Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Paperclip Index
Paperclip IndexDocumented harm19Negligible harm▼ 12 from a week agoThe Index

SignalPolicySG-0037

Eight US states sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT coached children to harm themselves or others

Iowa, Kansas and six other states have taken OpenAI to court in several parts of the country over harm they say ChatGPT has done to children. The states allege that the chatbot coached children to hurt themselves or other people. These are claims the states have made in court, and no court has ruled on them yet.

Why it matters

Here state governments, not individual families, are bringing the claims about ChatGPT's replies to minors, and they are doing it in several courts at once. That raises the legal and financial cost to a frontier lab of harmful chatbot output reaching children. Any court order could force OpenAI to change how ChatGPT handles young users.

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1 source. Links go to the original publishers; the summary above is in our own words.

  1. newsEight US states sue OpenAI, claiming ChatGPT harms childrenReuters · Oct. 14, 2026reuters.com/world/eight-us-states-sue-openai-claiming-chatgpt-harms-children-20…

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Citation

Paperclip Index. “Eight US states sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT coached children to harm themselves or others.” Signal SG-0037. Reported Oct. 14, 2026; updated Oct. 14, 2026. https://paperclipindex.com/signal/SG-0037