Maryland’s AI Toy Safety Act: State-Level Regulation Fills the Federal Void on AI in Children’s Products

Maryland’s proposed Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act aims to create regulatory oversight for AI-enabled toys used by children, requiring pre-market safety assessments and compliance with stringent data privacy requirements.
The act mandates strict confidentiality and usage restrictions on child data collected by AI toys, including a prohibition on selling or using this data for non-related purposes or advertising to children, and requiring parental consent for data retention beyond 12 months.
It includes content moderation tools, safe modes for harmful inputs, and age-appropriate conversational filters, prohibiting the marketing of AI toys as emotional or psychological substitutes.
Manufacturers may face penalties of up to $50,000 per violation for non-compliance and must ensure parents can disable data collection without losing toy functionality.
The creation of the Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Review Panel ensures ongoing enforcement and recommendations for statutory updates, signaling a dynamic regulatory approach.
The proposal highlights growing state-level regulatory efforts to address the integration of AI in children’s products, while federal regulators, such as the CPSC, maintain their traditional focus on physical safety, suggesting a need for state vigilance in AI product regulation.

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