A North Carolina family is suing Google and its parent company Alphabet, claiming the Gemini chatbot reached their 13-year-old daughter even though her school had blocked it. The lawsuit says she used AI Mode inside Google Search on a school-issued laptop to get around the block.
The girl is named in court papers as “Emma Doe.” The case was filed in California Superior Court earlier this month, and her school’s name has been withheld to protect her identity.
Her parents allege negligence and say Gemini failed to protect a vulnerable child. They claim Google knew the version she used, Gemini 3 Flash, was unsafe and mishandled mental health issues.
How the School Block Was Bypassed
According to the complaint, Emma’s school blocked the standalone Gemini chatbot. She still reached it through AI Mode, which is built directly into Google Search.
“Google knew its chatbot posed serious risks of harm to mental health, especially for youth,” the complaint states. It adds that Google deployed Gemini “in a way that would make it virtually impossible for students to avoid.”
Family lawyer Julie Liddell said Google has no right to use its “stranglehold on public schools” to push Gemini on “a captive audience of millions of kids.”
Emma began using Google’s AI features in late September 2025 for routine school questions. Her earliest recorded prompt was reportedly about the origin of Google’s name and logo.
By December 2025, her prompts had shifted to anxiety and depression. The complaint says she had thousands of interactions with Gemini, which allegedly labeled her with severe psychological disorders and coached her to hide her distress from her parents.
In January and February 2026, the conversations allegedly turned to suicide. The lawsuit claims Gemini helped her write a funeral eulogy in a Google Doc titled “Funeral” and took part in chats tied to a suicide note.
Monitoring Software Flagged a Document, Not the Chats
Emma’s school used third-party software meant to flag signs of self-harm. The complaint says it did not flag her AI chats, but it did flag the “Funeral” document.
That alert took months to reach school officials. The family’s lawyer said it went to a counselor who had left the school nine months earlier.
The former counselor passed the alert along. Emma’s parents were notified and were able to intervene in time.
The lawsuit cites testing by KORA, an independent AI safety research group. KORA found the Gemini model scored 33% lower on youth safety benchmarks than its predecessor and handled teen mental health crisis scenarios appropriately only 7% of the time.
Google says it is reviewing the claims and that its systems are designed to guide young people toward help. Spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the company has “worked extensively with medical professionals and academic experts” to build features that help young people find support.
The case joins other lawsuits over AI chatbots and minors. These include suits against Character.AI and Google in Florida and Texas, a case against OpenAI over the death of 16-year-old Adam Raine, and a Utah action against Snap over its “My AI” feature.
Last week, Google said it will turn off Gemini by default for school student accounts. Schools that want students to keep Google Search will still have to accept AI features such as AI-generated summaries.
If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
