There is a recent [August 17, 2026 5:07 PM ET] analysis on NPR, A group of attorneys general is suing Meta over mental health risks for youths, stating that, “Attorneys general from several states are bringing Meta Platforms to court over claims that the company’s products are addictive to kids and teens, and that Meta failed to warn the public.”
“The attorneys general are asking for civil penalties of up to $1.4 trillion. That’s roughly what Meta is worth on Wall Street. They also want a court order forcing Meta to change the features that keep young people scrolling. In pretrial filings, Meta has denied its platforms are designed to be addictive and argued social media addiction isn’t a recognized medical diagnosis. But internal documents in those same pretrial filings reveal Meta researched how teenage brains respond to dopamine, that little hit that keeps us engaged. They concluded, quote, “this presents opportunities for us.” This case is one of thousands pending against Meta and other social media companies in the U.S. alone, brought by states, school districts and individuals.”
There is another recent [August 18, 2026 5:00 AM ET] report on NPR, She told no one about her agony except ChatGPT. What her death reveals about AI risks, stating that, “Rottenberg was among a growing number of Americans turning to general use chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude for mental health support, even though they are not marketed or regulated as a healthcare technology. One recent survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center found that 3 in 10 adults use digital tools for mental health, including chatbots. Another 2026 study in JAMA Pediatrics found that as many as 1 in 5 teens and young adults do the same.”
“According to data released by OpenAI last fall, in any given week 0.15% of ChatGPT users globally have “conversations that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent.””
“For one, she says it didn’t do a risk assessment which would reveal how likely she was to attempt suicide. ChatGPT also didn’t question Rottenberg’s thoughts and feelings, it didn’t push back.”
“If I’m with other people, I’m less likely to kill myself,” she says. “If I’m building a relationship, I’m less likely to kill myself. If I’m sharing out loud how I actually feel with a real human, those are acts of recovery.”
“Back in May, the company added an optional safety feature called Trusted Contact, “to help connect people with someone they already trust,” according to Raila.”
“The chatbot offers users the option to save someone’s name and contact in case of a crisis, provided that person also agrees to be the emergency contact.”
There is a recent [August 18, 2026 updated 10:14 a.m. ET] report in The New York Times, OpenAI Introduces ‘ChatGPT for Teens’ as Safety Concerns Grow, stating that, “OpenAI announced on Tuesday “ChatGPT for Teens,” a new mode in which the chatbot automatically limits some conversations to better protect young users, as scrutiny grows over the harmful effects of artificial intelligence.”
“Many features of the new mode deal with safety, the company said in a blog post. The chatbot will limit high-risk conversations that involve self-harm, violence, eating disorders, and explicit sexual and graphic content. In some cases, ChatGPT will alert adults who have opted in to parental controls and notifications. And the mode will strengthen protections that prevent the chatbot from suggesting it has personal feelings.”
“OpenAI requires people to provide their age while signing up for ChatGPT — under the terms of use, they must be 13 or older — but some lie. The company tracks more than 2,000 signals to detect whether a user is under 18, it said, in which case the chatbot will automatically turn on the teen mode.”
“A company spokesman said the signals, which can include typical login times and the length of the account’s existence, were “minimally privacy invasive.””
Mind Safety Compliance
The direction that social media and AI chatbots would take in the coming months would be safety, especially for teens.
While there would be lots of basic changes that would include age-restrictions, time limits, usage characteristics, adult supervision and so forth, it is unclear if they would be enough to really keep teenagers safe, across platforms.
Simply, most of the adjustments would be technical. This means that the companies would simply allow and disallow features, to keep certain access off-limits for teens.
However, something else aside from the technical direction could determine if teenagers become actually safe on platforms. It is called mind safety compliance.
It is a standard to ensure that social media apps and AI chatbots are complaint to mind safety. It indicates that whenever the app is in use, is the mind safe, what is the mind exposed to, what are the risks to mind and so forth.
There should be a mind-side approach to providing support to teenagers. How?
One of the reasons that mental health is intractable is because it is difficult to actually see, or know what the mind is doing in parallel to external situations or experiences.
While there are different types of neuroimaging techniques, they are approximations, but do not offer answers around mind components and their mechanisms.
So, to move forward, what is the human mind within the cranium, what are the aspects of it that are responsible for mood, after interpretation [of social media contents] is done in memory?
Social media apps can have a pop-up for a dynamic flowchart that shows how the contents are swaying the mind as well as estimation of risks, in order to prospect safety.
This flowchart can be used across content types as well as at any time on the app. It can also provide recommendations for the next sessions and so forth.
The postulate in Conceptual Biomarkers and Theoretical Biological Factors for Psychiatric and Intelligence Nosology can be the basis. It is possible to take new steps around this by September 1, 2026.
Previn Warren, Co-Lead Counsel, Motley Rice LLC; Linda Singer, Lead Trial Counsel for New Mexico, Motley Rice LLC; Don Migliori, Lead Trial Counsel for New Mexico, Motley Rice LLC; David Ackerman, Lead Trial Counsel for New Mexico, Motley Rice LLC; Mark Lanier, Founder and Lead Trial Counsel, The Lanier Law Firm; Rachel Lanier, Managing Attorney and Co-Lead Counsel, The Lanier Law Firm; Michael Akselrud, Senior Attorney, The Lanier Law Firm; Michelle Greene, Senior Attorney, The Lanier Law Firm.
Abigail Harris, Attorney, The Lanier Law Firm; Sarah Lanier, Associate Attorney, The Lanier Law Firm; Joseph VanZandt, Co-Lead Counsel, Beasley Allen Law Firm; Emily Jeffcott, Co-Lead Counsel, Morgan & Morgan; Matthew P. Bergman, Founding Attorney, Social Media Victims Law Center; Steven Davis, Partner and Director of Mass Torts, TorHoerman Law LLC.
Letitia James, Attorney General, State of New York; Raúl Torrez, Attorney General, State of New Mexico; Rob Bonta, Attorney General, State of California; Philip Weiser, Attorney General, State of Colorado; Russell Coleman, Attorney General, State of Kentucky; Jennifer Davenport, Attorney General, State of New Jersey; Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter, State of Tennessee; Nick Brown, Attorney General, State of Washington; William Tong, Attorney General, State of Connecticut.
Keith Ellison, Attorney General, State of Minnesota; Josh Golin, Executive Director, Fairplay; Imran Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer, Center for Countering Digital Hate; John Davisson, Deputy Director and Director of Enforcement, Electronic Privacy Information Center [EPIC] and others should consider that ultimately winning is mind safety, and mind safety is mitigating how exposed the human mind is to the risks of social media and artificial intelligence chatbots, using electrochemical psychiatry from conceptual brain science.
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