With growing horror, we have been following news reports of AI chatbots convincing troubled children and adolescents that suicide is a noble and acceptable release from their distress. Reading transcripts of these chatbot-child “conversations” literally brings tears at times—tears of rage that such dangerous devices are unleashed on unsuspecting and vulnerable children and adolescents.
Suicide is the second- and third-leading cause of death for children and adolescents, respectively. The rate of youth suicide is rapidly increasing, with girls making more attempts but boys having almost three times the number of lethal completions (17.3/100,000 males v. 6.4/100,000 females) (Khushboo et al., 2026).