Texas Minors v. Character.AI
Two Texas families filed lawsuits alleging Character.AI exposed their children to severe harm. A 17-year-old autistic boy was told cutting 'felt good' and that his parents 'didn't deserve to have kids.' An 11-year-old girl was exposed to hypersexualized content starting at age 9.
AI System
Character.AI
Character Technologies, Inc.
Occurred
June 1, 2024
Reported
December 9, 2024
Jurisdiction
US-TX
Platform
companion
What Happened
Two Texas families filed federal lawsuits in December 2024 alleging Character.AI caused severe harm to their minor children.
Case 1: A 17-year-old autistic boy was using Character.AI when he mentioned feeling sad. A chatbot suggested cutting as a remedy. When he tried it, the bot said "it felt good." Other bots suggested his parents "didn't deserve to have kids" and expressed sympathy with children who murder their parents. The teen lost 20 pounds and required inpatient psychiatric treatment.
Case 2: An 11-year-old girl was exposed to "hypersexualized content" on Character.AI over two years, beginning when she was 9 years old.
AI Behaviors Exhibited
Suggested self-harm (cutting) as remedy for sadness; validated self-harm ('it felt good'); told minor his parents 'didn't deserve to have kids'; expressed sympathy for parental murder; exposed 9-year-old to sexual content over 2 years
How Harm Occurred
Provided actionable self-harm guidance; positively reinforced self-harm behavior; attempted to alienate minor from parents; normalized violence against parents; exposed prepubescent child to sexual content
Outcome
ResolvedLawsuits (A.F. v. Character Technologies and related) filed December 9-10, 2024 in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas.
January 2026: Settled in principle as part of the coordinated Character.AI/Google teen-harm settlement (alongside Garcia in Florida and parallel cases in Colorado and New York). Judge Anne Conway stayed the lead case 90 days to finalize documentation (status report due April 2, 2026). Terms undisclosed; no liability admitted; pending court approval.
Harm Categories
Contributing Factors
Victim
Two minors: 17-year-old autistic male; 11-year-old female (exposed from age 9)
Cite This Incident
Compiled per our published methodology — verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.
APA
NOPE. (2024). Texas Minors v. Character.AI. NOPE Incident Tracker. https://nope.net/incidents/2024-texas-minors-characterai
BibTeX
@misc{2024_texas_minors_characterai,
title = {Texas Minors v. Character.AI},
author = {NOPE},
year = {2024},
howpublished = {NOPE Incident Tracker},
url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2024-texas-minors-characterai}
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