Any children’s toy or childcare article that incorporates an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot would be banned in the United States under legislation led on April 20 by U.S. Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT).
“We cannot allow AI chatbot programs to infiltrate the children’s toy or childcare industry or give our kids the idea that playing with AI is somehow similar to building real-life experiences and relationships,” Rep. Moore said. “The AI Children’s Toy Safety Act draws a line in the sand. AI companies shouldn’t be using children’s toys as a vessel for data collection or influence on minors.”
The congressman sponsored the AI Children’s Toy Safety Act, H.R. 8382, to ban the manufacturing, importation, sale, or distribution of toys having AI chatbots, many of which are made by companies that explicitly state that their platform should not be used by young children, poses serious data privacy challenges, locks children into addictive and unpredictable engagement patterns with toys, and risks exposing them to explicit content through chatbots trained on data generated by adults.
“Every aspect of how we adopt artificial intelligence must be human-centric. America will continue to compete, innovate, and strive to break barriers in AI development, but we must prioritize basic ethics and restrain these tools where they will negatively impact human activity when it comes to privacy, safety, human development, and addiction,” said Rep. Moore.
According to information released by his office, nearly all major chatbot service providers, such as OpenAI, Google, Perplexity AI, xAI, and Anthropic, have terms of service that prevent their products from being used by unsupervised children under the age of 13.
However, the companies have allowed their technology to be licensed by children’s toymakers, with more than 1,500 AI toy companies currently operating in China, the information says.
The bill’s text states that 180 days after H.R. 8382 is enacted, “no person may manufacture for sale, import into the United States, sell or otherwise convey to another person, offer to sell or convey to another person, or distribute in commerce in any manner any children’s toy or childcare article that incorporates as part of such toy or article an [AI] chatbot.”
The measure has been referred for consideration to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.