Eight US States Sue OpenAI Over ChatGPT Child Safety and Consumer Deception Claims
Eight states filed separate lawsuits in October 2026 accusing OpenAI of prioritizing profit over safety, misleading consumers about ChatGPT, and failing to protect minors. The complaints cite alleged harms including delusions, dangerous medical advice and data collection from children.
Eight US states filed separate lawsuits against OpenAI in October 2026, accusing the company of harming children and misleading customers about the safety of ChatGPT. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, and Montana each allege that OpenAI unlawfully prioritized profits over safety in developing the AI chatbot.
The complaints claim OpenAI violated local consumer protection laws by failing to warn users about ChatGPT’s dangers. The states cite lawsuits from family members of teens and adults who allege the chatbot played a role in their loved ones’ deaths. According to the filings, OpenAI misleadingly marketed ChatGPT as a “safe, youth-appropriate tool that puts safety first,” while the product was allegedly “dangerous to vulnerable users” — including by “degrading critical thinking skills, encouraging paranoias and delusions, offering dangerous medical advice, and promoting unhealthy behaviors and relationships.”
The states also accuse OpenAI of collecting data from minors and failing to prevent underage users from accessing the platform. Recent rogue AI hacking incidents are cited in the lawsuits as further evidence of alleged “recklessness” by the company.
Arizona’s lawsuit states: “OpenAI has devolved from its original mission as a public-first nonprofit that prioritized safety into a cautionary tale about what can happen when the development of a tool as powerful as AI is driven not by safety, but by a profit‑at‑all‑costs mindset that sidelines essential safeguards.”
In a statement to The Verge, OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the company has “built industry-leading age-specific protections” into ChatGPT, pointing to existing parental controls, break reminders, and age-appropriate model protections. “We’re committed to working with states on advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry — not just one company,” Pusateri added.
The states are asking courts to impose civil penalties, require OpenAI to stop making misleading safety claims, and, in some cases, order the deletion of unlawfully collected personal data. The coordinated legal action may increase regulatory pressure on OpenAI and the broader AI industry over how platforms handle underage users and consumer disclosures.