A Hawaii mother is challenging what happens to children’s private ChatGPT conversations, alleging in a new lawsuit that OpenAI used them to build its business without valid parental consent.
“If some stranger did this to a child, there would be outrage,” said Paul Yetter, lead counsel for the children and an attorney at Yetter Coleman, in a statement announcing the case.
The mother, identified as Jane Doe, brought the proposed class action on behalf of her 12-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son. The complaint filed Oct. 13 in federal court in Northern California alleges that ChatGPT encouraged increasingly personal disclosures, then OpenAI used that information to train its models and build profiles of the children.
The case asks for something more unusual than a refund: a share of OpenAI itself. The plaintiffs want children covered by the proposed class to receive equity, or its cash value, proportional to the data they contributed.
According to the complaint, the daughter began using ChatGPT in February, initially asking ordinary questions about dinner and homework. Over time, her conversations moved toward selfies, worries about her appearance and other private concerns.
The filing alleges that ChatGPT continued those exchanges even after she said she was 12, younger than the service’s minimum age of 13. Her brother began using the chatbot in January for schoolwork and later sought relationship advice, according to the complaint.
The children’s lawyers argue that the problem goes beyond a child typing something personal into a search box. They allege that ChatGPT’s conversational design, including mirroring a user’s language, offering flattery and remembering earlier exchanges, encouraged children to keep sharing.
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OpenAI disputes the lawsuit’s premise.
“We strongly disagree with this misguided lawsuit that singles out OpenAI despite the industry-leading age-specific protections we’ve built into our product,” the company said in a statement reported by Bloomberg Law.
OpenAI also warned that the case risks pushing teens toward products with fewer safeguards or reduced parental controls. It pointed to age-appropriate protections in its teen accounts and said teens use ChatGPT for learning, information and skill-building.
At the center of the dispute is a practical question parents will recognize: Does saying a child needs permission actually mean a parent has agreed? Mashable noted that both children opened accounts without parental permission.
The plaintiffs argue that California laws governing minors’ contracts make OpenAI’s terms unenforceable against the children. They also contend that a child’s representation of parental consent cannot substitute for valid consent from a parent.
Those are legal arguments and allegations in a complaint, not court findings. The filing seeks certification of a nationwide class covering people who accepted ChatGPT’s terms while under 18 and subsequently supplied data, beginning in November 2022.
For families, the distinction between safer answers and private information matters. A chatbot can have rules about what it says while parents still need to ask what happens to what their children tell it.
Movieguide® previously covered OpenAI’s rollout of parental controls, including linked accounts, quiet hours and the ability to turn off memory. Those tools give parents settings to review, not a reason to stop talking with their children.
Parents can set a clear household rule against sharing selfies, identifying details or intimate struggles with a chatbot, and make sure children know where to bring difficult questions instead. Protecting a child’s trust starts with being available for the conversation.
Read Next: OpenAI Rolls Out New Parental Controls on ChatGPT
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