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The representative pointed out that the developers of most major AI platforms, such as ChatGPT and Grok, acknowledge their tools may generate content that is not appropriate for children. Most major AI platforms already impose minimum-age and parental-consent requirements.
According to Ciresi, in addition to the lack of safeguards for the topics discussed by these chatbots, two additional concerns surrounding AI-enabled toys are privacy and child development.
AI chatbots can violate a child’s privacy by collecting significant amounts of information about them, including their voices, facial and gesture recognition, sensitive personal information, and more –through internet-connected devices linked to AI services.
Experts are questioning how AI chatbot use will impact children’s social development, particularly when young uses develop emotionally close relationships with AI-driven toys, which lack the mutual accountability, emotional reciprocity and developmental boundaries found in human relationships.
“Right now, the House Communications & Technology Committee is working on legislation to prevent adults from AI-manipulation,” Ciresi said. “We must also ensure that Pennsylvania’s children are playing with toys that are safe and that they are not being used as real-time test subjects for a technology that is already raising serious concerns.”
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