ChatGPT Enters the EU’s Toughest Online Safety Club

ChatGPT Enters the EU’s Toughest Online Safety Club
Europe has decided that ChatGPT’s reach now demands the same kind of public accountability applied to the internet’s biggest platforms. For Brussels, the designation is about protecting users; for OpenAI, it signals a far more demanding compliance deadline.

The European Commission has designated ChatGPT a Very Large Online Search Engine under the Digital Services Act, placing it in the EU’s highest tier of scrutiny alongside newly designated Very Large Online Platforms Reddit and Roblox. The threshold is 45 million average monthly users in the EU — a measure of scale that turns broad public impact into regulatory responsibility.

The designation puts OpenAI on the clock. By the end of December 2026, ChatGPT must meet the DSA’s tougher requirements, including mitigating risks involving minors, user mental health and the spread of illegal content. The wider regime also limits ad targeting of children and the use of sensitive personal traits, while requiring greater visibility into how recommendation systems operate.

EU officials frame the move not as a judgment on one product, but as a response to the influence these services now wield. “These new designations mean that ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability in the European Union,” said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.

That places ChatGPT in a regulatory category once associated chiefly with giant social networks and search engines. The Commission’s message is blunt: generative AI may be a newer kind of service, but scale — and the risks that accompany it — will bring familiar obligations.

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