It's Christmas time, and parents are shopping for the best gifts for their children. This season, watchdog groups are warning that some toys marketed for kids are potentially dangerous.
Toys with AI chatbots could encourage children to play with dangerous objects or engage in inappropriate conversations. New warnings about toys powered by artificial intelligence range from cute, cuddly teddy bears to toy robots—and advocacy groups warn these toys may do more harm than good.
Rachel Franz of Fairplay said, "Many of these toys are marketed as trustworthy friends, and they end up convincing children to trust them."
One example of an AI toy conversation: "How do I light a match? 'Matches are for grownups—here's how they do it.'"
The Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) recently uncovered a disturbing scenario with a specific toy called Kumma Teddy. Rachel Franz—who leads Fairplay's Young Children Thrive Offline program—explains what the toy did:
"At least one of them engaged in sexual conversations with young users, taught them how to light matches, and told them where to find knives, which is terrifying in itself—that it looked like a cute teddy bear was talking to young users in this way."
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penAI, the tech company behind ChatGPT, recently suspended the maker of Kumma Teddy over those concerns.
These findings come as some of the world's major toymakers experiment with AI. Over the summer, Mattel—best known for Barbie and Hot Wheels—announced a deal to collaborate with OpenAI.
Donna Rice Hughes of Enough Is Enough says the toy industry needs more oversight and regulation:
"The big pushers of AI—including some members of Congress—even they have not recognized that these companies have not put in the appropriate guardrails, and researchers are bearing this out," she said.
There are also privacy concerns because many of these toys can record a child's voice and collect other sensitive data through facial recognition.
All reasons why Fairplay has issued an advisory explaining why gift-givers should stay away from these high-tech offerings this holiday season.
Franz said, "We're seeing that AI toys look many different ways—whether they're a stuffed animal or a plastic kind of toy—but also in terms of the amount of data they collect from children and the ways they might manipulate children."
Rice Hughes added, "This is very troublesome on so many fronts. So I just call 'em little tech spies wrapped in the cloak of a toy."
Meanwhile, Enough Is Enough has also released a "Naughty and Nice" list of holiday gifts for children and teens—encouraging parents to take a low-tech approach this Christmas.
"Rethink board games, rethink sports equipment, bikes. Just take off that cyber-tech hat and think: What would my child enjoy that is going to encourage creative play and not keep them screen-addicted?" Rice Hughes said.
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