Should my child have an AI companion robot?

I can’t decide that for your family. I can tell you what happened to the last one, and what the law says now.

As of October 28, 2026.

What happened to Moxie

Moxie was a $799 AI companion robot for children aged 5 to 10, and it needed a constant connection to its maker’s cloud. In December 2024 Embodied announced it was shutting down, warned the robots would stop working within days, and said it couldn’t offer refunds ¹. One father told Business Insider his daughter cried when he broke the news. The company sent the children a farewell letter ².

Embodied’s technical director built a way to run Moxie locally, released as OpenMoxie, and owners got instructions by email on December 30, 2024. According to PIRG, few managed the switch: the steps were technical, and many parents didn’t have the time. One parent’s lesson was to avoid companions for young children that depend on a server and a subscription ³.

Children don’t treat these as gadgets

In a Duke study of 127 children aged 4 to 11, kids judged Alexa to have more human-like thoughts and emotions than a Roomba, and agreed it was wrong to hit or yell at either ⁷. Among US teens surveyed in spring 2025, 72% had used AI companions, and 31% found those conversations as satisfying as talking with friends, or more ⁸.

The market is moving faster than the research. By October 2025 more than 1,500 AI toy companies were operating in China, and one, BubblePal, had sold 200,000 units at $149; a Beijing mother said her daughter tired of it after five minutes ⁴. Mattel confirmed it wouldn’t unveil its first OpenAI product in 2025 as it had hoped, and said it would be aimed at older customers ⁵. In July 2026, a “proactive emotional companion robot for children” with humanlike body temperature and long-term memory launched in Hangzhou ⁶.

What the law says today

• Nov. 5, 2025, New York: AI companions must detect signs of suicidal thoughts or self-harm, point users to crisis services, and say they aren’t human at the start and every three hours ⁹.
• Nov. 26, 2025, European Parliament: a resolution, not a law, calling for a minimum age of 16 for AI companions that pose risks to minors ¹⁰.
• Jan. 1, 2026, California: SB 243 takes effect. For users known to be minors, operators must disclose it’s AI and remind them to take a break at least every three hours ¹¹.
• July 15, 2026, China: rules on human-like AI take effect, banning virtual intimate relationships, such as virtual relatives or partners, for minors ¹².
• Sept. 7, 2026, China: a mandatory standard for smart toys for children under 14, AI companion robots included, is reported in drafting ¹³.
• Sept. 10, 2026, California: Gov. Newsom signs SB 1119, “Adam’s Law,” and SB 867 ¹⁴. Most of SB 1119 takes effect Jan. 1, 2027; SB 867 bars making or selling toys with companion chatbots until Jan. 1, 2031 ¹⁵.
• Federal: the GUARD Act (S. 3062), which would require age verification and bar minors from AI companions, cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously on April 30, 2026 ¹⁶. It has been on the Senate calendar since May 11, with no floor vote ¹⁷.

Notice what most of these rules cover: apps and toys. China’s rule applies to text, images, audio and video, and doesn’t mention physical robots ¹².

How I’m thinking about it

I won’t tell you no. I’d ask three things first. Does it keep working if the company disappears? What does it say when my child is sad? And where do my child’s voice recordings go? Then I’d watch the bond. A child can love something that will never love them back, which is what I call unipathy: the affection we feel for a humanoid robot that cares for us but cannot love us back.