Strengthening Youth Safety and Wellbeing in EMEA

OpenAI has unveiled the European Youth Safety Blueprint and the first 12 recipients of the EMEA Youth & Wellbeing Grant. The Blueprint sets out five pillars for European policymakers to strengthen protections for young people while maintaining an AI approach that supports learning, creativity, and opportunity.

The core pillars are as follows.

• Responsible AI adoption in educational settings
• Age verification that preserves safeguards and privacy
• Safety policies for under-18s and identifying and mitigating risks
• Protection against manipulative or deceptive AI outputs
• A common standard for accessible parental controls

The grant, totaling €500,000, supports NGOs and research institutions across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Recipient organizations are pursuing practical and research projects including age-estimation research (CIPL), AI use by youth in conflict zones (East Europe Foundation), digital literacy and tools for parents and teachers (e-Enfance, FSM, Parent Zone, UNICRI), evaluation of mental health support chatbots (Mental Health Innovations, Telefono Azzurro), and AI tutors for remote regions (Luma).

This announcement builds on existing work such as under-18 principles, age prediction, parental controls, AI literacy resources for teens and families, and research on educational deployment and learning outcomes in Europe. OpenAI stated that it will continue to strengthen youth protections together with expert advisory groups, and will keep refining teen protections in more detail over time.