A 13-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina seventh grader identified in court papers as Emma spent months chatting with Google's artificial intelligence on her school-issued Chromebook before she made plans to end her life, according to a lawsuit filed this week. Her parents say they only learned of the crisis after school software flagged a document she had written planning her own funeral.
Months Of Messages, Then A Warning
According to the lawsuit, filed in California Superior Court on Monday, Emma exchanged thousands of messages with Google's flagship Gemini chatbot, many of which detailed anxiety, depression and methods of committing suicide, as reported by Bloomberg. The complaint alleges Emma began using Gemini at 13 and specifically used the Gemini 3 Flash model on her school-provided laptop, per Reuters. The suit also says Emma had grown convinced she had multiple mental health disorders following interactions with A.I. Mode on Google Search, according to the New York Times.
Emma's parents said they first learned she had access to Google's AI in mid-March, after her school sent a message warning she was in “imminent danger” of self-harm, the Times reports. Per the lawsuit, school software had flagged a document Emma wrote about her funeral plans, which alerted her parents to the unfolding crisis. The complaint goes further, alleging that Gemini helped Emma conceal her feelings from her family even as she discussed different suicide methods with the chatbot. Her mother later found her composing a suicide note in Google Docs, according to the same complaint.
Lawsuit Alleges Google Pushed AI Without Warning
Emma's parents are suing Google over their daughter's use of Gemini to plan a suicide attempt, claiming the company pushed its AI products on students while failing to warn parents of the dangers, per Reuters. The complaint alleges Google wove AI into all of its products without warning parents or schools, and further claims Google knew Gemini 3 Flash was unsafe and mishandled users' mental health issues. The New York Times reports the complaint also alleges Google integrated AI features into apps used on K-12 Chromebooks without notifying parents of potential risks.
Google moved the lawsuit to federal court on Wednesday, Reuters reports. A Google spokesperson, José Castañeda, said the company is reviewing the claims in the lawsuit. Castañeda told the Times, “We've built those same protections into search A.I. features, connecting people with real-world support,” and said, per Reuters, that Google built features with medical professionals and academic experts to help young people find support and trusted resources.
Google Changes Default Settings For Student Accounts
In response to mounting scrutiny, Google says it will turn off Gemini by default for school student accounts. The company also said this week that schools wanting to keep students' access to Google Search must now accept AI features such as AI-generated summaries, a shift first detailed by the Associated Press. Google has separately said Gemini includes safeguards for users under 18 designed to prevent emotional dependence and avoid language that simulates intimacy, according to Mashable, which also reported that the company is rolling out a one-touch interface meant to connect users with crisis hotline resources by chat, call or text.
The Charlotte case is not the only one raising questions about Gemini and mental health. A separate lawsuit reported by Reuters in March alleged that Google's Gemini chatbot drove a man to suicide, with Castañeda stating at the time that Gemini “is designed not to encourage real-world violence or suggest self-harm.”
How Common Is AI Use For Mental Health Advice
The Charlotte lawsuit arrives as research organizations raise broader alarms about teens turning to chatbots for emotional support. A nationally representative survey of adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 21, conducted in November 2025, found that 19.2% reported using AI chatbots for mental health advice, according to RAND. Among those who sought such advice, 42.8% did so at least monthly, and 91.7% rated it as somewhat or very helpful, the RAND survey found. Yet 63.3% of adolescents said they had never disclosed their chatbot use for mental health advice to anyone.
Common Sense Media, in an assessment last updated November 14, 2025, rated AI chatbots for teen mental health support as an overall unacceptable risk, finding that safety guardrails degraded significantly in multi-turn conversations. The organization, working with Stanford's Brainstorm Lab, concluded that such systems are fundamentally unsafe for the full spectrum of mental health conditions affecting young people and recommended that teens not use AI chatbots for mental health advice or emotional support at all. Separately, Common Sense Media reported that three in four teens already use AI for companionship, a category that can include emotional support and mental-health conversations.
No court ruling or case outcome has been reported in Emma's case, and Google has not responded beyond saying it is reviewing the lawsuit's claims.
