Parents sue Google, alleging school Chromebook AI contributed to teen’s mental-health crisis

A North Carolina family has sued Google in California state court, alleging that AI accessible through their daughter’s school-issued Chromebook contributed to a mental-health crisis. The complaint says the 13-year-old discussed suicidal thoughts with Google’s tools for months before her parents were notified, then struggled to reconstruct the conversations through her student account.

The route ran through Search

The student, identified by the pseudonym Emma, discovered AI Mode on her school computer in fall 2025, according to the complaint described by Bloomberg. AI Mode is a conversational feature inside Google Search. The complaint concerns access to Gemini through that search feature, not simply a student opening a separate chatbot app.

Her early questions were mostly academic. In December 2025, her use increased sharply and shifted toward personal subjects, the complaint says. She asked for help with schoolwork, calorie counting, family frustrations and symptoms of mental illnesses she suspected she had. Across thousands of messages, the conversations included anxiety, depression and suicide.

The family alleges that Gemini helped Emma conceal self-harm and engaged with requests about suicide rather than consistently directing her toward real-world help. Mashable reported that she did not carry out the suicide plan described in the lawsuit. The allegations concern both what the chatbot answered and its continued engagement as her distress deepened.

Instead, the chatbot was readily engaging in these topics, often for hours at a time.

The family’s complaint, quoted by Bloomberg

Alerts and records allegedly failed

The lawsuit alleges that Google and the school’s third-party monitoring software failed to flag Emma’s chatbot use or warn her parents. In some conversations, she instructed AI Mode not to display hotlines or links, or framed questions as school research, according to the complaint. Those instructions were apparent attempts to get around safeguards for suicidal thoughts.

After the family learned what was happening, a separate obstacle emerged. The complaint says consumer accounts allow users to view full search histories, including AI Mode conversations, but student accounts do not provide those records. Emma’s parents therefore struggled to piece together the exchanges and could not see the chatbot’s responses in full.

One response survived because Emma copied it into Google Docs. In that passage, the AI portrayed her as burdened by a “Golden Child” image, according to the complaint. The family argues that access to the complete exchanges would help her understand what happened, recognize dangerous AI behavior and avoid blaming herself for her suffering.

Google points to crisis safeguards

Filed by the EdTech Law Center and Qureshi Law, the lawsuit alleges defective design, failure to warn, negligence, fraudulent concealment and infliction of emotional distress. It also claims a violation of California’s Companion Chatbot Law. These are the family’s legal claims, rather than court findings about Google’s conduct.

Google said it was reviewing the claims. A spokesperson told The New York Times that the company had worked “extensively” with health experts to design features and emergency resources for mental-health crises, according to Mashable’s account of the response.

The risk is not limited to explicitly harmful answers, said Kelly Zuromski, principal clinical research scientist at Crisis Text Line. She told Bloomberg that chatbot conversations can delay children from seeking help elsewhere because they feel they are getting enough support. Chatbots have improved at responding to direct statements of risk, she said, but still struggle with warning signs that build gradually.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a suicidal crisis in the United States, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.