20260924151959/https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12652064-age-prediction-in-chatgpt","kind":"official_statement","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"English Help Center page read through a Wayback Machine capture of 24 September 2026 (the live page answered HTTP 403 to the fetcher); the page describes the system in general and does not mention this poster.","independence_group":"openai-help-center"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["institutional_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life","privacy"],"unknowns":["When the classification happened. The post gives no date; it describes about six months of heavy use before the post of 11 October 2026 and places the classification after the poster subscribed, so the record uses that six-month window.","Which mechanism classified the account (OpenAI's behaviour-based age prediction or another check); the poster calls it age verification and had not verified.","Which restrictions applied to the account, and whether the poster attempted the verification route OpenAI describes.","Whether OpenAI has reviewed or reversed the classification."],"geography":{"basis":"The post does not say where the poster lives or uses ChatGPT; the mention of a data-protection escalation does not establish a country. No court is involved.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account: an adult says ChatGPT classified their account as a teen account and restricted it, that a data-protection escalation was met with a requirement to be profiled first, and that they cancelled the subscription. OpenAI's Help Center documents the age prediction system that makes such classifications. The account is uncorroborated and attributed to the poster; the handle is not recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-11"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster says that when OpenAI's age checks rolled out, their account was classified as a teen account and put on a restricted account; the post describes asking OpenAI about verification options in advance and does not mention completing a verification. OpenAI's Help Center says ChatGPT may use the age associated with an account, a verified age or age prediction to decide whether the account gets the teen experience, and that its age prediction system reads signals linked to the account and can get this wrong. The post does not name the mechanism. The poster gives their age as 36 and describes no verification, so of the paths OpenAI lists, age prediction is the one that fits the poster's account; this is an inference from OpenAI's page, not a statement in the post. That classification is the system's decision about the poster (made_decision_about), and the restricted account and the cancelled subscription are the consequences the poster reports. The classification rests on the poster's account alone, which does not name the mechanism beyond age verification, so the status is reported.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["made_decision_about"]},"name":"Adult ChatGPT Plus subscriber says the account was classified as a teen and restricted, and that OpenAI said profiling had to come first; first-person post","summary":"In a Reddit post of 11 October 2026, a ChatGPT Plus subscriber who says they are an adult (36, by the post's own account) writes that when OpenAI's age checks rolled out their account was classified as a teen account and put on a restricted account. The poster says they had earlier emailed OpenAI asking for verification options without ID or a photo, received a canned reply about the verification provider Persona, and on escalating to data protection was told they had to be profiled first. The poster says they then cancelled the subscription. OpenAI's Help Center says ChatGPT uses an age prediction system that reads account signals, automatically enables the teen experience when it predicts an account may belong to someone under 18, can get this wrong, and lets adults verify their age to remove it. The account is the poster's own and is not corroborated.","incidentDate":"2026-04-11","incidentEndDate":"2026-10-11","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"range","exposurePattern":"unknown","reportedDate":"2026-10-11","aiSystem":"ChatGPT's age check that placed the account in the ChatGPT for Teens experience, which the poster calls age verification; OpenAI says such placements use an account's associated or verified age or an age prediction system that reads account signals","aiProduct":"ChatGPT","aiCompany":"OpenAI","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["other_material_harm"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"According to the poster's own account, ChatGPT classified their adult account as a teen account and restricted it, OpenAI answered a data-protection escalation by saying the poster had to be profiled first, and the poster cancelled the paid subscription.","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person, the poster, whose own account was classified and restricted. Other users mentioned in general terms are not counted.","victimAgeRange":"adult","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"chatbot","outcomeStatus":"unknown","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPTcomplaints/comments/1x2x24z/done_with_chatgpt_and_what_i_realized_after/","primarySourceLabel":"Reddit r/ChatGPTcomplaints, 11 Oct 2026: first-person post, adult subscriber classified as a teen account","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-11T03:15:35.440619+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-11T03:15:35.440619+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","chatgpt","age-prediction","teen-account","account-restriction","persona"]}]}