Ahead of the holidays, consumer and child advocacy groups warn against AI toys

A nonprofit children's safety organization, Fairplay, is urging gift givers to avoid buying AI toys for children this holiday season, according to an advisory issued on Thursday.

Fairplay, along with other child and consumer advocacy groups, say these toys – playthings like plushies, dolls, action figures, and kids' robots embedded with chatbots and other artificial intelligence technologies – can be dangerous.

Designed to mimic human behaviors and interact with kids as if they were friends, the toys offer novelty at a time when AI is starting to infiltrate many corners of peoples' lives.

Fairplay's advisory, headlined "AI Toys are NOT safe for kids," says these toys prey on children's trust and disrupt human relationships, among other harms. The advisory was endorsed by more than 150 experts and groups including MIT professor and author Sherry Turkle, pediatrician and researcher Jenny Radesky, Social Media Victims Law Center, and International Play Association USA.

"It's ridiculous to expect young children to avoid potential harm here," said Rachel Franz, a Fairplay program director, in a statement to NPR. "Young children are especially susceptible to the potential harms of these toys, such as invading their privacy, collecting data, engendering false trust and friendship, and displacing what they need to thrive, like human-to-human interactions and time to play with all their senses. These can have long and short-term impacts on development."

Others share concerns

The advisory follows similar recent warnings from the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). The consumer rights nonprofit's 40th annual "Trouble in Toyland" report says some AI toys enable in-depth talk about sexually explicit topics, have few parental controls, and collect a mountain of data about their underage owners.

"All of them are collecting your child's voices, potentially. They're collecting their names, their dates of birth. All kinds of information – the kid's likes, dislikes, favorite toys, favorite friends," said Teresa Murray, co-author of the PIRG report and director of its consumer watchdog program, in an interview with NPR. "Because they're connected to the internet, so anything is available, who knows what those toys might start talking to your children about with their friends or their friends' parents or your neighborhood? I mean, it's terrifying."

Toy industry and AI players highlight safety and privacy

The toy industry and AI companies are responding to such fears by highlighting their focus on safety and privacy.

OpenAI said it suspended the maker of the AI-powered teddy bear Kumma earlier this week, after PIRG reported the toy was sharing questionable advice with minors, such as providing details about how to find and ignite matches. When prompted by researchers, it also talked in-depth about sexual matters. "We suspended this developer [the Singapore-based toymaker FoloToy] for violating our policies," OpenAI spokesperson Gaby Raila said in an email to NPR. "Our usage policies prohibit any use of our services to exploit, endanger, or sexualize anyone under 18 years old. These rules apply to every developer using our API, and we monitor and enforce them to ensure our services are not used to harm minors."  

The company's technologies are also embedded in other AI toys including the AI robot pet Loona, and it entered into a strategic partnership with Mattel earlier this year "to support AI-powered products and experiences based on Mattel's brands." No products have yet been announced. But the company said the initial set of Mattel products and experiences will focus on families and older customers, not users under 13.

Fairplay singled out several AI toys to demonstrate the potential risks of data collection and the impact on a child's understanding of trust. Among them are Miko, a cute plastic robot that comes with educational games and the tagline "Built to be your new best friend," Loona Petbot, a small, plastic robot companion that moves around on wheels and has a screen and ear-like, and Gabbo, a cube-shaped robot plushy with big anime-style eyes. It has no screen, but can be connected to wifi and do voice chat. NPR has reached out to the makers of these products for comment.

"Children's safety is our top priority," said Curio, the company behind Gabbo and other AI playthings, in a statement to NPR. "Our guardrails are meticulously designed to protect kids, and we encourage parents to monitor conversations, track insights, and choose the controls that work best for their family on the Curio: Interactive Toys app."

"Facial recognition on Miko 3 is entirely optional and exists solely to help families enjoy a more personalized and interactive experience," said Ritvik Sharma, a senior vice president at Miko.ai, in an email to NPR. "Importantly, all visual data is processed locally on the device. It is never sent to the cloud or shared externally. To offer families greater confidence and control, every Miko robot includes a physical camera shutter that allows parents to completely block the camera whenever they choose."

In an email to NPR, The Toy Association, which represents toy manufacturers, said toys sold by responsible manufacturers and retailers must adhere to more than 100 strict federal safety standards and tests, including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which governs children's privacy and data security online and is overseen by the Federal Trade Commission. "The Toy Association urges parents and caregivers to shop only from reputable toymakers, brands, and retailers who prioritize children's safety above all else," the statement said, adding that it offers safety tips for A.I. and other connected products to better inform peoples' buying decisions.
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