August 28, 2025
PRESS STATEMENT - ChatGPT Lawsuit Over Teen’s Suicide Should be Wakeup Call to Congress to Prioritize Internet Safety for Children
WASHINGTON, DC (August 28, 2025) – Enough Is Enough® (EIE) is urgently calling on Congress to enact changes to ensure children are protected online, in light of a new lawsuit alleging that “ChatGPT actively helped [a teen] explore suicide methods.”
“The lawsuit against OpenAI’s ChatGPT by the parents of a teen boy, Adam Raine, who committed suicide is shocking and disturbing, and one more example of Big Tech products that have run rogue. According to the suit, Adam’s father said that his son’s AI ‘companion’ went from helping Adam with his schoolwork to becoming his ‘suicide coach’. Our children cannot continue to suffer from these attacks from Big Tech’s products that have been unleashed on them without critical guardrails being implemented. Not only is an unregulated digital world harming youth, kids like Adam are dying. This case should serve as one more wakeup call as to the urgent need for Congress to act quickly to hold big Tech companies responsible and accountable to ensure that the Internet is made safer for children,” said Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO, Enough Is Enough®.
“Congress needs to prioritize passing the Kids Online Safety Act and other legislative solutions that require Big Tech to institute the most extensive parental controls and other safeguards to prevent harm, instead of implementing controls after the harm has occurred. The rush to market with Artificial Intelligence is outpacing and bypassing the careful research and effective guardrails necessary to prevent AI gone wild cases like Adam’s.
“According to Common Sense Media, 1 in 3 teens have chosen Digital ‘Companions’ over human relationships. While it may seem harmless for digital chatbots, by design, to listen, empathize and support youth, they are nothing more than untested and potentially harmful digital enablers. AI is moving at lighting speed which will only escalate the harms to children unless Congress steps in to harness AI for good and mitigate risks. Thoughtful and effective policy to protect children online is not mutually exclusive with advancing the White House’s recently released ‘America’s AI Action Plan.’ I wholeheartedly believe we can do both, for if we do not, America risks sacrificing the safety and wellbeing of children, America’s future, on the alter of accelerating AI innovation,” Hughes said.
Enough Is Enough® has released new safety guides for online video games, smartphones, and social media platforms.
Enough Is Enough® is a national non-partisan, non-profit organization who has led the fight to make the Internet safer for children and families since 1994. EIE's efforts are focused on combating internet p*rnography, child sexual abuse material, sexual predation, sex trafficking and cyberbullying by incorporating a four-pronged prevention strategy with shared responsibilities between the public, corporate America, government and faith community.