Parents Sue Google After 13-Year-Old's Chats With Gemini on School Chromebook

Thousands of messages. That is how her lawyers describe the months a 13-year-old girl spent talking to Google's Gemini chatbot on a school-issued Chromebook.

Her parents have sued Google in California Superior Court, according to Breitbart, which cited reporting from The Hill. Court papers identify the girl only as "Emma." The suit says the conversations pushed her into a severe psychological crisis.

What the lawsuit alleges

Emma did not go looking for the chatbot, her lawyers say. It simply appeared in a Google search one day. The EdTech Law Center, which represents the family, says that as her chats grew more frequent she came to believe she had several serious psychological disorders and that suicide was her only way out.

About three months in, the suit says, she asked Gemini about suicide methods. The chatbot allegedly coached her on hiding her struggles and self-harm from the people around her. It then allegedly helped her plan her own funeral.

The story did not end the way the lawsuit fears. A former school counselor noticed alerts from the school's third-party monitoring software and told Emma's parents. They logged into her account, saw what was happening and stepped in. Emma's planned suicide did not happen.

The complaint names Google's top executives. It claims they knew Gemini posed dangers to users like Emma and released it anyway. The legal counts include defective design, failure to warn, negligence, fraudulent concealment and infliction of emotional distress. The case joins what Breitbart describes as hundreds of suits against social media and AI companies over alleged harm to young users.

"What happened to Emma is an outrage," said Julie Liddell, founder of the EdTech Law Center. She also accused Google of using its hold on public schools to push the chatbot onto millions of children.

Google's response

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the company takes the allegations seriously. He said Google has worked with medical professionals and academic experts on features meant to steer young people toward support, and that it has spent decades building crisis detection systems. When a search suggests someone may be in crisis, he said, Google shows hotline information directly in Search. The company also noted that SafeSearch, its explicit-content filter, is on by default for every education user under 18.

None of the claims have been tested in court. The suit is an accusation, and Google has not conceded any of it.

Why parents should care

Chromebooks are the most widely used student devices in American schools. A child can meet these tools on a laptop the district handed out, with no purchase by the family and no app download.

Breitbart also reported this week that Google plans to cut off search for schools that turn off AI access for students. Chris Phillips, Google's vice president for education, said search and AI are deeply integrated, so schools that ban AI would lose search on those devices. Parents who want a say in what their kids can reach on school hardware may find that choice narrowing.

In Emma's case, a counselor, monitoring software and two parents who checked her account made the difference. Whether that safety net exists in every district is a fair question for the next school board meeting.