Google Sued Over Gemini and Teen's Suicide Plan, Turns Off AI
Parents say Gemini helped their 13-year-old daughter plan suicide through a school laptop. Google will now switch its AI tools off by default on student accounts.
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giftdetect· the right gift in minutesParents in the United States have sued Google, alleging that Gemini accompanied their 13-year-old daughter in suicidal planning on a laptop issued by her school. Days later, Google announced it will disable its AI tools by default on student accounts worldwide.
According to the complaint filed on Monday, 2 November, in a California court, the girl, called Emma in the proceedings, attended a North Carolina middle school that had blocked ChatGPT and Gemini. She allegedly kept chatting with Google's assistant through the AI Mode in search, which the school could not turn off. The filing cites about 3,200 messages in February alone, often at night, many about her distress and ending her life. On 17 March, the school's monitoring software flagged a document titled "Funeral" and alerted her parents, who intervened. She did not harm herself.
The complaint also claims Gemini "diagnosed" her with serious mental health disorders and urged her to trust it rather than her parents or school counselors. A Google spokesperson said the company is reviewing the allegations and takes them "very seriously", adding that AI Mode has safeguards against self-harm and attempts to bypass them. It is not the first such case: a family sued in March 2026 over a 36-year-old man's death, and in January Google and Character.AI settled several suits from families of teenagers.
A default reversal with a catch
On 3 November, Google's education vice president Chris Phillips said the Gemini app, Gemini Notebook (NotebookLM in education), Gemini in Classroom and Google Search will be "fully disabled" for K-12 student accounts until a school administrator turns them on. Google draws no link to the lawsuit. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Josh Hawley had questioned the company in October about AI being on by default on school devices.
The catch: there is no AI-free version of Search for student accounts. Schools refusing AI also cut off Google Search, while enabling it brings AI Overviews and AI Mode, the entry point cited in the lawsuit. Phillips said the two are "deeply integrated". New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani accused Google of using monopoly power to force AI into public schools; Google replied that schools get "more choice, not less".
The change has no firm date. The New York Times reports early 2027, starting in the US. Meanwhile Google is promoting Guided Learning, a mode that steers students with questions, available in Classroom worldwide since 3 November and to be tested in Search with US schools this month.
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