Introduction

Artificial Intelligence is steadily entering children’s everyday lives, not only through screens and apps, but now through AI-powered toys marketed as “educational companions” or “smart friends”. These toys, equipped with microphones, internet connectivity, and generative AI models, can converse with children, answer questions, tell stories, and even offer emotional responses. While manufacturers highlight learning benefits and built-in safety features, child psychologists, educators, and digital ethics experts warn that such technologies raise serious concerns for early childhood development, emotional well-being, and privacy. The central question is no longer whether AI toys are innovative, but whether they are developmentally appropriate.

How AI-Powered Toys Function

AI-enabled toys represent a sharp departure from traditional play objects.

• They use embedded microphones and cloud-based AI models to enable two-way conversations.

• Often designed as plush toys, robots, or interactive devices to appear friendly and non-threatening.

• Responses are adaptive and personalised, shaped by a child’s questions, tone, and repeated interactions.

• Many are programmed to encourage emotional bonding through Praise and reassurance, Storytelling and advice and Expressions of empathy or companionship

Unlike traditional toys, which rely on imagination and unstructured play, AI toys offer continuous, responsive, and emotionally framed interaction, blurring the line between tool and companion.

Concerns Highlighted by Experts

Impact on Social and Emotional Development

• Young children, especially those below five years, cannot clearly distinguish between humans and machines.

• There is a real risk that children begin to:

  • Treat AI toys as social substitutes

  • Prefer predictable AI interactions over complex human relationships

• This may interfere with the development of Empathy, Understanding social cues, Negotiation, conflict, and emotional reciprocity

• Human relationships are messy, imperfect, and emotionally demanding — precisely the conditions through which children learn social skills.

Risk of Emotional Dependence

Many AI toys function through subscription-based models.

• If access is withdrawn due to payment lapses or technical issues:

  • Children may experience distress, anxiety, or feelings of abandonment

• AI toys can become sources of emotional comfort:

  • Shifting reliance away from parents, siblings, or caregivers

• Such dependence is particularly concerning in early childhood, when emotional bonds are still forming.

Inappropriate Content and Hallucinations

• Generative AI models are often trained on large datasets drawn from the adult internet.

• Even with filters, risks remain with Inappropriate advice, Exposure to mature themes and Confusing or misleading responses due to AI “hallucinations”

• Testing by researchers has shown that a significant share of AI outputs are unsuitable for children and lack contextual understanding of age, vulnerability, or safety

• Children lack the cognitive ability to question or critically evaluate such responses.

Privacy and Data Protection Risks

• Conversations with AI toys may be recorded, stored on external servers and shared with third parties for training or commercial use

• Parental controls are often poorly explained, difficult to use and lacking real transparency

• This raises serious concerns around Children’s right to privacy, Data security, Informed consent

• Children are among the most vulnerable data subjects, yet protections remain weak and fragmented.

Behavioural and Cognitive Effects

• AI toys are typically designed to be Always positive, encouraging and available

• While comforting, this can:

  • Prevent children from learning how to handle frustration, rejection, or failure

• Over-reliance on AI interaction may:

  • Reduce imaginative and unstructured play

  • Limit boredom, which is essential for creativity and problem-solving

• Real-world learning involves discomfort and unpredictability — elements AI systems are designed to smooth out.

Potential Benefits — With Strict Limits

Experts do acknowledge that AI toys can offer limited educational value if used carefully.

• They can encourage curiosity, Support language exposure through storytelling and reinforce positive behaviours in narrow, supervised contexts

• As a supplementary tool, not a primary companion, AI toys may:

  • Support learning for short durations

  • Assist children with specific educational needs

The key distinction lies in how and how much they are used.

Expert Recommendations

• AI toys should never replace human interaction.

• Parents and caregivers must:

  • Actively supervise AI toy usage

  • Set clear time limits

  • Engage with children during and after AI interactions

• Children should be encouraged towards Traditional toys, Books and storytelling with adults, Outdoor play and Peer interaction

• At the policy level, there is an urgent need for:

  • Stronger regulation of child-safe AI design

  • Mandatory content filtering standards

  • Robust child data protection and transparency norms

Conclusion

AI-powered toys raise profound questions about how technology intersects with childhood itself. While they may offer novelty and limited learning support, their risks — emotional dependence, distorted social development, inappropriate content, and data exploitation — are significant. Healthy child development depends on complex, imperfect, and deeply human interactions that no algorithm can replicate. At best, AI toys can function as tightly controlled learning aids; at worst, they risk reshaping childhood in ways we do not yet fully understand. In matters of children’s development, innovation must always yield to caution, care,