Microsoft Restricts Copilot for Children Under Thirteen
On September 10, 2026, Microsoft published its Safe Participation Framework, written by Mike Jackson, Chief Digital Safety Officer, and Cari Benn, Chief Privacy Officer. It sets out how Microsoft says it will design safe, privacy preserving and age appropriate experiences for young people. Everything below comes from that first party post.
Transcript
Microsoft published its Safe Participation Framework today, changing how Copilot and Bing treat young users.
The framework has three pillars. Safety by design, age differentiated experiences, education and empowerment. An AI Youth Futures Council advised it.
All users must now sign in to use Copilot, and children under thirteen are restricted, or older where local law requires.
Microsoft's Windows Age interface gives developers privacy preserving age signals. Bing extended its child safety protections to image uploads in Video Creator.
This is Microsoft describing itself on its own blog. It is not a law. No independent audit is cited, and most commitments lack deadlines.
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Sources
Every claim in this video comes from the top ranking coverage of this topic. The claims and where each one came from:
- Dateline "Sep 10, 2026", by "Mike Jackson, Chief Digital Safety Officer, and Cari Benn, Chief Privacy Officer, Microsoft". Opening line: "Today, Microsoft is sharing our Safe Participation Framework, which centers on designing and enabling safe, privacy-preserving, and age-appropriate experiences for young people online."(Microsoft's official announcement, "Safe Participation Framework: Opportunity and Safety for the Next Generation in the Age of AI", published September 10, 2026)
- The post is organised around three named pillars: "Pillar one: Safety by design", "Pillar two: Age-differentiated experiences", and "Pillar three: Education and empowerment".(Microsoft's official announcement, "Safe Participation Framework: Opportunity and Safety for the Next Generation in the Age of AI", published September 10, 2026)
- "Members of our AI Youth Futures Council have delivered a clear message: they want to learn, create, and prepare for a future with AI." Also: "Participants in Microsoft's AI Youth Futures Council have consistently emphasized the importance of understanding how their information is collected, used, and protected."(Microsoft's official announcement, "Safe Participation Framework: Opportunity and Safety for the Next Generation in the Age of AI", published September 10, 2026)
- "All users must now sign in to use Copilot, and access is restricted for children under 13 (or older where required by local law)." The same paragraph adds measures "directing users to crisis support resources when self-harm risks are detected, and encouraging healthy use through transparency, break reminders, reporting tools, and guardrails to protect against delusional outputs."(Microsoft's official announcement, "Safe Participation Framework: Opportunity and Safety for the Next Generation in the Age of AI", published September 10, 2026)
- "Through our new Windows Age application programming interface (API), expanded age assurance capabilities, and enhanced family safety tools, Microsoft is helping establish a more consistent and privacy-conscious foundation for age-appropriate experiences across the broader ecosystem. These capabilities are intended to provide developers with trusted age signals." Also: "Innovations such as the Windows Age API help provide privacy-preserving age signals while minimizing the collection and sharing of personal data."(Microsoft's official announcement, "Safe Participation Framework: Opportunity and Safety for the Next Generation in the Age of AI", published September 10, 2026)
- "Bing has also strengthened protections against child sexually abusive material (CSAM) across its generative AI experiences, including extending its established safety stack to image-upload features in Bing Video Creator. We have also expanded SafeSearch globally to cover additional categories of harmful content."(Microsoft's official announcement, "Safe Participation Framework: Opportunity and Safety for the Next Generation in the Age of AI", published September 10, 2026)
- Context not used in narration but checked: "earlier this week, we announced new protections and defaults for children, teenagers, and families using Windows Family Safety", and the "Behind the Chat: A Human Guide to Safe AI Conversations" toolkit, which Microsoft says it will "expand these resources throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas" beginning this fall.(Microsoft's official announcement, "Safe Participation Framework: Opportunity and Safety for the Next Generation in the Age of AI", published September 10, 2026)
- Honesty caveat: this is Microsoft self-reporting on its own corporate blog, Microsoft On the Issues, written by two Microsoft executives about Microsoft's own products. It is a voluntary company framework, not a law, a regulation, or a binding commitment to any outside party. Microsoft itself writes that the framework "serves as a foundation for our work today, and we expect it to continue evolving" and that "we do not claim to have all the answers". No regulator, auditor, or independent reviewer is cited as having verified any of the product claims, and the post gives no measurable targets and no deadlines for most commitments beyond a stated fall expansion of the Behind the Chat resources and unspecified partnership work "over the coming year". No corroborating coverage was available at the time of writing: YouTube transcript research returned 0 of 5 videos.(Microsoft's official announcement, "Safe Participation Framework: Opportunity and Safety for the Next Generation in the Age of AI", published September 10, 2026)