Choking hazards, toxic resin and unfiltered AI teddy bears, oh my!
By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current
 |
| (NY Public Interest Research Group) |
They were displayed on a table at a downtown Providence shop Friday afternoon in a collection of popular toys families might be considering purchasing for their kids this holiday season.
But they’re also among the most dangerous, according to the latest “Trouble in Toyland” report recently published by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), a Denver-based consumer rights nonprofit.
It’s the 40th year the group has published its annual list of toys that could be dangerous to children, Henry Welch, a campaign associate for the Rhode Island chapter, told reporters gathered outside Craftland Friday afternoon.
In the past, Welch said the biggest dangers with toys were choking hazards and lead.
“A lot of the toys that we found that were dangerous are no longer available,” Welch said. “However, some of these dangers are still out there, including some toys that seemed like a dystopian science fiction of the past that are now available.”
Exhibit A among those dystopian toys is that teddy bear on the table.
Sold for $99 by Singapore-based FoloToy, “Kumma Bear” uses OpenAI models to hold “both friendly chats and deep conversations to stimulate curiosity and learning,” according to its now-gone product page.
But the PIRG report found Kumma’s programming had very few guardrails in place.
Kumma told researchers where they could find knives in a household, Welch said. It also said where matches could be found, along with directions on how to light them.
“One thing that we found that was really disturbing was that Kumma the teddy bear would talk about sexually explicit content with our researchers,” Welch said. “That obviously is not appropriate for children.”
Kumma has since been removed from the market, CNN reported Wednesday. But Welch warned that AI-powered toys will remain a problem if the market continues to be unregulated.
“These toys aren’t really tested well enough,” he said.
AI may be the biggest issue of the day, but choking hazards continue to be a big issue in toys — in particular, the tiny water-absorbing polymer beads next to Kumma bear.
Dr. Stephanie Ruest, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, told reporters the beads remain a persistent problem for the emergency department.
Beads start off small, roughly the size of a peppercorn. But when exposed to liquid, they can grow to the size of a cherry tomato. That includes bodily fluids, which makes them really dangerous if swallowed, Reust said.
“It can cause blockage, which is a surgical emergency,” she said.
Welch noted that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued new standards, setting a maximum size of 9 millimeters in diameter, but that parents should continue to be careful when purchasing the product.
The Disney Princess jewelry kit magically changes gel into jewelry within minutes. But the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled it in March because it contains a resin that can cause skin, eye and respiratory irritation if inhaled, touched or ingested when still in liquid form. The resin contains an acrylate (hydroxyethylmethacrylate “HEMA”) in amounts prohibited in children’s products by the Federal Hazardous Substances Act.
“But I was able to buy it on eBay and received it after a couple of days with no warning,” Welch said.
Welch and Reust recommend parents and guardians keep tabs on which toys have been recalled by visiting recalls.gov.
Among Ruest’s biggest fears for children is ingesting button batteries.
“This is truly a medical emergency,” she said. “They can burn holes through the esophagus. They can burn any place a child may lodge them.”
Really any small toy continues to pose a choking hazard, depending on the age of a child. A good way to test its chokability is through a toilet roll or by comparing it to the size of your child’s fist, Reuset suggested.
“If you have a toy that can freely pass through a toilet paper roll without getting stuck, or the toy — or pieces of the toy — is smaller than a child’s fist, those are toys a child may choke on and you may want to avoid those,” she said.
Another way to prevent choking is to properly store toys.
“A lot of things we see in the emergency department are young children who get into things that weren’t meant for them,” Reust said. “They find them lying around the house as their sibling was playing with it.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.
