The Toys That Listen And What Parents Need to Know This Christmas

Walk into any department store this Christmas and you’ll find shelves of smiling toys powered by AI. Teddy bears that “listen with love.” Dolls that promise to “grow with your child.” Robots that say they can help with maths, literacy and loneliness. These aren’t screens, and yet they’re wired just the same with microphones, sensors, data connections, companion apps, and, crucially, an invisible thread to corporate servers far beyond parental reach. Audio becomes text, text becomes data, and data becomes insight. Insight, in turn, becomes a product to sell.

So where does that leave families looking for gifts?…..In the toy aisle!

You don’t need to ban tech, but you do need to know what it’s doing. If a toy contains a microphone, it can record. If it talks back with personal insight, it has memory. If it requires an app, it’s probably storing data. If it connects to the internet, it can be breached.

The most powerful thing you can do is ask the question companies don’t want you to ask:

Why does this toy need to know so much about my child?

The answer is rarely about education. Read more here: https://kirrapendergast.substack.com/p/the-toys-that-listen-and-what-parents