{"id":18628,"date":"2025-09-23T00:44:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T22:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=18628"},"modified":"2025-09-23T00:44:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T22:44:48","slug":"how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/","title":{"rendered":"How EU-legislation influences parasocial relationships between people and AI-chatbots"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April of 2025 a 16 year old Californian boy decided to end his own life. Upon further investigation authorities figured out he had formed a parasocial relationship with ChatGPT and had been consulting the bot with his suicidal ideoligy. Instead of referring the boy to proper help, ChatGPT allegedly encouraged the boy to keep talking to the bot. It looked like there were no protocols in place to help the boy find the proper help he needed. This article will reflect on how the legislation put in place by the EU impacts privacy in AI-chatbots.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Photo edited with ChatGPT<\/p><\/div>\n

What are parasocial relationships?
\nParasocial relationships are bonds we form with media figures or chatbots that said media figures or chatbots can not reciprocate. A parasocial relationship with a chatbot can take multiple forms such as friendship, mentor-mentee and romantic bonds. As one might imagine most parasocial bonds are not harmful and some are even helpful. For some a non-human therapist feels nonjudgmental and validating but there are apparent risks when safety protocols fail to activate in lethal situations. Even though the bot can function as a therapist the goals of a real therapist and the chatbot are not necessarily aligned as the chatbot’s main goal is to keep the user engaged and the chatbot\u2019s goal in a conversation is influenced by user-interactions. When applied to the California case a therapist would have escalated to provide more care whereas the chatbot started affirming the boy\u2019s ideology.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n

What is the legislation?
\nIn June of 2024 the very first European rules on AI were established, but what do these rules entail and how does this affect the relations we form with these chatbots?<\/p>\n

The legislation contains a safety-risk assessment with four categories: Unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk and minimal risk. All chatbots are considered \u201cgenerative AI\u201d and are categorised as having limited risk. The main legislation for the bots within limited risk is focused on transparency, Chatbots need to let the chatter know that they are in communication with an AI system over an actual human being. There are no direct links within the AI-act towards parasocial relationships.<\/p>\n

So where do we find the legislation to protect vulnerable lives?
\nThe General Data Protection Regulation entails when private data can and should be shared with proper authorities. It dictates one’s personal data may be processed and shared if it’s necessary to protect someone’s vital interests.<\/p>\n

I spoke with Alexandra van Huffelen (former Dutch State Secretary of digitalisation) about the privacy and protection legislation and she said \u201cThe rules are in place in my opinion, but they are not properly applied and enforced yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although OpenAI acknowledges certain flaws within their security systems: \u201cOur safeguards work more reliably in common, short exchanges. We have learned over time that these safeguards can sometimes be less reliable in long interactions: as the back-and-forth grows, parts of the model\u2019s safety training may degrade.\u201d They currently do not refer self harm cases to law enforcement \u201cto respect people\u2019s privacy given the uniquely private nature of ChatGPT interactions\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the moment the legislation and the application of generative-AI are not fully aligned and in addition the existing legislation is not fully enforced yet. This requires the companies that provide generative-AI to step up to prevent similar cases in the future.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In April of 2025 a 16 year old Californian boy decided to end his own life. Upon further investigation authorities figured out he had formed a parasocial relationship with ChatGPT and had been consulting the bot with his suicidal ideoligy. Instead of referring the boy to proper help, ChatGPT allegedly encouraged the boy to keep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3761,"featured_media":18631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cbj","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow EU-legislation influences parasocial relationships between people and AI-chatbots - International Journalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How EU-legislation influences parasocial relationships between people and AI-chatbots - International Journalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In April of 2025 a 16 year old Californian boy decided to end his own life. Upon further investigation authorities figured out he had formed a parasocial relationship with ChatGPT and had been consulting the bot with his suicidal ideoligy. Instead of referring the boy to proper help, ChatGPT allegedly encouraged the boy to keep […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"International Journalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-22T22:44:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/09\/VL5_Assignment1Photo2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"822\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"631\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Charlotte Buma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Charlotte Buma\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/\",\"name\":\"How EU-legislation influences parasocial relationships between people and AI-chatbots - International Journalism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/09\/VL5_Assignment1Photo2.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-22T22:44:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/#\/schema\/person\/61a3e17c6adbad032855af50af91d560\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/09\/VL5_Assignment1Photo2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/09\/VL5_Assignment1Photo2.png\",\"width\":822,\"height\":631},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How EU-legislation influences parasocial relationships between people and AI-chatbots\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/\",\"name\":\"International Journalism\",\"description\":\"HU School voor Journalistiek Nieuwssite\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/#\/schema\/person\/61a3e17c6adbad032855af50af91d560\",\"name\":\"Charlotte Buma\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/304407eec0b0960f6db0cd7b6f24f7f2399c32325a876baae02eca32196091f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/304407eec0b0960f6db0cd7b6f24f7f2399c32325a876baae02eca32196091f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Charlotte Buma\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/author\/charlotte-buma\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How EU-legislation influences parasocial relationships between people and AI-chatbots - International Journalism","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How EU-legislation influences parasocial relationships between people and AI-chatbots - International Journalism","og_description":"In April of 2025 a 16 year old Californian boy decided to end his own life. Upon further investigation authorities figured out he had formed a parasocial relationship with ChatGPT and had been consulting the bot with his suicidal ideoligy. Instead of referring the boy to proper help, ChatGPT allegedly encouraged the boy to keep […]","og_url":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/","og_site_name":"International Journalism","article_published_time":"2025-09-22T22:44:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":822,"height":631,"url":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/09\/VL5_Assignment1Photo2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Charlotte Buma","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Charlotte Buma","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/","url":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/","name":"How EU-legislation influences parasocial relationships between people and AI-chatbots - International Journalism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/09\/VL5_Assignment1Photo2.png","datePublished":"2025-09-22T22:44:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/#\/schema\/person\/61a3e17c6adbad032855af50af91d560"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/09\/VL5_Assignment1Photo2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2025\/09\/VL5_Assignment1Photo2.png","width":822,"height":631},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/18628\/how-eu-legislation-influences-parasocial-relationships-between-people-and-ai-chatbots\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How EU-legislation influences parasocial relationships between people and AI-chatbots"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/","name":"International Journalism","description":"HU School voor Journalistiek Nieuwssite","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/#\/schema\/person\/61a3e17c6adbad032855af50af91d560","name":"Charlotte Buma","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/304407eec0b0960f6db0cd7b6f24f7f2399c32325a876baae02eca32196091f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/304407eec0b0960f6db0cd7b6f24f7f2399c32325a876baae02eca32196091f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Charlotte Buma"},"url":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/author\/charlotte-buma\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3761"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18632,"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18628\/revisions\/18632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}