September 5, 2025
The family spent several days reading over thousands of messages shared with ChatGPT
ChatGPT is adding parental controls to its technology after the family of a teen says its chatbox feature led the teen to commit suicide.
Adam Raine died at the age of 16 on April 11. His parents, Matt and Maria Raine, said they spent several days reading over thousands of messages he shared with ChatGPT between Sept. 1, 2024, and the moment he took his life, The Independent reports.
“During his early teen years, Adam faced some struggles,” his parents wrote on the foundation page named and dedicated to him. “His grades slipped, and he began having difficulties at school. During this time, he began to complain of stomach pain, which we believed may partially be related to anxiety.”
The teen’s family said that as a result of his struggles, they switched him to online school about six months before he died. While they noticed his grades and passion for school quickly improved, the online environment led to a significant amount of isolation.
“After Adam’s passing, we came to understand more deeply — through his private communications with Artificial Intelligence — just how profoundly he struggled,” his family writes. “His social anxiety had grown far more severe than we realized, becoming so overwhelming that even everyday conversations with those who loved him most sometimes felt unbearable.”
The family is now suing the developer behind ChatGPT, OpenAI, and its CEO, Sam Altman, in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco.
ChatGPT Announces Parental Controls Following Suicide
In a blog post, ChatGPT announced sweeping changes that will give parents more control. The company said that young people are among the first to use AI in their daily lives, and that there are opportunities for support, learning, and creativity, along with supporting families that need support in “setting healthy guidelines” for teens.
Within the next month, parents will be able to link their account with their teen’s account with a minimum age requirement of 13. Parents can control how ChatGPT responds to their teens with age-appropriate model behavior rules that alert families when the system detects that their teen is in a moment of acute stress.
“These steps are only the beginning,” the company said. “We will continue learning and strengthening our approach, guided by experts, with the goal of making ChatGPT as helpful as possible. We look forward to sharing our progress over the coming 120 days.”
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