December 17, 2025
World News Group: Are AI toys safe for children?
Toy creators say they’re improving their guardrails even as family watchdogs issue stern warnings
With black button eyes, light brown fur, and a knit scarf around his neck, Kumma looks like a classic teddy bear. But FoloToy, the bear’s creator, embedded something controversial inside the $99 stuffed animal—an artificial intelligence chatbot powered by OpenAI....
Donna Rice Hughes, head of the internet safety advocacy group Enough is Enough, has young grandchildren and argues that even if companies tested the toys on children, she believes AI is still too unpredictable to be worth the gamble for children’s use.
“I would not want to try out an AI toy on my young child, and just hope that that toy company made sure there were no ways that a chatbot inside that toy could go off the rails and do something like Kumma did,” she said...