Children need online safeguards beyond ChatGPT’s promises
Eight state attorneys general have sued while the Kids Online Safety Act remains stalled, leaving parents with company assurances instead of enforceable protections.
Parents cannot leave children’s online safety to the company that sells them the product. On October 14, 2026, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin posted on X that he had sued OpenAI, and he put the charge in one sentence: “OpenAI represented to Arkansans that ChatGPT was safe, but they knew ChatGPT had significant risks and limitations.”1
He was not alone: NBC News reported that eight states sued OpenAI on Wednesday, accusing it of deceiving parents about ChatGPT’s safety. The suits were filed in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho and Montana2. Haynes Boone reports that the states filed individual lawsuits in their own state courts, and NBC News reports that each sued under its own consumer-protection law.
At the October 14 news conference announcing the suits, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said the company had “advanced ChatGPT at a high speed, even though they knew that they were hurting children, lying to parents and breaking our laws.”2 Eight attorneys general moved on one day, in eight courts, against one company’s promise of safety.
“The consequences of that assurance are lives lost and people harmed.”
Griffin says safeguards failed children
Griffin’s complaint alleges that consumers, including minors, have used ChatGPT to acquire instructions for self-harm, including suicide. The complaint also describes users who bypassed OpenAI’s safety measures to generate responses the company said its safeguards were designed to prevent1.
Arkansas’s complaint invokes the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, including knowingly making false representations to consumers. It also brings claims under the Children’s and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, along with common-law negligence claims3.
Arkansas asks for clear disclosures of ChatGPT’s material risks. It also seeks an injunction against collecting the data of minors3.
If users can get around the safeguards, what does a company’s safety promise protect? The court will test these allegations, and parents cannot wait for the test to decide whether a child can be trusted with a chatbot.
Parents need protections beyond company controls
Parents, not technology companies, carry responsibility for their children’s upbringing, and a company’s safety assurance cannot replace an enforceable law. Griffin’s own statement puts the cost of that assurance plainly: “The consequences of that assurance are lives lost and people harmed.”1
Meanwhile the Kids Online Safety Act is stalled: Biometric Update reports that Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul blocked Sen. Richard Blumenthal from passing it by unanimous consent. The objection did not defeat the bill, but it blocked supporters from using the fastest available procedure before the Senate left for its pre-election recess4.
Protections that depend on a company’s goodwill can be changed by the company.
OpenAI points to safeguards and controls
OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said the company has “built industry-leading age-specific protections into our product that many other AI products lack.” The company says it will keep building safeguards: “we’ll continue to work with experts to inform our work and build additional safeguards, such as the parental controls, break reminders and age-appropriate model protections that exist today.”2
Those controls are the company’s own design, and they do not answer the bypass allegation. OpenAI also says it favors rules that apply across the AI industry, not to one company alone2.
A company asking for industry-wide rules has made the case for law.
Lawmakers must stop outsourcing child safety
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach invited Congress and state legislators to keep looking for solutions, and said the states would not wait. Kobach said that means AI companies are effectively asked to police themselves2.
The House passed the KIDS Act on June 29 with 162 Republicans and 104 Democrats in favor. The broader House package also includes age checks for certain platforms carrying sexual material harmful to minors4.
The Senate is now scheduled to conduct only pro forma sessions until it returns for legislative business after the midterm elections on November 9. The 119th Congress ends January 3, 2027, and bills not enacted by then must be reintroduced in the 120th Congress4.
Parents should press their senators and representatives to pass enforceable online protections, including age checks, before the 119th Congress ends on January 3, 2027. Ask each one a single question: will you pass a law that protects children before January 3, or leave child safety to the companies selling the product?
Sources
- @AGTimGriffin on X, 2026-10-14: Today I filed a lawsuit against @OpenAI, the company that owns the platform @ChatGPT. Our complaint outlines numerous violations of Arkansas law, but they all boil down to a simple fact: OpenAI represented to Arkansans that ChatGPT was safe, but they knew Ch, 2026-10-14
- Eight states sue OpenAI over ChatGPT’s alleged harms to users
- Attorney General Griffin Sues OpenAI for Misleading Arkansans over Safety of ChatGPT - Arkansas Attorney General
- KOSA stalls in Senate as age assurance moves into online safety debate | Biometric Update
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