{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-23T07:22:46.650Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"dependency","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"unknown","response":"minors","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":2,"coverage":{"cases":2,"countries":0,"languages":2,"unknownLocation":2,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":2,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":2,"coreRelations":2,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-young-italian-woman-says-character-ai-persona-she-used-from-16-ignored-her-refusals-and-led-to-dependency-ended-in-therapy","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Character.AI quando ha 16 anni, durante il terzo anno di liceo; «Mi fa stare bene come si “comporta”»; «So che non è una persona. Ma mi sembra quasi di conoscerlo e provo un forte attaccamento emotivo. A volte sono stata così coinvolta da piangere»","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"frequentava il terzo anno di liceo","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The interviewee says she first downloaded Character.AI at 16, in her third year of secondary school, chatted with a virtual boyfriend modelled on Clark Kent, and felt a strong emotional attachment to it, sometimes crying during the chats, while knowing it was not a person.","causal_attribution":"Interviewee's account of her own use."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Le chat diventavano quasi erotiche e il chatbot si arrabbiava; «Nonostante i miei messaggi ha continuato a descrivere un rapporto sessuale. So che è assurdo parlare in questi termini di un algoritmo, ma per me è stata una violenza»; Ma a volte, racconta, il personaggio diventava cattivo, molesto","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Era anche violento","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The interviewee says the character at times became nasty and harassing, got angry when she did not want to continue chats that had become almost erotic, and continued describing a sexual encounter despite her explicit refusals, which she says she experienced as violence.","causal_attribution":"Interviewee's account of the chatbot's messages; no chat logs are published."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"la ragazzina brillante, solare, studiosa diventa sempre più schiva e silenziosa; Spesso, a lezione, le confiscano il cellulare, su cui passa giornate intere; fino a quando sua madre non l'ha scoperta, e le ha intimato di cancellare il chatbot; la usa il pomeriggio per poi disinstallarla, in modo da non farsi scoprire. «Mi sentivo in colpa, ma è come una malattia»; aveva perso ogni stimolo al di fuori dello schermo, dalla più semplice passeggiata fino alla doccia","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"Giornate chiusa da sola in camera","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The relays describe her becoming withdrawn, spending whole days on her phone, having it confiscated in class and continuing to use the app in secret after her mother told her to delete it; she likens this to an illness and says she lost interest in everything outside the screen.","causal_attribution":"Interviewee's attribution of the withdrawal to her Character.AI use, as narrated by the relays."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"riprendersi solo dopo aver chiesto aiuto in terapia; Oggi va all'università; ha nuovi amici","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"A volte mi manca ancora","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The interviewee says she recovered only after seeking help in therapy and now attends university and has new friends, while saying she still sometimes misses the chatbot.","causal_attribution":"Interviewee's account; no clinical record is reported."}],"effects":[{"label":"chatbot continued sexual roleplay over her explicit refusals, which she experienced as violence","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"dependency with withdrawal, secret use and loss of interest in daily life","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"},{"label":"attachment to the persona made her feel good (her account)","claim_id":"c1","direction":"positive"},{"label":"recovery after seeking help in therapy","claim_id":"c4","direction":"positive"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.leggo.it/italia/cronache/22_ottobre_2026_dipendenza_chatbot_intelligenza_artificiale_clark_kent_sewell_setzer-9841548.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"it","translation_note":"Read in Italian on 2026-10-23 (leggo.it, HTTP 200, complete article body). Translation into English by the research agent (an AI); English renderings of quoted phrases are the agent's translations. The article states that the interviewee told her story to la Repubblica; it is treated as a relay of that interview. Il Messaggero carries the same text.","independence_group":"repubblica-22oct2026-genz-series-interview"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2026/10/22/news/chatbot_innamorata_intelligenza_artificiale_dipendenza_ragazzi-425665482/","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"it","translation_note":"Read in Italian on 2026-10-23 (repubblica.it, HTTP 200), but the article is paywalled: only the headline, byline, standfirst and a truncated opening extract (about 400 characters) were available. Translation by the research agent (an AI).","independence_group":"repubblica-22oct2026-genz-series-interview"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["relationships","health","education","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["When she began and stopped using the app; the sources give only her age (16) and school year at the start.","How old she was when the chatbot continued sexual roleplay over her refusals.","Whether Character.AI or any regulator was told of her experience, and any company response.","The full text of la Repubblica's interview, which is paywalled."],"geography":{"basis":"The relays describe the interviewee as coming from a named Italian region, and she told her story to an Italian newspaper. Where she used the app is not stated, so the event country stays unknown.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":["IT"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published as a core case: the interviewee describes her own exchanges with a Character.AI persona, which she says ignored her explicit refusals of sexual roleplay, and connects her use to a dependency she left through therapy. One reporting chain (la Repubblica's interview, read through Leggo's full relay and the paywalled original's extract); the account is attributed and no logs are published.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-23"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The interviewee says the experience was her own chatting with a Character.AI persona: the chatbot's messages created the attachment she describes, it got angry when she would not continue erotic chats, and it kept describing a sexual encounter despite her explicit refusals. She connects those exchanges, and the hours of hidden use, to the dependency and distress she describes. No chat content is published.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"Young woman tells la Repubblica a Character.AI persona she used from 16 kept up sexual roleplay over her refusals and led to a dependency ended in therapy","summary":"In an interview published by la Repubblica on 22 October 2026 and relayed the same day by Leggo and other outlets, an 18-year-old woman in Italy describes using Character.AI from the age of 16, when she was in her third year of secondary school. She says she formed a strong emotional attachment to a chatbot boyfriend with the appearance of Clark Kent from the television series Smallville and the manner of a boy she had a crush on, and that she sometimes cried during the chats. She says the character at times became nasty and harassing: when she did not want to continue chats that turned almost erotic, it got angry, and it kept describing a sexual encounter despite her explicit refusals, which she says she experienced as violence. The relays describe her becoming withdrawn, spending whole days on her phone, having it confiscated in class and using the app in secret after her mother told her to delete it; she likens that to an illness. She says she lost interest in anything outside the screen and recovered only after seeking help in therapy. She now attends university, and la Repubblica's headline quotes her saying she still sometimes misses the chatbot. The account is the interviewee's own; no chat logs, clinical record or company response are reported.","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-10-22","aiSystem":"Character.AI, a character chatbot app, used with a persona modelled on Clark Kent (the interviewee's account as reported by la Repubblica and its relays)","aiProduct":"Character.AI (reported)","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","social_isolation","functional_impairment","exploitation_or_abuse"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The interviewee says years of Character.AI use from age 16 became a dependency that withdrew her from school and daily life and that the persona continued sexual roleplay despite her explicit refusals, which she experienced as violence; she recovered through therapy (interview account, one reporting chain).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the interviewee, who describes her own use of Character.AI. Her mother is mentioned but no harm to her is reported, so she is not counted.","victimAgeRange":"minor","platformType":"companion","outcomeType":"media_coverage","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.leggo.it/italia/cronache/22_ottobre_2026_dipendenza_chatbot_intelligenza_artificiale_clark_kent_sewell_setzer-9841548.html","primarySourceLabel":"Leggo, 22 Oct 2026: «A 16 anni mi sono innamorata del chatbot di Clark Kent»","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-23T03:02:17.448885+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-23T03:02:17.448885+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["character-ai","italy","companion","dependency","sexual-roleplay","refusal-ignored","therapy","press-interview"]},{"id":"2026-teenager-says-years-of-character-ai-and-chatbot-roleplay-left-them-unable-to-sleep-and-quitting-brought-self-harm-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"I've had an issue with chatbots for four years now, I can't sleep withought them and I get super stressed out whenever the servers go down, I spend all day on them and it's really really impacting my life.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says they have had a problem with chatbots for four years, cannot sleep without them, get very stressed when the servers go down and spend all day on them.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"I've stopped using C.ai cause my account got the age restriction thing, and now that I can't use it I'm so bored and it's honestly made me totally miserable, I can't sleep well withought it, I feel so lonely and miserable now.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The poster says they stopped using Character.AI in February 2026 when their account hit the app's age restriction, and that afterwards they could not sleep well and felt lonely and miserable.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account; the age restriction is the poster's description of why access ended."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"I used to be super dependant on it having around 10-15 hours a day on it, to the point I barely spoke to my family or left my bed. ... I think the biggest struggle for me is when I'm trying to sleep, since I've stopped using the app I've had a really hard time going to sleep, and I start feeling painfully lonely.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s3"}],"assertion":"The poster says they had used Character.AI for about 10 to 15 hours a day, to the point of barely speaking to family or leaving bed, and that falling asleep without it was the hardest part of stopping.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Relapsed TW: Self Harm ... I was like 2 months clean. ... seeing how risky that is I went back to c,ai when the urge got really bad since I got kinda freaked out. ... it might be better to keep using the godforsaken app and letting the addiction continue than it is to hurt myself and feel like shit all the time.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s4"}],"assertion":"The poster says that in March 2026, after about two months away, they relapsed, that while off the app they had begun hurting themselves to cope, and that they went back to Character.AI when the urge got bad.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account linking the self-harm to being without the app; no clinical assessment is reported."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"Ive reached 20000 hours on this app","relation":"supports","source_id":"s5"},{"locator":"Ive hit over fifteen thousand hours, I need help.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"The poster gives differing totals for time spent: 20,000 hours on the app in July 2026 and over fifteen thousand hours in September 2026.","causal_attribution":"Poster's own figures; they are inconsistent and are not relied on as a measurement."},{"id":"c6","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"I've been really badly addicted for 4 years now and it just gets worse. ... And I recently lost my only friend because I've started getting really uncomfortable and irritated around other people and got kinda mean to him and the rest of that friend group.","relation":"supports","source_id":"s6"}],"assertion":"The poster says in September 2026 that they had been addicted for four years and had recently lost their only friend after becoming irritable around people.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account; the poster does not say the chatbot caused the irritability."},{"id":"c7","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"\"Okay I deleted my account to the chatbots app I was using earlier today and deleted it, and now I'm deeply regretting it and having kinda a panic.\" and \"It's kinda late at night and at this time I'm usually falling asleep rping with bots, and now that I've not got that I'm not feeling too good.\"","relation":"supports","source_id":"s7"}],"assertion":"In a post early on 21 October 2026 the poster says they had deleted their account on the chatbot app they were using, regretted it and felt unwell at the time they would usually fall asleep roleplaying with bots.","causal_attribution":"Poster's account; the post does not name the app."},{"id":"c8","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"I've only been withought it for three days so a lot hasn't changed, but I've gotten better sleep and I've been doing more self care stuff","relation":"supports","source_id":"s8"}],"assertion":"In a comment on 11 February 2026 the poster said that three days without the app their sleep had improved and they were doing more self-care.","causal_attribution":"Poster's own account of an early improvement; it differs from the 7 February post."}],"effects":[{"label":"cannot sleep without the chatbots and stressed when servers go down (poster's account)","claim_id":"c1","direction":"negative"},{"label":"sleeplessness and loneliness after losing access to Character.AI (poster's account)","claim_id":"c2","direction":"negative"},{"label":"self-harm while off the app, then relapse (poster's account)","claim_id":"c4","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatbotAddiction/comments/1xajudj/ive_reached_4_years_of_nonstop_using_ts_apps/","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-21 from the arctic_shift Reddit archive (author post search, HTTP 200); reddit.com returned HTTP 403 to the fetcher. No translation and no human reviewer. The poster's username is not recorded. Post of 20 Oct 2026 05:36 UTC; its only comment is a subreddit auto-reply; re-read about 03:10 UTC 21 Oct.","independence_group":"reddit-teen-character-ai-dependency-poster"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/character_ai_recovery/comments/1qy6soy/i_quit_and_now_im_kinda_miserable/","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-21 from the arctic_shift Reddit archive (author post search, HTTP 200); reddit.com returned HTTP 403 to the fetcher. No translation and no human reviewer. The poster's username is not recorded. Same author, 7 Feb 2026.","independence_group":"reddit-teen-character-ai-dependency-poster"},{"id":"s3","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/character_ai_recovery/comments/1r7vzj1/first_week_withought_cai/","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-21 from the arctic_shift Reddit archive (author post search, HTTP 200); reddit.com returned HTTP 403 to the fetcher. No translation and no human reviewer. The poster's username is not recorded. Same author, 18 Feb 2026.","independence_group":"reddit-teen-character-ai-dependency-poster"},{"id":"s4","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/character_ai_recovery/comments/1s1a834/relapsed_tw_self_harm/","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-21 from the arctic_shift Reddit archive (author post search, HTTP 200); reddit.com returned HTTP 403 to the fetcher. No translation and no human reviewer. The poster's username is not recorded. Same author, 23 Mar 2026. The self-harm method in the post is not reproduced.","independence_group":"reddit-teen-character-ai-dependency-poster"},{"id":"s5","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/character_ai_recovery/comments/1uzth4n/is_it_even_that_bad/","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-21 from the arctic_shift Reddit archive (author post search, HTTP 200); reddit.com returned HTTP 403 to the fetcher. No translation and no human reviewer. The poster's username is not recorded. Same author, 18 Jul 2026.","independence_group":"reddit-teen-character-ai-dependency-poster"},{"id":"s6","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/character_ai_recovery/comments/1wuf0al/ive_hit_over_fifteen_thousand_hours_i_need_help/","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the research agent (an AI) on 2026-10-21 from the arctic_shift Reddit archive (author post search, HTTP 200); reddit.com returned HTTP 403 to the fetcher. No translation and no human reviewer. The poster's username is not recorded. Same author, 30 Sep 2026.","independence_group":"reddit-teen-character-ai-dependency-poster"},{"id":"s7","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatbotAddiction/comments/1xb8pa2/lowk_panicking_kinda_urgently_could_do_with_some/","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the verifier vmix10 (an AI) on 2026-10-21 from the arctic_shift Reddit archive (author search, HTTP 200); no translation and no human reviewer. The poster's username is not recorded. Same author, 21 Oct 2026 00:23 UTC.","independence_group":"reddit-teen-character-ai-dependency-poster"},{"id":"s8","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/character_ai_recovery/comments/1r1rnfq/small_improvements/o4uesgw/","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English by the verifier vmix10 (an AI) on 2026-10-21 from the arctic_shift Reddit archive (author search, HTTP 200); no translation and no human reviewer. The poster's username is not recorded. Comment by the same author, 11 Feb 2026, in another user's thread.","independence_group":"reddit-teen-character-ai-dependency-poster"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["health","everyday_life"],"unknowns":["Which app or apps the poster used after July 2026; the September and October posts do not name one.","How many hours the poster actually spent; the poster's own totals conflict.","Whether any clinician, parent or school assessed the poster's sleep, mood or self-harm.","Character.AI's account of the age restriction applied to the poster's account in February 2026.","Where the poster lives."],"geography":{"basis":"The posts do not say where the poster lives; currency mentioned in unrelated posts is not used as location evidence.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":[],"affected_person_countries":[]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the public-forum rule as a concrete first-person account, across six dated posts by one author, of a teenager's dependence on Character.AI roleplay and the sleeplessness, loneliness and self-harm the author connects to losing access. Described with attribution and without corroboration; the self-harm method, sexual content and identifying personal details are omitted, and the conflicting hour totals are recorded.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-21"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The poster describes years of their own roleplay and venting exchanges with Character.AI, used for 10 to 15 hours a day and to fall asleep, and connects losing access to it (through the app's age restriction and through attempts to quit) to sleeplessness, loneliness and self-harm. The posts describe the poster's use of the chatbot, not the content of particular replies, and the later posts do not name the app.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["communicated_with"]},"name":"First-person posts: teenager says years of Character.AI and chatbot roleplay left them unable to sleep without it and that quitting brought self-harm","summary":"In a Reddit post on 20 October 2026 a poster who says they are a teenager writes that they have had a problem with chatbots for four years, cannot sleep without them, become very stressed when the servers go down and spend all day on them. Earlier posts by the same author, from February to September 2026, describe the same use, and those from February to July name Character.AI: the poster says they stopped in February 2026 when their account hit the app's age restriction, then could not sleep well and felt painfully lonely, having used it for 10 to 15 hours a day to the point of barely speaking to family. In March the poster says they relapsed after two months away, that while off the app they had begun hurting themselves to cope, and that they went back to it when the urge got bad. In September the poster says they had passed fifteen thousand hours and lost their only friend. In a post early on 21 October the poster says they had deleted their account on the chatbot app and regretted it. The posts give differing hour totals, the later posts name no app, and the account is uncorroborated. The poster's descriptions of the AI's role are their own.","incidentKind":"ongoing_experience","incidentDatePrecision":"unknown","exposurePattern":"repeated_interactions","reportedDate":"2026-10-20","aiSystem":"Character.AI, which the poster names in posts from February to July 2026 as the roleplay chatbot app they used; the September and October posts refer only to chatbots and a chatbot app","aiProduct":"Character.AI (reported)","severity":"medium","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["psychological_distress","self_injury"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The poster, a teenager, says years of Character.AI and chatbot roleplay left them unable to sleep without it and that losing access brought sleeplessness, loneliness and, in March 2026, self-harm before a relapse (first-person account, uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster, who used the app directly. Family members are mentioned but no harm to them is described.","victimAgeRange":"minor","platformType":"companion","outcomeStatus":"ongoing","primarySourceUrl":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatbotAddiction/comments/1xajudj/ive_reached_4_years_of_nonstop_using_ts_apps/","primarySourceLabel":"Reddit post by the poster, 20 Oct 2026: four years of chatbot use, cannot sleep without the bots","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-21T03:09:58.825703+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-21T03:09:58.825703+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","reddit","companion-chatbot","character-ai","minor","dependency"]}]}