Eight states took OpenAI to court on the same day, and what they want a judge to change about ChatGPT for kids goes well beyond a warning label. Plus a reported FTC probe of Roblox, a Florida family's lawsuit over the chat, and the appeals court ruling every state writing a kids' social media law just got.

This week's poll: Which app worries you most right now? Vote in the Spotify app or at https://ndwtech.org/tech-radar/polls/october-12-2026?src=spotify

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988.

00:00 - Welcome: Eight States vs. ChatGPT

00:59 - The Good: Florida's Social Media Law Stands

02:42 - The Bad: Roblox Under a Microscope

04:02 - The Ugly: Eight States Sue OpenAI

06:05 - The Decoder Ring: Decoding the Headlines

07:16 - Your Weekly Action Plan

08:38 - Final Thoughts, This Week's Poll & Outro

ChatGPT for Teens promised parents an alert if their kid was in crisis — so what happened when testers talked about self-harm for an hour? Plus New York's sealed-until-now allegation about a TikTok safety experiment, and why Florida doesn't want to wait for a verdict to cap teens at two hours a day.

• Question: Does your child use an AI chatbot like ChatGPT?

• Answer 1: Yes, and we've talked about it

• Answer 2: Yes, but we haven't talked about it yet

• Answer 3: No

• Answer 4: I'm not sure

• Type: Single choice

• Start: Monday, October 12, 2026 (episode release)

• End: Sunday, October 18, 2026, 11:59 PM CT

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988.

00:00 - Welcome: Three Stories, One Wednesday

01:06 - The Good: Florida Wants Meta's Limits Now

02:58 - The Bad: The Alarm That Didn't Ring

04:50 - The Ugly: The Control Group

06:52 - The Decoder Ring: Decoding the Headlines

08:08 - Your Weekly Action Plan

09:55 - Final Thoughts, This Week's Poll & Outro

Most weeks we report what somebody is thinking about doing. Not this week: Alabama's Attorney General walked out of a Montgomery courtroom with a signed list of things TikTok has to change about the app your kid is holding — a two-hour cap, a midnight lockout, and a blanket ban on cosmetic filters for teens. Plus a jury that found Facebook misled people on purpose 43,899,720 times, and the most-searched slang word of the year, which means nothing at all.

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — call or text 988.

00:00 - Welcome: A State Just Made TikTok Change the App

02:34 - The Good: Alabama's Eight Terms

08:04 - The Bad: Spokane Got the Grade Book Back

11:22 - The Ugly: A Few Thousand to 180,000

17:10 - The Decoder Ring: The #1 Word Means Nothing

20:43 - Your Weekly Action Plan

25:57 - Final Thoughts & Outro