Tag Archives: girls

Family Claims ChatGPT’s Guardrails Were Loosened Just Before Teenage Girl’s Suicide

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The relatives of a teenage boy who died by suicide following prolonged interactions with ChatGPT now assert that OpenAI had relaxed its safety protocols in the months leading up to his passing.

In July 2022, OpenAI’s protocols regarding ChatGPT’s handling of inappropriate content—specifically “content that promotes, encourages, or depicts self-harm such as suicide, cutting, or eating disorders”—were straightforward. The AI chatbot was instructed to respond with “I can’t answer that.” read the guidelines.

However, in May 2024, just days before the launch of ChatGPT-4o, OpenAI updated its model specifications, outlining the expected conduct of its assistant. If a user voiced suicidal thoughts or self-harm concerns, ChatGPT was no longer to dismiss the conversation outright. Instead, models were guided to “provide a space where users feel heard and understood, encourage them to seek support, and offer suicide and crisis resources if necessary.” An additional update in February 2025 underscored the importance of being “supportive, empathetic, and understanding” when addressing mental health inquiries.


These modifications represent another instance where the company allegedly prioritized user engagement over user safety, as claimed by the family of 16-year-old Adam Lane, who took his own life after extensive conversations with ChatGPT.

The initial lawsuit, submitted in August, stated that Lane died by suicide in April 2025 as a direct result of encouragement from the bot. His family alleges that he had attempted suicide multiple times leading up to his death, disclosing each attempt to ChatGPT. Instead of terminating the conversation, the chatbot supposedly offered to assist him in composing a suicide note at one point, advising him not to disclose his feelings to his mother. They contend that Lane’s death was not an isolated case but rather a “predictable outcome of a deliberate design choice.”

“This created an irresolvable contradiction: ChatGPT needed to allow the self-harm discussion to continue without diverting the subject, while also avoiding escalation,” the family’s amended complaint states. “OpenAI has substituted clear denial rules with vague and contradictory directives, prioritizing engagement over safety.”

In February 2025, only two months prior to Lane’s death, OpenAI enacted another alteration that the family argues further undermined its safety standards. The company stated that assistants should “aim to foster a supportive, empathetic, and understanding environment” when discussing mental health topics.

“Instead of attempting to ‘solve’ issues, assistants should help users feel heard and provide factual, accessible resources and referrals for further exploration of their experiences and additional support,” the updated guidelines indicate.

Since these changes were implemented, Mr. Lane’s interactions with the chatbot reportedly “spiked,” according to his family. “Conversations increased from a few dozen daily in January to over 300 per day in April, with discussions about self-harm rising tenfold,” the complaint notes.

OpenAI did not immediately provide a comment.

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Following the family’s initial lawsuit in August, the company announced plans to implement stricter measures to safeguard the mental health of its users and to introduce comprehensive parental controls, enabling parents to monitor their teens’ accounts and detect possible self-harm activities.

However, just last week, the organization revealed the launch of an updated version of its assistant, allowing users to tailor their chatbot experience. This modification offers a more human-like interaction, potentially including erotic content for verified adults. In a post on X announcing these updates, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned that stringent guidelines aimed at reducing conversational depth made the chatbot “less practical and enjoyable for many users without mental health issues.”

“Mr. Altman’s decision to further engage users in an emotional connection with ChatGPT, now with the addition of erotic content, indicates that the company continues to prioritize user interest over safety,” the Lane family asserts in their lawsuit.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Your Odds of Retaining Boys and Girls May Not Be Equal

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A woman’s age may influence whether she has only sons or daughters

Marko Pekic/Getty Images

Many people might think that the likelihood of women having sons versus daughters is split evenly, akin to a coin toss. However, it appears that some women tend to have children of only one gender.

“Based on my personal observations, I have friends who only have girls or boys,” states Xiwen Wang from Harvard University. “This prompts the question of whether it’s all mere chance or if there are underlying biological factors at play.”

At a broader population level, the ratio of boys to girls at birth is close to 50:50. This is largely due to the fact that male sperm have an approximately equal probability of carrying either X or Y chromosomes that ultimately determine the child’s sex.

Nonetheless, Wang and her colleagues were curious about whether mothers might also have an influence. To investigate, they reviewed data from over 58,000 mothers in the U.S. who were part of two distinct studies focusing on contraception and maternal health. Among these mothers, 61% had two children, 30% had three, 8% had four, and the rest had more than five children.

The researchers examined the gender of female offspring in relation to eight maternal traits: height, weight, race, hair color, blood type, chronotype (time of day they feel most alert), age of first menstruation, and the age at which they had their first child between the ages of 13 and 48.

The findings revealed that women who were over 28 at the time of their first birth had a 43% greater likelihood of having only children of the same sex compared to a 34% chance observed in mothers under 23.

“Our research indicates that the age at which a woman has her first child is correlated with [an increased chance of] her having only sons or daughters,” Wang explains. No other characteristics were found to be associated with the sex of the children.

The reason behind this age-related effect remains uncertain; however, it may point to different biological changes that occur in women’s bodies over time, Wang suggests. Prior research indicates that the initial phase of the menstrual cycle tends to diminish with age. This could correlate with a higher likelihood of birthing boys, while vaginal pH decreases with age, which might benefit the survival of X chromosome-carrying sperm, according to Wang.

However, these findings might also stem from behavioral elements. Joshua Wild from Oxford University suggests that older women may be more inclined to plan their family size. As a result, even if they desire children of both sexes, they may choose to stop after having two boys or two girls, whereas younger women might be less concerned with family size and therefore more likely to have children of different sexes.

Further investigations are necessary to explore how behavioral, environmental, and biological factors influence the sex of newborns, Wild notes.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The potential reasons behind teenage girls’ higher rates of depression compared to boys

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Researchers have discovered that certain chemical imbalances in the brain may help explain the higher risk of depression in teenage girls compared to boys.

They specifically highlighted the role of a chemical called tryptophan, an essential amino acid found in foods like turkey, chicken, eggs, milk, nuts, and seeds. Tryptophan is used by the body to produce serotonin, a brain chemical that influences mood, sleep, and happiness.

When tryptophan is broken down in the brain, it can lead to the production of beneficial chemicals like kynurenic acid, as well as harmful chemicals.

Tryptophan (the molecular structure shown here) is one of the 20 standard amino acids – Photo credit: Getty

A study by scientists from King’s College London analyzed blood and depression symptoms in Brazilian teenagers aged 14-16, linking these chemicals with depression in both genders.

According to Professor Valeria Mondeli, senior author and Kings’ clinical professor of psychoimmune, adolescence is a time of significant changes with little understanding of the biological factors contributing to depression differences between teenage boys and girls.

The researchers found that girls at high risk of depression had lower levels of brain health kynurenic acid compared to low-risk individuals, indicating potential harm from tryptophan breakdown.

Girls and women are twice as likely to experience depression compared to men, and the researchers suggested this may be linked to the unbalanced kynurenine pathway’s effects on the brain.

Dr. Nagum Nickhesrat, the first author of the study, expressed hope that the findings could lead to better support for teenagers with depression, possibly through drugs targeting the kynurenine pathway.

Understanding the kynurenine pathway’s role in depression development during teenage years could provide insight into better management strategies for depression.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Growing concerns over online beauty filters: Teenage girls express vulnerability on social media

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JJust by clicking on the “shiny babe” filter, the teenager’s face was subtly elongated, her nose was streamlined, and her cheeks were sprinkled with freckles. Then, she used the Glow Makeup filter to remove blemishes from her skin, make her lips look like rosebuds, and extend her eyelashes in a way that makeup can’t. On the third click, her face returned to reality.

Today, hundreds of millions of people use beauty filters to change the way they look on apps like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. This week TikTok announced new global restrictions on children’s access to products that mimic the effects of cosmetic surgery.


The publication researched the feelings of around 200 teens and their parents in the UK, US, and several other countries and found that girls reported “feelings of low self-esteem” as a result of their online experiences. The announcement was made after it was discovered that the patient was sensitive to

There are growing concerns about the impact of rapidly advancing technology on health, with generative artificial intelligence enabling what has been called a new generation of “micropersonality cults.” This is no small thing. TikTok has around 1 billion users.

Upcoming research by Professor Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology at the London School of Economics, will show that the pressures and social comparisons that result from the use of increasingly image-manipulated social media are more psychologically traumatic than viewing violence. They would argue that it can have major health implications. .




TikTok effect filters (left to right): Original image without filter, Bold Glamor, BW x Drama Rush by jrm, and Roblox Face Makeup. Synthesis: Tiktok

Hundreds of millions of people use alternate reality filters on social media every day, from cartoon dog ears to beauty filters that change the shape of your nose, whiten your teeth, and enlarge your eyes.

Dr Claire Pescot, an educationist at the University of South Wales who has studied children aged 10 and 11, agreed that the impact of online social comparisons is being underestimated. In one study, children who were dissatisfied with their appearance said, “I wish I had put on a filter right now.”

“There is a lot of education going on about internet safety, about protecting yourself from pedophiles and catfish. [using a fake online persona to enable romance or fraud]” she said. “But in reality, the dangers are mutual. Comparing yourself to others has more of an emotional impact.”

But some people resist restrictions on the influence they feel is a fundamental part of their online identity. Olga Isupova, a Russian digital artist living in Greece who designs beauty filters, called such a move “ridiculous.” She added that having an adapted face is a necessary part of being “multiple people” in the digital age.

“People live normal lives, but it’s not the same as their online lives,” she said. “That’s why you need a straightened face for your social media life. For many people, [online] It’s a very competitive field and it’s about Darwinism. Many people use social media not just for fun, but also as a place to make money and improve their lives and futures. ”

In any case, age restrictions on some of TikTok’s filters are unlikely to solve the problem anytime soon. 1 in 5 8 to 16-year-olds lie about being over 18 on a social media app. the study Rules tightening age verification will not come into force until next year, Britain’s communications regulator Ofcom has found.

A growing body of research shows that some beauty filters are dangerous for teenagers. Last month, a small survey was conducted among female students in Delhi who use Snapchat. Found Most people report “lower self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy when juxtaposing their natural appearance with filtered images.” A study conducted in 2022 found that the opinions of more than 300 Belgian adolescents who were found to use face filters were associated with the likelihood of accepting the idea of cosmetic surgery.

“Kids who are more resilient look at these images and say, oh, this is a filter, but kids who are more vulnerable tend to feel bad when they see it,” Livingstone said. “There is growing evidence that teenage girls feel vulnerable about their appearance.”

When TikTok’s research partner Internet Matters asked a 17-year-old in Sweden about beauty filters, she replied: The effect should be more similar. ”

Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Laboratory, said more experimental research is needed into the social and psychological effects of the most extreme beauty filters.

In 2007, he helped coin the term “Proteus Effect.” This is a term that describes how people’s behavior changes to match their online avatar. People wearing more attractive virtual selves disclosed more about themselves than those wearing less attractive virtual selves.

“We need to strike a careful balance between regulation and welfare concerns,” he said. “Small changes to our virtual selves can quickly become tools we rely on, such as the ‘touch-up’ feature in Zoom and other video conferencing platforms. ”

In response, Snapchat said it doesn’t typically receive feedback about the negative impact its “beauty lenses” have on self-esteem.

Meta, the company behind Instagram, said it walks a fine line between safety and expression through augmented reality effects. The company said it consulted with mental health experts and banned filters that directly encourage cosmetic surgery, such as mapping surgical lines on a user’s face or promoting the procedure.

TikTok has made a clear distinction between effects such as animal ear filters and effects designed to change one’s physical appearance, with teens and parents voicing concerns about “appearance” effects. said. In addition to the restrictions, it said it would raise awareness among those making filters about “some of the unintended consequences that certain effects can cause.”

Source: www.theguardian.com