{"id":231318,"date":"2026-01-07T00:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/231318\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T00:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:12:09","slug":"california-lawmaker-proposes-a-four-year-ban-on-ai-chatbots-in-kids-toys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/231318\/","title":{"rendered":"California lawmaker proposes a four-year ban on AI chatbots in kids’ toys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senator Steve Padilla (D-CA) introduced a bill<\/a> on Monday that would place a four-year ban on the sale and manufacture of toys with AI chatbot capabilities for kids under 18. The goal is to give safety regulators time to develop regulations to protect children from \u201cdangerous AI interactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChatbots and other AI tools may become integral parts of our lives in the future, but the dangers they pose now require us to take bold action to protect our children,\u201d Senator Padilla said in a statement. \u201cOur safety regulations around this kind of technology are in their infancy and will need to grow as exponentially as the capabilities of this technology do. Pausing the sale of these chatbot-integrated toys allows us time to craft the appropriate safety guidelines and framework for these toys to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill, dubbed SB 867, comes in the wake of President Trump\u2019s recent executive order<\/a> directing federal agencies to challenge state AI laws in court \u2014 though the order explicitly carves out exceptions for state laws related to child safety.\u00a0The legislation also follows several concerning incidents involving AI, chatbots, and children.<\/p>\n

Over the past year, lawsuits filed by families<\/a> whose children died by suicide<\/a> after engaging in prolonged conversations with chatbots have spurred lawmakers to action. Padilla also co-authored California\u2019s recently passed SB 243<\/a>, which requires chatbot operators to implement safeguards to protect children and vulnerable users.<\/p>\n

While the use of chatbots in toys isn\u2019t as mainstream yet, there have already been reports of troubling interactions. In November 2025, consumer advocacy group PIRG Education Fund warned <\/a>that toys like Kumma \u2014 a cute toy bear with a built-in chatbot \u2014 could be prompted easily to talk about matches, knives, and sexual topics. NBC News found<\/a> that Miiloo, an \u201cAI toy for kids\u201d made by Chinese company Miriat, would at times indicate that it was programmed to reflect Chinese Communist Party values.<\/p>\n

OpenAI and Barbie-maker Mattel were slated to release an \u201cAI-powered product\u201d in 2025<\/a>, but delayed<\/a> their release. Neither company explained the delay, and it\u2019s not clear if they plan to release a toy in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur children cannot be used as lab rats for Big Tech to experiment on,\u201d Padilla said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senator Steve Padilla (D-CA) introduced a bill on Monday that would place a four-year ban on the sale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,7435,1288,218,219,61,60,118349,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-231318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-chatbots","10":"tag-ai-policy","11":"tag-artificial-intelligence","12":"tag-artificialintelligence","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-sb-287","16":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}