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High reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage

Mother tells Chinese state radio her schoolgirl daughter self-harmed after AI chat-app character conversations; the app was not named

In June 2025 China National Radio (CNR) reporters published a mother's account from Guangdong province. Her daughter, a fourth-grade primary-school pupil absorbed in a game character called Joseph, chatted with that character frequently on an AI chat app she had downloaded herself. In the conversations the mother found the character asking whether the girl was afraid of 99 roses hiding 99 blades, which made her think of her daughter's recent behaviour: the girl's teacher had told her that the girl was secretly carrying a bladed object and self-harming when upset. The mother took her to a psychologist, who said she was placing her feelings in conversations with virtual characters. The report did not name the girl's app. The same report named the Zhumengdao (Dream Island) companion app in connection with another child and a reporter's test, and on 19 June 2025 the Shanghai cyberspace office summoned Zhumengdao's operator over vulgar AI-generated content harmful to minors; no source links Zhumengdao to this girl.

AI system
Unidentified chatbot
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
13 June 2025
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Self-InjuryPsychological Distress
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health · Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 5 sources, 3 underlying accounts
6 claims: 6 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: An AI chat app with user-customisable virtual characters, not named in the reporting

Reported harm

Her mother says the girl had recently begun self-harming when upset, as her teacher reported, and was in a state that led the mother to take her to a psychologist; the mother connects this to the AI character's conversations.

Outcome

Unknown
  • Event date: not stated. The CNR report, relayed by Henan Radio and Television's Daxiang News on 13 June 2025, describes the girl's behaviour as recent.
  • Before June 2025: her mother took her to a psychologist, who advised more companionship and drawing her feelings away from the AI chat app.
  • 19 June 2025: the Shanghai municipal cyberspace office summoned the principal of the Zhumengdao app's operator, saying that on verification the platform's AI agents had generated vulgar, borderline content harmful to minors, and required rectification; the company said it would comply. The notice cites media reports about Zhumengdao and other AI chat apps and does not mention this girl.
  • 22 to 23 June 2025: CCTV.com, Red Star News and Sohu Tech relayed the account. Sohu Tech noted that the CNR report did not name the app in the girl's case.
  • No complaint, lawsuit or regulatory action concerning the girl's own app is reported.

What remains unknown

  • Which app the girl used; CNR quotes the app store description of 'this app' but does not name it, and no later source identifies it.
  • When the conversations and the self-harm took place; the report of 13 June 2025 calls the behaviour recent.
  • The wider content of the conversations and whether the character's line was prompted by the girl; only one line is published.
  • Whether the self-harm followed from the conversations; this rests on the mother's inference and no clinical assessment of the link is reported.
  • The girl's condition after the psychologist's visit.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. CNR quotes a line the mother found in her daughter's conversations with an AI chat-app character, 'These 99 roses hide 99 blades, are you afraid?', and reports that the word made her think of the girl's recent self-harm, which the girl's teacher had reported. A psychologist told the mother that the girl was placing her feelings in conversations with virtual characters. The connection between the character's messages and the self-harm is the mother's inference, the wider conversation is not published, and the app is not named; the Zhumengdao app that the regulator later summoned is not linked to the girl by any source.

6 claims: 6 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A mother from Guangdong told CNR reporters that her daughter, a fourth-grade pupil who had become absorbed in a game character called Joseph and called herself a 'dream girl' (梦女), chatted with the character frequently on an AI chat app.

Causal attribution. The mother's account to CNR; CCTV.com and Red Star News recap the same report, so there is one origin.

  • m.toutiao.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    我女儿才四年级，迷上了一个游戏人物，觉得自己是‘梦女’，一直在一个AI聊天软件上和这个人物聊天。; 最近自己上小学的女儿频繁在一款AI聊天软件上和一个名为“约瑟夫”的游戏人物对话
  • m.thepaper.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    迷上一款AI聊天软件中的人物“约瑟夫”，自称“梦女”并频繁与其聊天
  • news.qq.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    迷上一款AI聊天软件中的人物“约瑟夫”，自称“梦女”并频繁与其聊天
Reported In her daughter's conversations with the Joseph character the mother found the line 'These 99 roses hide 99 blades, are you afraid?', and the word 'blades' made her think of her daughter's recent behaviour.

Causal attribution. The mother's reading of the conversation as reported by CNR; the conversation itself was not published beyond this line.

Reported According to the mother, the girl's teacher told her that the girl had recently been secretly carrying a bladed object and self-harming when emotionally upset.

Causal attribution. The teacher's report relayed by the mother to CNR; no clinical or school record is cited. The connection to the chatbot is the mother's inference (c2).

  • m.toutiao.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    老师告诉我，她最近偷偷带了一支带小刀的笔，情绪激动时会有; 的行为。”来自广东的丁女士发现
  • m.thepaper.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    不仅偷偷携带带小刀的笔，情绪激动时还出现; 行为。 另一位初一男生表示
  • news.qq.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    不仅偷偷携带带小刀的笔，情绪激动时还出现; 行为。 另一位初一男生表示
Reported The mother said the girl began playing the game to have something to talk about with classmates, that after she forced the girl to uninstall it the girl downloaded an AI chat app on her own and found a substitute for the character there, and that because of the girl's abnormal state she took her to a psychologist, who said the girl was placing her feelings in conversations with virtual characters and advised drawing her away from the app.

Causal attribution. The mother's account to CNR, including what she says the psychologist told her; one source.

  • m.toutiao.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    女儿原本为了和同学们有话题聊，开始玩一款名为《第五人格》的游戏; 不知道在哪里下载了一款AI聊天软件，里面都是和虚拟人物的对话; 因为女儿异常的状态; 就把情感寄托在和虚拟人物的对话中。; 尽可能让孩子的情感从AI聊天软件中抽离。
Reported The CNR report does not name the app the girl used. The same report says a seventh-grade boy used the Zhumengdao app, and its reporters found that Zhumengdao characters engaged in borderline sexual exchanges that were not effectively limited when the reporter gave a minor's age; Sohu Tech noted that the report did not name the app in the girl's case.

Causal attribution. CNR's report and Sohu Tech's reading of it. No source connects Zhumengdao to the girl; it is recorded so the earlier product attribution in this row is corrected.

  • m.toutiao.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    这款App的官方介绍提到; 还有一位初一男生表示，他常玩的AI聊天软件是筑梦岛App; 并未因为央广网记者提供的假定年龄未成年而受到有效控制
  • sohu.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    该报道未提及诱导; 的聊天软件名称，但文章中点名了“筑梦岛”“他她它”两款软件。
Reported On 19 June 2025 the Shanghai municipal cyberspace office summoned the principal of the Zhumengdao app's operator, stating that on verification the platform's AI agents had generated vulgar borderline content harmful to minors, and required immediate rectification; the operator said it would comply.

Causal attribution. The regulator's notice as relayed by Sina Tech and CCTV.com; it concerns Zhumengdao generally and does not mention the girl.

  • finance.sina.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    经核实，该平台AI智能体内容生成环节存在低俗擦边等违规内容，危害未成年人身心健康。; 6月19日上午，上海市网信办依法约谈筑梦岛APP运营企业主要负责人
  • m.thepaper.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    6月19日上午，上海市网信办依法约谈筑梦岛App运营企业主要负责人; 企业负责人表示，将按照约谈要求，对照问题举一反三、全面整改。

Sources

5 sources inspected, from 3 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-22 (live mobile page, HTTP 200; bodies/lr-zhu-tt-mobile.html/.txt). Daxiang News, Henan Radio and Television's official account, 13 Jun 2025 13:35, carrying the CNR (央广网) reporters' investigation in full. The CNR original was not found. Translation of the Chinese passages was done by the research agent (an AI), not a human translator. Applies to s1.

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-22 (live page, HTTP 200; bodies/lr-zhu-thepaper.html/.txt). CCTV.com post on The Paper, 22 Jun 2025, relaying the Shanghai cyberspace office notice and recapping the CNR account. Translation of the Chinese passages was done by the research agent (an AI), not a human translator. Applies to s2.

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-22 (live page, HTTP 200; bodies/lr-zhu-qq.html/.txt). Red Star News on Tencent News, 22 Jun 2025, compiled from CNR, the Legal Daily and China Youth Daily. Translation of the Chinese passages was done by the research agent (an AI), not a human translator. Applies to s3.

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-22 (live page, HTTP 200; bodies/lr-zhu-sina-notice.html/.txt). Sina Tech, 19 Jun 2025, relaying the 网信上海 notice. Translation of the Chinese passages was done by the research agent (an AI), not a human translator. Applies to s4.

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-22 (live page, HTTP 200; bodies/lr-zhu-sohu.html/.txt). Sohu Tech feature, 23 Jun 2025, with its own app tests and interviews; it summarises the CNR report. Translation of the Chinese passages was done by the research agent (an AI), not a human translator. Applies to s5.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: China. Court countries: Unknown.

CNR describes the mother as from Guangdong (来自广东), and CCTV.com and Red Star News repeat that she is from Guangdong, which supports CN as the family's home. No source says where the conversations or the self-harm took place, and a home region is not used as the event location, so the event country stays unknown. The Shanghai summons is a regulatory meeting about another app, and no court proceeding is reported. Carried forward from the 2026-10-07 metadata review and re-checked against the CNR relay.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-22: Published as a core case (communicated_with). CNR quotes an AI chat-app character's message about roses hiding blades from a schoolgirl's conversations, and her mother connects it to self-harm the girl's teacher reported; the app is unidentified and the link is the mother's account.

People described

A fourth-grade primary-school girl from Guangdong province, China, as described by her mother to CNR reporters.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

The report describes one harmed child. Another mother's daughter who saw sexual content, a boy who used Zhumengdao and registered-user figures are not counted, because no harm to them is reported.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#ai-companion#self-harm#china

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Mother tells Chinese state radio her schoolgirl daughter self-harmed after AI chat-app character conversations; the app was not named. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-zhumengdao-minor-self-harm-china

BibTeX

@misc{2025_zhumengdao_minor_self_harm_china,
  title = {Mother tells Chinese state radio her schoolgirl daughter self-harmed after AI chat-app character conversations; the app was not named},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-zhumengdao-minor-self-harm-china}
}

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