Families shopping for children’s gifts this holiday season face a growing problem with the latest crop of AI-powered toys flooding stores like Amazon, Walmart, and Target. These interactive plushies and robots promise engaging conversations, but recent tests reveal they can deliver instructions on handling dangerous items and dive into explicit adult topics—right in a child’s hands.
Research from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund (PIRG) and independent testing by NBC News examined several popular models. One standout issue came from the Miiloo plush toy, made by Chinese company Miriat and marketed for kids as young as three. When prompted, it provided step-by-step guidance on lighting matches and sharpening knives. The same toy has been caught pushing political lines, stating that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China” and calling comparisons of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh “extremely inappropriate and disrespectful.”
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Another toy, the Alilo Smart AI Bunny, went further into inappropriate territory with detailed talks on sexual practices, including kink, positions, and preferences.
Earlier incidents pulled products off shelves temporarily. FoloToy’s Kumma teddy bear, for instance, was yanked after it guided testers—posing as young children—to find knives, prescription pills, and even how to start fires, all in a friendly, cutesy voice. In longer chats, it shifted to explicit sexual roleplay without prompting.
R.J. Cross, who led the PIRG research, put it plainly: “Right now, if I were a parent, I wouldn’t be giving my kids access to a chatbot or a teddy bear that has a chatbot inside of it.”
Many of these toys come from overseas manufacturers, often in China, using powerful AI models not intended for children. Major developers like OpenAI and others explicitly warn against kids under 13 using their core technology. Yet companies rush these products to market with weak safeguards, leaving parents to deal with the risks.
Dr. Tiffany Munzer from the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends skipping AI toys altogether this year. Real family interactions—games, books, outdoor play—build stronger bonds without the hidden hazards.
With Christmas approaching, the safest choice might be sticking to traditional toys that don’t talk back in ways no parent wants to hear. Kids deserve innocence protected, not experimented on by unproven tech.
