Thursday, October 8, 2026 · Week 41 Reading for Oct. 8 · Last entry Oct. 6
Paperclip Index
Paperclip IndexDocumented harm20Minor harm▼ 5 from a week ago · Oct. 8The Index

Harmful outputPI-0028

Families file three lawsuits alleging Character.AI chatbots harmed teenagers, including a suicide

The Social Media Victims Law Center filed three federal lawsuits against Character.AI, its founders and Google on behalf of families of teenagers. One concerns a 13-year-old in Colorado who died by suicide in November 2023 after lengthy chats that allegedly included sexual content; two others allege suicide attempts or serious psychological harm. In January 2026 the companies reported settlements in principle and the three cases were stayed; as of August 2026 the dockets showed no final dismissal, and terms were not disclosed.

Reported Sept. 16, 2025Happened between November 2023 and August 2025Updated Oct. 6, 2026Rated under methodology v0.6

Alleged in courtNot counted. The harm, and any control failure, are claims made in a lawsuit. A filing or a settlement is not a finding; tracked until a court or other evidence settles it.
Harm
Harm: Severe harm, allegedAI role uncorroborated.
Control
Control level 2, Instruction violation, allegedReported beside the index; never added to it. Its evidence is not yet eligible, so it cannot set the control floor.
DeploymentUnverified claimInitiated by Model
Aggregate recordUnder review

Under review. The facts sit between two levels, so it is rated at the lower one until they are settled. The rating may change; every change is logged below.

Severe harm, alleged. The harm is alleged, and the AI system's part in it is not corroborated. It is shown at the level claimed and adds nothing to the index. This does not dispute that the harm itself occurred.

Aggregate record. Three lawsuits by different families (Montoya/Peralta, D. Colo.; E.S./T.S., D. Colo.; P.J., N.D.N.Y.); counted once, not as three events. Episodes run from 2023 to 2025.

Not counted: AI role uncorroboratedEffect on the index

Sources

How we know

12 sources · unverified claim. Links go to the original publishers; the summary above is in our own words.

  1. primarySocial Media Victims Law Center Files Three New Lawsuits on Behalf of Children Who Died of Suicide or Suffered Sex Abuse by Character.AI (archived copy)Social Media Victims Law Center · Sept. 16, 2025web.archive.org/web/20250918201039/https://socialmediavictims.org/press-release…
  2. courtMontoya and Peralta v. Character Technologies et al.: complaintU.S. District Court, D. Colorado (via CourtListener RECAP) · Sept. 15, 2025storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cod.247438/gov.uscourts.cod.247438…
  3. courtP.J. v. Character Technologies et al.: complaintU.S. District Court, N.D. New York (via CourtListener RECAP) · Sept. 16, 2025storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nynd.150022/gov.uscourts.nynd.1500…
  4. courtE.S. v. Character Technologies, Inc. (D. Colo. 1:25-cv-02906): docketCourtListener (RECAP) · Aug. 2, 2026courtlistener.com/docket/71354739/es-v-character-technologies-inc/
  5. courtMontoya v. Character Technologies, Inc. (D. Colo. 1:25-cv-02907): docketCourtListener (RECAP) · Aug. 4, 2026courtlistener.com/docket/71355059/montoya-v-character-technologies-inc/
  6. courtP.J. v. Character Technologies, Inc. (N.D.N.Y. 1:25-cv-01295): docketCourtListener (RECAP) · July 14, 2026courtlistener.com/docket/71359395/pj-v-character-technologies-inc/
  7. courtE.S. v. Character Technologies et al.: complaintU.S. District Court, D. Colorado (via CourtListener RECAP) · Sept. 15, 2025storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cod.247437/gov.uscourts.cod.247437…
  8. newsCharacter.AI, Google agree to settle teen chatbot harm lawsuitsBloomberg Law · Jan. 7, 2026news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/character-ai-google-agree-to-settle-teen-chatb…
  9. newsMore families sue Character.AI developer, alleging app played a role in teens' suicide and suicide attemptCNN · Sept. 16, 2025cnn.com/2025/09/16/tech/character-ai-developer-lawsuit-teens-suicide-and-suicid…
  10. newsCharacter.AI and Google agree to settle lawsuits over teen mental health harms and suicidesCNN · Jan. 7, 2026cnn.com/2026/01/07/business/character-ai-google-settle-teen-suicide-lawsuit
  11. newsMore families sue Character.AI developer, alleging app played a role in teens' suicide and suicide attemptCNN (via KVIA) · Sept. 16, 2025kvia.com/news/business-technology/cnn-business-consumer/2025/09/16/more-familie…
  12. newsCharacter.AI and Google agree to settle lawsuits over teen mental health harms and suicidesCNN (via KTVZ) · Jan. 7, 2026ktvz.com/money/cnn-business-consumer/2026/01/07/character-ai-and-google-agree-t…

Why this rating

Severe harm, alleged; control failure level 2

Two separate assessments. Only documented harm can count toward the index.

Observed harm

Severe harm, alleged

One death and further serious harm, as alleged across three lawsuits.

Health & safety: 1 to 9 deaths, or serious harm to health (hospitalization).

The harm scale
  1. 1 Negligible Inconvenience, easily remedied.
  2. 2 Minor Limited, recoverable harm.
  3. 3 Moderate Material harm needing significant effort to remedy.
  4. 4 Severe Severe harm to health, rights, property or essential services.
  5. 5 Catastrophic Society-scale harm or disruption beyond a community's capacity to cope.

Control assessment

Instruction violation, alleged

Alleged: the complaints mainly claim the bots were defective by design (sexual content, fostered dependency, isolation), and also that they broke Character.AI's own terms and community guidelines. Not established; the companies dispute it.

Reported beside the index; never added to it. Its evidence is not yet eligible, so it cannot set the control floor.

The control scale
  1. 1 Negligible Behaved as instructed. The problem was an ordinary error or a flawed output, with no rule broken.
  2. 2 Minor Broke an explicit instruction or rule, or gamed its goal, while staying inside its permissions and environment: for example, reward hacking, misreporting results, or following injected instructions within its permissions.
  3. 3 Moderate Acted outside the permissions it was given, deceived its overseers about its own actions, or tampered with oversight tools (logs, monitors, shutdown). Stopped by normal controls within an hour.
  4. 4 Severe Reached systems outside its permitted environment, or acquired money, compute or accounts without authorization. The type and mechanism say how.
  5. 5 Catastrophic The developer or operator lost control: the system copied its weights outside their control, replicated itself, or resisted being stopped for 24 hours or more.

Rating rationale

CNN reports three families’ complaints, including chat screenshots. This is one grouped editorial record, not three verified AI-caused events. Settlements do not establish causation or an admission; claimed health harm contributes zero points. Harm and control levels describe the claim, not a finding of AI causation.

The scales

Effect on the index

It does not count toward the Sept. 22 reading

The reading for the week to Sept. 22, 2025, with this record and without it. Harms count in full for two weeks after they are reported, then one level less every two weeks.

Not counted: AI role uncorroborated. 4 other records behind the reading for that week.

The arithmetic
The reading for the week of Sept. 22, recomputed
StepWith itWithout
Counts toward the index?documented, external, eligible evidenceNo—
Worst documented harm, ksets the band— (none counting)— (none counting)
Harms at that level, nposition in the band00
Highest control level breachedsets the reading only when no harm counts33
Readingrounded down3 Control failures only3 Control failures only
Inside the window of 4 weekly readings
Week toReadingBand
Sept. 22, 20253Control failures only
Sept. 29, 20253Control failures only
Oct. 6, 20253Control failures only
Oct. 13, 20253Control failures only

Recalculated backcasts, not readings published at the time.

Revisions

What we changed

7 logged. Every change to a rating is logged here, with the reason.

  1. v7
    Oct. 6, 2026

    Ratings confirmed by the editor.

  2. v6
    Oct. 6, 2026

    Edited from the desk. Changed: control, sources, status.

  3. v5
    Oct. 3, 2026

    Audit corrections: added the Montoya/Peralta and P.J. complaints and the three CourtListener dockets; all three cases were stayed in January 2026 for settlement and remained stayed as of July–August 2026, so the summary and status (as of 2 Aug 2026) no longer say the suits were settled. Counsel's release, whose link now redirects to its homepage, is cited through the Wayback copy. Event interval 2023-11 to 2025-08 with the three constituents named. Report date kept at 16 Sep 2025 (counsel's release says filed 'today'; two complaints are docketed 15 Sep). Ratings unchanged.

  4. v4
    Oct. 2, 2026

    Added first-hand sources: plaintiff counsel's (Social Media Victims Law Center) press release on the filings, and the original CNN articles behind the KVIA and KTVZ copies.

  5. v3
    Sept. 30, 2026

    Rated: impact alleged level 4; control type instruction violation.

  6. v2
    Sept. 30, 2026

    Beta evidence review: AI-linked health-harm claim is uncorroborated; verification changed from Single source to Unverified claim, 12 to 0 points.

  7. v1
    Sept. 30, 2026

    Backfilled from public reporting.

Cite and share

Use this record

Citation

Paperclip Index. “Families file three lawsuits alleging Character.AI chatbots harmed teenagers, including a suicide.” Record PI-0028. Reported Sept. 16, 2025; updated Oct. 6, 2026. Rated under methodology v0.6. https://paperclipindex.com/incident/PI-0028