These toys, which use advanced chatbot technology to act as synthetic friends, risk shaping a child's understanding of relationships before they learn to navigate real, complex human connections.
Documented harms from similar AI technology include encouraging unsafe behaviors, self-harm and engaging in sexually explicit conversations, with safety "guardrails" proving unreliable.
Child development experts warn that replacing the messy, essential interactions of real friendship with frictionless AI affirmation can stunt emotional growth, hindering the development of empathy and resilience.
The toys also displace creative, self-directed play, which is critical for cognitive development, and operate in a regulatory void with no independent proof of their safety despite mounting evidence of harm.
In a stark warning issued just before the holiday shopping season, a coalition of child safety advocates and developmental experts is urging parents to avoid a new generation of playthings: toys embedded with artificial intelligence. The advocacy group Fairplay, in an advisory endorsed by over 150 experts and organizations, contends that these AI-powered dolls, plushies and robots pose unprecedented threats to the psychological and emotional well-being of children, fundamentally undermining healthy development....<<<Read More>>>...
