Trouble in Toyland News Conference 2023

On Nov. 16, U.S. PIRG Education Fund is releasing its 38th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

Authors Teresa Murray, Consumer Watchdog, and R.J. Cross, director of our Don’t Sell My Data campaign, will be joined by Alex Hoehn-Saric, chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission; Dr. Jerri Rose, an emergency medicine pediatrician at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland; Joan Lawrence, senior vice president of standards and regulatory affairs for The Toy Association; and Dev Gowda, assistant executive director of Kids In Danger.

Over the past 37 years, the Trouble in Toyland report has looked at trends to determine the potential dangers facing our children each holiday season. This year, we focused on the surge in smart toys with microphones, cameras and artificial intelligence, against the backdrop of large companies such as Amazon and Microsoft settling allegations this year that their products (Alexa/Echo and Xbox, respectively) improperly collected personal information about children. We have lots of tips for parents and gift-givers. We also tested Meta’s newest virtual reality headset — the Quest 3 — ourselves.

In addition, we look at water beads, recalled toys for sale online and ongoing threats from high-powered magnets, button batteries, choking hazards and counterfeit toys that aren’t tested about whether they meet mandatory U.S. safety standards.