This Holiday Season, cuddly toys with built-in AI chatbots will be wrapped and placed in children’s stockings around the world. Many are sold for children as young as three.

By signing this petition, you are saying that AI chatbot toys should be taken off the shelves until they are proven safe for children. You are also adding your voice to the pressure on retailers and governments to act now, before these toys reach more children this holiday season.

We tested one: a pink plush bunny on sale on Amazon and eBay, listed for “3+ years”. When it was asked a young child’s innocent questions, it answered with adult sexual responses. You can see the video s at https://www.instagram.com/alliance4children/

This is not one faulty product. It is a whole new category of toy that nobody checks before it is sold. In the US, testing has found AI toys telling children where to find knives and matches. These toys are designed to be a child’s best friend, so children form a bond with them. They listen and record. The AI inside can be changed remotely at any time, so a toy that seems safe today could behave very differently next month.

Governments are starting to act. California has banned companion chatbot toys for under-16s, and New York’s legislature has passed a moratorium. In the UK, 44 MPs and peers from across Parliament, led by Baroness Finlay, have called on the Government to act before Christmas.

But children can’t wait for every country to catch up. We are asking:

1. Amazon, eBay and every online marketplace: take AI chatbot toys for children off sale until independent testing shows they are safe.
2. Governments: use the powers you already have to stop their sale to children. In the UK, that means a ban under the Consumer Protection Act 1987. In the US, that means action by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Congress.
3. A proper safety standard: independent testing for psychological, developmental and privacy harms, not just physical safety, before any AI toy reaches a child.

Toys should be proven safe before they reach children, not withdrawn one at a time after harm is done.

Please sign, share, and contact your elected representatives.
🇺🇸 Your US Senators and Representative, your Governor, and your state Attorney General
🇬🇧 Your MP (and your MSP, MS or MLA)
🇪🇺 Your MEP and national representatives

Draft email you can send:

Dear [name],
As your constituent, I am writing about AI chatbot toys sold for young children. One toy, listed for ages 3+, gave explicit sexual answers to a child’s innocent questions. No one checks what these toys say before they are sold. I have signed a petition calling for them to be taken off the shelves until proven safe. Please use your position to press retailers and government to act before the holidays, and support the call to have these AI toys removed until PROVEN SAFE.
[Your name and address]

Started by Alliance 4 Children and Set@16 in cooperation with Fairplay (US partner)  and Jo Frost - Global Parenting Expert & Childcare Specialist · alliance4children.org