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The free tool below runs entirely in this browser — no account, nothing stored or transmitted. Redact anything you would not want kept before you type it.
Open the companion tool →Why the settings come before the first conversation
Companion devices and their apps are usually configured for engagement by default: continuous listening for a wake word, transcripts kept so the device 'remembers', and a personality designed to keep the conversation going. Each of those is often adjustable, and adjusting them after a month of use means a month of recordings already exists somewhere.
There is also the room the device sits in. A microphone in a child's bedroom captures siblings, parents, and visitors, and in some places recording other people without notice carries legal consequences. Setup is also the natural moment to agree a household rule out loud — what the device is for, what it should not be asked, and what gets told to a parent.
The protocol
- Find the microphone behavior: is it always listening for a wake word, does it record continuously, and is there a physical mute or shutter? Choose the most restrictive option the device offers.
- Look for retention and memory: are transcripts kept, for how long, can you delete them, and is there a memory feature that builds a profile of your child? Turn off what you do not need.
- Read the account requirements and the age statement. Many services set a minimum age, and a device marketed for young children may still route through a general-purpose model with a different age policy.
- Check the training setting — whether conversations improve or train models — and opt out if that option exists.
- Ask what the device can be prompted to do: can it browse, make purchases, place calls, or open other apps? Restrict or disable anything you would not hand to a child unsupervised.
- Agree one household rule out loud before the first use: what it is for, what gets told to a parent, and where it lives — a shared room is the simpler choice for younger children.
- Re-check after every firmware or app update, and write down what you changed and when.
What the tool does
Work through an AI companion device before your child's first conversation with it: what it captures, what it keeps, what it can be asked to do, and the settings and house rules to set. It stores nothing and sends nothing.
Limit first: This is a setup aid, not a safety certification of any device, and it cannot confirm what a manufacturer does with recordings. Rules about recording other people differ by state and country, and age policies differ by product and change often.
Open the companion tool →One human next step
If the device captured something it should not have — a medical conversation, a family member who objected, or a conversation that concerned you — delete it, ask the manufacturer in writing whether a copy is retained, and report child-privacy problems to the FTC. If a conversation suggests your child is distressed or at risk, talk with your child and with a pediatrician or school counselor; if there is immediate danger, call 911 (US).
Research log and safety checks
AI-assist path: not applicable. The check reads the manufacturer's own documented settings and the household's own rules; an automated judgment about whether a device is safe for a specific child would be less reliable than opening the settings page and would hide its basis (§1.2 UIC-10). §6.9 disclosed: no zero-cost in-browser assist exists for reading a device's real capture behavior. §6.10: not a frontier-pace topic. §0.5a: category is protected — competence framing only, no urgency, no scarcity, and the buyer is the caregiver (§0.6b).
§0.5 protection result: category is family-teen-safety; crisis-adjacent: no; fear/urgency/scarcity toolkit used: no. The protective function is free and the paid feature is convenience only.