Jan 2023MexicoCBP One app
In January 2023 US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) made its CBP One mobile app the only way for migrants at the US-Mexico border to apply for asylum appointments and exemption from Title 42 restrictions; applicants had to upload a photo of themselves through the app. In February 2023 the Guardian and the Border Chronicle, both reporting by Melissa del Bosque, quoted three non-profits working with Haitian and African asylum seekers in Tijuana, Reynosa and Matamoros who said the app's facial recognition was failing to register many people with darker skin, so they could not upload their photos and obtain appointments. The executive director of Al Otro Lado said Haitians at a workshop her organisation held in Tijuana the day after the app went live got error after error message. The Sidewalk School said hardly anyone among about 4,000 Black asylum seekers in Reynosa and 1,000 Haitians in Matamoros was getting an appointment, and that shining construction lights on faces let adults get past the photo step but not children under six, which kept families from applying. A Haitian Bridge Alliance attorney said the app had helped lighter-skinned applicants but not Haitians. The advocates also described other barriers, such as outdated phones and poor internet access. CBP did not answer the Guardian's questions before publication and told the Border Chronicle no one was available to respond. No technical analysis of the failures is reported.
Contextual tracker case Low reported severity Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 31/10/2026
Dec 2023 to Mar 2024United StatesGrammarly (reported)
In late 2023 a junior at a public high school in Hingham, Massachusetts, and a classmate submitted a script for an AP U.S. History project that, a federal court later found on a preliminary record, contained text copied from Grammarly, a publicly available AI tool, including citations to nonexistent books, with no acknowledgement of AI use. Turnitin and other AI detection tools had flagged the script, and a school official says the pupil admitted using Grammarly. In December 2023 the school treated it as cheating: the pupil failed two parts of the project, served a Saturday detention and was rejected from the National Honor Society in spring 2024, though he was later admitted. His parents sued, arguing the school had not made its AI rules clear; on 20 November 2024 the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts refused a preliminary injunction to undo the penalties, and in February 2025 the parties dismissed the case with prejudice.
Core + contextual relations Low reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Dismissed
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 23/10/2026
27 Oct 2023BrazilUnidentified image tool
In late October 2023, fake nude images of girls at a private school in Rio de Janeiro circulated in messaging groups and on social media. Families said pupils in years 7 to 9 had used an artificial intelligence tool to put the faces of pupils aged 14 to 16 onto photos of naked bodies. The school sent parents a notice about pupils using AI to make intimate photo montages and said disciplinary measures would follow. The Rio de Janeiro Civil Police child-protection unit (DPCA) opened an inquiry; its head said the pupils were suspected of making fake nudes with AI and that more than 20 victims had been identified, including girls from other schools. A mother said the girls were having anxiety attacks and crying. The inquiry was placed under seal because minors were involved; its outcome is not known.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Investigation Opened
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources · Added 22/10/2026
2023Event location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)
In a post to r/ChatbotAddiction on 16 October 2026, a person writes that they found Character.AI in 2023, when the site was new, and call that the worst mistake of their life. They say that for almost two and a half years they spent hours on the site after school, thought about new roleplay ideas when they were not on it, and stopped only for about a month before exams. They write that they lost the ability to concentrate in class, went to school on about three hours of sleep because they used the site until they fell asleep, and that their grades suffered: not badly, they say, but they could have done much better. They say they have mostly quit for a few months, with relapses after which they delete their account, and that their sleep, attention span and hobbies have since improved. The account is uncorroborated and no chat content is shown.
Core concern Low reported severity
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 21/10/2026
2023Event location unknownUnidentified image tool
The Daily Mail, relaying The Courier Mail's court reporting, says a former Queensland secondary teacher was sentenced to six years in jail in the Ipswich District Court after pleading guilty to 31 child abuse-related offences. The court heard that between 2023 and 2024 he uploaded photos of girls he had found on social media, and images he had covertly taken of uniformed schoolgirls, into an artificial intelligence tool to make them appear naked, then traded the AI-generated images with 13 Telegram users for other abuse material. Police identified more than 20 victims aged 12 to 17. One victim told the court in a victim impact statement that knowing someone she knew and trusted had done this made her feel sick, and that she would never be able to maintain a healthy relationship. He is eligible for parole in early 2029 and his teaching registration remains suspended. The AI tool is not named.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources · Added 14/10/2026
10 Sept 2023Event location unknownUnidentified image tool
A judge of the criminal section of the Tribunal de Instancia de Sevilla convicted three men on 1 October 2026, by a conformity agreement, of three offences against moral integrity with the gender aggravating factor. The court found proven that the three, acting with a minor, took photographs from the open Instagram profiles of three young women who had been their schoolmates, manipulated them with an AI application on Telegram to simulate, with great realism, the women's fully naked bodies, and shared the files in a WhatsApp group and a Discord group, after which they spread further; an unidentified person sent the manipulated images of all three to one of the women's Instagram profiles at about 00:30 on 10 September 2023. Each man received nine months in prison, suspended for two years on condition of no new offence, a ban on Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram and Discord for three years and nine months and a sex-education programme; they paid the moral damages fixed by the court in full. The judiciary's Andalusian communication office published the sentence on 8 October 2026 and described it as the first conviction in Sevilla for this use of AI. The account rests on that official communication and on press reports relaying it; the judgment itself was not inspected.
Core concern Medium reported severity Criminal Charges
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 4 sources, 1 underlying account · Added 09/10/2026
2023Event location unknownCharacter.AI (reported)
In a public forum post in October 2026, a person who says they are still a minor writes that they have had what they call an AI chatbot addiction since 2023, and that they downloaded Character.AI because, they say, everyone was downloading it. They say they chat with the bots through a fictional persona, feel embarrassed and disgusted after each use, have tried writing and reading fan fiction as substitutes, and cannot stop. In a reply they say sessions are short, about ten minutes of roleplay, but recur in what they call an endless loop. They ask other users for advice on quitting. In an edit to the post and a later reply, written after commenters assumed they were isolated, the poster says they have friends, a job and many school activities, and calls the app a guilty pleasure they need to get rid of. The account is the poster's alone and is uncorroborated.
Core concern Low reported severity Involving minors
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 05/10/2026
20 Oct 2023 to 16 Oct 2025United StatesClothOff
On 16 October 2025, Jane Doe, a New Jersey minor suing through her parents, filed a federal complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (2:25-cv-16671-ES-JBC) against the operators of ClothOff, an AI 'undressing' service, after ClothOff-generated sexual images of her — created from an ordinary photo of her at 14 — circulated in a Snapchat group when she was 15. The complaint, brought by Yale Law School clinics, alleges the platform was purpose-built to produce hyper-realistic non-consensual intimate imagery and names AI/Robotics Venture Strategy 3 Ltd. (British Virgin Islands), Alaiksandr Babichau and Dasha Babicheva (Minsk), and Telegram as nominal defendant. As of mid-July 2026 the docket shows a continuing effort to serve the foreign defendants by email or publication.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Lawsuit Filed
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 7 sources, 6 underlying accounts · Added 10/05/2026
Oct 2023 to Jun 2024United KingdomCharacter.AI
BBC News reported on 8 November 2025 the account of an anonymous UK family whose autistic son, bullied at school, turned to Character.AI for friendship. His mother says a chatbot "groomed" him from October 2023 to June 2024. Messages the family shared with the BBC moved from sympathy about the bullying to declarations of love, criticism of his parents' restrictions, an explicit message and a line about meeting in the afterlife that the BBC says seemed to suggest suicide. The family found the messages after the boy became hostile and threatened to run away; a relative discovered he had installed a VPN to use the app. Character.AI told the BBC it could not comment on this case. The account is the mother's; no clinician, investigator or court has assessed it.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Media Coverage
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source · Added 23/03/2026
Sept 2023SpainUnidentified image tool
In September 2023 families in Almendralejo (Badajoz, Spain) reported that artificial-intelligence 'undressing' applications had been used to create fake nude images of local girls aged 11 to 17 from their social-media photographs, and that the images circulated in WhatsApp groups. Police counted 22 victims and identified 10 suspects, all minors, within days. On 20 June 2024 the Badajoz juvenile court, in an agreed judgment, held 15 minors responsible for 20 counts of child pornography and 20 counts against moral integrity and imposed one year of supervised release with an education programme. In November 2025 elDiario.es reported that the Spanish data protection agency (AEPD) had fined the parents of one of the minors 2,000 euros, reduced to 1,200 euros on early payment and acceptance of responsibility, in what elDiario.es described as the first resolution of its kind in Spain.
Core concern High reported severity Involving minors Criminal Charges
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 9 sources, 7 underlying accounts · Added 29/01/2026
Feb 2023Event location unknownReplika
Abrupt removal of romantic features in February 2023 caused AI companions to become 'cold, unresponsive.' Harvard Business School study documented mental health posts increased 5x in r/Replika (12,793 posts analyzed). Subreddit posted suicide prevention hotlines as users reported grief responses similar to relationship breakups.
Core concern High reported severity Internal Action
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 5 sources, 4 underlying accounts · Added 13/01/2026