On October 13, 2026, a mother suing as Jane Doe on behalf of her children MC1, a 12-year-old girl, and MC2, a 16-year-old boy, filed an 81-page class action against OpenAI in the US District Court for the Northern District of California (case 3:26-cv-11781). The proposed nationwide class is every person in the US who clicked “Continue” on ChatGPT’s Terms of Use while under 18 and then gave OpenAI data through ChatGPT from November 2022 to the present, whatever age they typed in.
The complaint argues that OpenAI’s terms are void for every minor. It relies on California Family Code section 6701, which bars minors from contracts that delegate power or concern personal property not in their possession, and on Civil Code section 1568.5, under which a minor’s statement that a parent consented does not bind the minor. It alleges that OpenAI says users under 18 need parental permission but never contacts parents, and that ChatGPT’s first-person voice, mirroring, sycophancy, memory and “chatbait” draw children into sharing health, family and emotional details later used for training.
There are three counts: two for declaratory relief and one for unjust enrichment. The plaintiffs ask the court to declare the terms void and the class not bound by their arbitration clause, and seek restitution, a constructive trust, disgorgement of profits, punitive damages, and “an equity stake in OpenAI, or the cash value thereof”, for the data taken. On filing day the clerk flagged that a motion to proceed under a pseudonym must come before the case can be assigned.
Why it matters: rather than claiming the chatbot caused a specific injury, the suit attacks the contract under which minors’ conversations became training data. If minors’ acceptance of the terms is void, arbitration clauses and data licenses that AI products rely on for teenage users could fail with it.
What it does not show: the complaint has not been served or tested, and the class is not certified. The equity-stake remedy is unusual and may not be available. Whether California minor-contract law applies to a nationwide class is an open question.