What Age Restrictions Do Major AI Platforms Have?

Common Minimum Age Thresholds

Most major general-purpose AI chatbot platforms specify a minimum age requirement within their terms of service, commonly set around 13 years old, which aligns with age thresholds established under existing children’s online privacy laws in various jurisdictions. Below this age, platforms generally state that use of the service is not permitted at all. For users above this minimum but still below the age of legal adulthood in their jurisdiction, some platforms apply additional requirements, such as parental consent, or offer modified experiences with different safety or content settings compared to the adult version of the product.

Specific thresholds and additional requirements vary from platform to platform, and users, parents, and guardians should consult the current terms of service for any specific product to understand its exact policy.

Why the Age of 13 Is a Common Reference Point

The prevalence of a minimum age around 13 across many online platforms, including AI tools, is connected to compliance obligations under laws such as the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which imposes specific data collection and consent requirements on online services that knowingly collect personal information from children under that age. Rather than build out the specific compliance infrastructure required to legally serve younger children, many platforms — across many categories of technology, not just AI — have chosen to set their general terms of service minimum age at or above this legal threshold, treating service for younger children as out of scope for their general product rather than building a dedicated, compliant experience for that age group.

The Gap Between Stated Policy and Enforcement

Despite these stated age requirements, enforcement in practice is typically limited. Most platforms rely on users self-reporting their age at sign-up, without more robust verification methods such as document checks or other identity confirmation. Because self-reported age is easy to enter inaccurately, whether intentionally or not, this creates a meaningful gap between a platform’s stated minimum age policy and the actual ages of everyone using the service. Child safety advocates and researchers have pointed to this gap as a significant practical limitation of current age-restriction approaches, and have called for stronger verification methods across the industry, while acknowledging that implementing robust age verification raises its own set of privacy and practical implementation challenges that platforms and regulators continue to work through.

Bottom Line

Major AI platforms generally state a minimum age requirement in their terms of service, commonly around 13, sometimes with additional parental consent requirements for minors above that threshold. However, because enforcement typically relies on self-reported age rather than robust verification, actual use by children below the stated minimum age can and does occur, a gap that remains an active area of concern for child safety advocates.

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