On February 11th, Boulder Valley School District Information Technology announced a district-wide ban on the use of ChatGPT. The move follows what BVSD IT describes as “big changes” to the platform. In a district-wide email, BVSD IT describes how these new changes may allow minors to access adult content and themes through the AI service.
ChatGPT has been used as a learning aid as well as a cheating tool by many students; however, the ban is mainly focused on the safety of students using the AI platform. In recent months, OpenAI – the parent company of ChatGPT – has rolled out many new capabilities that allow for adult themes and content.
In a press release on January 20th, OpenAI announced new features that would allow certain age-verified users to engage in sexually explicit conversations and show gory content with ChatGPT. The press release details how the age-verification process would use technology that predicts the user’s age using artificial intelligence.
This form of AI facial recognition as a type of age verification has been used by many parties, including the Australian Government for their child social media ban. The Australian Government researched the effectiveness of this facial recognition technology and found it to be a generally ineffective way to verify age.
The technology tested by the Australian Government is very similar to the one now employed by ChatGPT. This indicates that ChatGPT may have similar problems with their age verification, which was a major factor for the BVSD AI taskforce’s recommendation for a total ban of the ChatGPT platform.
Currently, the only ChatGPT alternative offered to BVSD students and faculty is the MagicSchool AI platform that was bought by the district in early 2024. According to BVSD, as of March 2025, the MagicSchool platform has been used by over 2,500 teachers; however, sustained use by faculty has been low.
In light of the current ban on ChatGPT, students and faculty may want to use similar alternatives. Popular chatbot alternatives such as Claude, Perplexity, or Gemini may be sufficient replacements for students. As of now, student Google accounts are blocked from logging into these tools, and students will be required to sign in with personal emails if they want to use these AI services.
On March 24th the BVSD Board convened to discuss future AI policy. The Board will continue to ban any consumer chatbots that violate BVSD policy such as ChatGPT; however, BVSD Board Vice President Alex Medler emphasized during the meeting that any concrete AI policy is at least 2 years away.
The BVSD AI Interest Group is looking into allowing students to access Gemini under BVSD accounts. The group will convene periodically for the next few months to test and debate the Gemini Education version; however, it is unclear whether the Board will ultimately approve Gemini for students.
