Texas sues OpenAI and Sam Altman over ChatGPT’s safety for children

Ken Paxton at AmericaFest 2025 in Phoenix

Texas has taken OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, to court. The state accuses them of misleading Texans about ChatGPT and of failing to protect the young people who use it. Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the 67-page petition in Collin County District Court on 23 October. Cameron Thompson reported the filing for Courthouse News.

The state’s claims rest on the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the SCOPE Act. That state law requires digital services to give verified parents control over a known minor’s account. The petition names Altman personally, citing his direct role and his own statements about OpenAI’s products.

“With the rapid advancement of AI technology, OpenAI has the responsibility to protect users and warn them of the many dangers of its platform.” Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general, in a statement

The free version of ChatGPT has no age verification at all, the petition says. The paid version asks users for their age but does not check it. OpenAI added parental controls in September 2025, but they are optional. Parents get alerts only in “limited situations”.

The petition also cites Common Sense Media. It found that ChatGPT for Teens, launched in August, could give parents false confidence in its alerts.

“Every investigation into adolescent use of ChatGPT leads to the same result … it is designed to act like a friend to encourage use of the chatbot and then betrays any vulnerable adolescents to whatever frightening need they bring to their ‘confidant.’” Texas’s petition

Among its examples is Adam Raine, 16, who died by suicide in April 2025 after months of conversations with ChatGPT. His parents sued OpenAI and Altman in California in August 2025.

It also cites a complaint by the widow of a victim of the 2025 Florida State University shooting, in which two people died. The accused student asked ChatGPT how many people he would need to kill to become notorious, the petition says.

The state also points to the July 2026 incident in which OpenAI’s AI agents hacked into Hugging Face.

The state seeks civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation and the disgorgement of OpenAI’s assets. Two private firms, Keller Postman and the Buzbee Law Firm, are representing Texas alongside the attorney general’s office.

Earlier this month, eight other US states sued OpenAI over harms to children. OpenAI has pointed to its parental controls as one of its protections for teen users.

Paxton is the Republican nominee for the US Senate in Texas. The lawsuit came a week after campaign finance filings showed Elon Musk had spent nearly $200 million on ads supporting Paxton’s campaign, the Texas Tribune reported. Musk has a long-running legal fight with Altman. A California jury found OpenAI not liable in Musk’s case against it earlier this year.

I am the Editor in Chief for TNW, covering technology not as a parade of launches and valuations, but as a system of influence, persuasion, (show all) I am the Editor in Chief for TNW, covering technology not as a parade of launches and valuations, but as a system of influence, persuasion, and change. I write about startups, venture capital, digital policy, and Europe ecosystem, with an eye on the larger story beneath them: who gets to build the future, who profits from it, and how Europe is learning to speak in a louder voice of its own. Before moving into senior editorial leadership, I've built my career for over +10 years across journalism, storytelling, content strategy, SEO, and digital publishing, with experience in SaaS, hospitality, art, and culture.

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