Children, consent, and companion robot safety
Questions for families and schools about data, developmental expectations, physical safety, advertising, and a child's ability to stop an interaction.
Products, prices, policies, and evidence change. Verify the current primary sources for the exact model and region before acting.
Start with the exact child and setting
Age labels do not capture sensory sensitivity, language, mobility, impulse control, fear, or the way siblings and classmates will interact with a moving device. Observe the child with the robot before assuming that an expressive design is calming, educational, or socially helpful.
Keep charging equipment, small parts, moving joints, heat, stairs, water, and unsupervised account creation in the risk assessment. Follow the exact regional manual rather than treating the robot as an ordinary plush toy.
Can the child stop or mute it?
Are there pinch, fall, battery, or small-part hazards?
Is an adult required for setup or supervision?
What behavior would end the trial?
Treat consent as ongoing
A child should know when the robot can hear, see, record, remember, or contact somebody. Explain this in age-appropriate language and provide a physical or clearly visible way to pause interaction.
Do not use attachment to obtain compliance or imply that the robot is sad when a child refuses. In classrooms and therapy settings, provide a meaningful alternative rather than making participation mandatory.
Who owns the account and can see the history?
Are face, voice, or emotion inferences created?
Can guest and bystander data be avoided?
How is deletion requested?
Make educational claims testable
Separate engagement from learning. Define the skill, compare it with a non-robot alternative, look for transfer beyond the robot, and check whether the evidence uses the same product, age group, language, and setting.
Framework sources
These sources shape the questions in this guide. They do not certify any listed robot.