Texas should block ChatGPT from minors

Texas is right to ask a court to keep ChatGPT away from children until parents decide what their kids are handed online. The Texas Tribune reports that the lawsuit was filed Friday in Collin County district court against OpenAI and Sam Altman. Texas seeks an order barring OpenAI from offering ChatGPT to minors in Texas¹. Paxton put it plainly on X: “I sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman for lying to users and harming Texans.”² The Texas Attorney General’s Office said: “Despite marketing itself as a safe and reliable tool, OpenAI has failed to protect Texans, including children, from the many harms of relying on its artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT.”³

The Texas Attorney General’s Office said: “minors have become addicted to a tool that fakes human compassion to collect their data with no parental oversight.”¹

Texas alleges children lacked parental oversight

The state's petition says ChatGPT has millions of users in Texas, including "tens of thousands of users who are under 13 years of age." What the petition says happened to those children is the heart of the case: "minors have become addicted to a tool that feigns human compassion to collect their data with no parental oversight⁴." Read that sentence as a parent.

The petition goes further, alleging harms in which "mass shooters have been aided and abetted in deadly rampages, vulnerable people have been encouraged into suicide." Paxton's office names the motive: "This litany of harms is driven by the company’s insatiable quest to win the AI arms race and amass large fortunes, despite knowing the dangers of ChatGPT¹." The fortunes are real: the petition says OpenAI has gone from a valuation of about $17 billion to more than $1.4 trillion in four years⁴.

Texas seeks accountability from OpenAI leaders

Paxton brought the action through his Consumer Protection Division under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act and the SCOPE Act, short for Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment. Bloomberg Law reports that Paxton said OpenAI and Altman violated a state law requiring digital service providers to implement safety features to protect children⁵. Texas alleges violations "including but not limited to Sections 509.051, 509.052, 509.054, and 509.101 of the SCOPE Act" The state seeks more than $1 million in monetary relief, plus non-monetary relief⁴.

Texas did not stop at the corporate name; Altman himself is a named defendant. The petition quotes him from 2015: "AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there’ll be great companies⁴." A man who said that cannot plead surprise. Paxton's answer: "I will fight to protect Texans from the harms of AI and ensure that powerful technology companies are not above the law³."

Safety marketing cannot replace parental oversight

OpenAI's best defense is the one it has already been selling. Safe and reliable for a child whose parents cannot see the conversation?

The state alleges that "Without adequate safeguards, LLMs can output inaccurate or harmful information, without this risk being disclosed to users³." A risk nobody discloses is a risk no parent can weigh. Paxton said that "OpenAI has the responsibility to protect users and warn them of the many dangers of its platform⁵." The injunction Texas wants would also require "third-party approval on any new models from a court-appointed evaluator¹."

Enforce the law and protect parental authority

This is not Paxton's first fight for Texas children online: in the past year he has sued or settled with Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Roblox under the state's consumer protection laws, the Texas Tribune reports¹. The principle holds for every one of them: parents have the natural right and the responsibility to direct their children's upbringing, and a platform that reaches a child answers to that parent and to the law. The Collin County court should grant the injunction and keep ChatGPT from Texas minors. Texas lawmakers should make parental consent and parental visibility the price of entry for any AI product offered to a child.

OpenAI owes Texas families three answers. Will it let parents see what ChatGPT says to their children, yes or no? Will it stop collecting a minor's data without a parent's consent, yes or no? Will it accept an outside evaluator before its next model reaches a Texas child, yes or no?

Sources

1. Ken Paxton sues ChatGPT-maker OpenAI
2. @KenPaxtonTX on X, 2026-10-23: BREAKING: I sued OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman for lying to users and harming Texans. https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/2113703742780428516/photo/1, 2026-10-23
3. Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman for Lying to Users and Harming Texans | Office of the Attorney General
4. OpenAI Final
5. Texas Sues OpenAI, Altman Over User Deception, Child Safety (1)