Dana Suskind’s DETECT Checklist: How to Evaluate AI for Your Kid
Dana Suskind’s DETECT checklist for kids AI: design, ethics, trouble, evidence, confidentiality, teachings. Companion is the red flag.
There's a new AI toy, tutor, or friend for kids every week. You do not have to panic-evaluate from scratch each time.
Dana Suskind, MD is a pediatric surgeon and early childhood researcher at the University of Chicago's TMW Center — and a parent. In her book Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI (Dutton, July 14, 2026), she published a six-letter checklist. She restated it in a Wirecutter interview with Caitlin McGarry, edited by Jason Chen.
She says you need about ten minutes and some skepticism. Trust your gut. She calls that your parental GPS.
The DETECT checklist
Design: What was this built to do — education, entertainment, or companionship? Does it work with your kid, or support you as the parent?
Ethics: Was it trained on diverse data, or on adult data retrofitted for kids?
Trouble: Is there documented harm or unintended consequences?
Evidence: Is there independent research, or just company marketing? Start with sources like the CHOP study on AI for kids and safeguards — not a product page.
Confidentiality: What happens to your child's data?
Teachings: What is it teaching about relationships and values, not just academics?
Companion AI is the red flag
Suskind is especially against AI that mimics frictionless empathy or intimacy. Real relationships are built on missteps and repair, not sycophancy. In the Wirecutter interview she says AI chatbots are not suitable for kids to use — she means companion and attachment chatbots, not no AI tool ever. She distinguishes AI literacy (understanding it) from relying on it.
Our position, not hers: we agree companion equals bad. Otto is an assistant — never a companion, buddy, friend, or sidekick. HeyOtto is a parent-provisioned AI platform for ages 8–18. A parent creates the account and can see the chats.
That last part matters. Parents still cannot see ChatGPT chats.
Passing DETECT is not a requirement to use it
If a product passes DETECT, you still do not have to use it. That is her family well-being test. For older kids, talk about the relationship and how companies prey on vulnerabilities. At school, ask if there is an AI policy.
If you have already chosen a platform you can actually see, use the parent guide for setup. When you are ready, try HeyOtto free.
About the Author
Natalie Gibson
Founder & CEO
Natalie Gibson is the Founder and CEO of HeyOtto, an AI platform built to help children safely explore artificial intelligence with meaningful parental visibility and control. She has spent her career building products in highly regulated environments, with experience spanning privacy, security, and data protection frameworks including COPPA, GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI-aligned systems. Her work has consistently focused on trust, safety, and building technology where compliance and user protection are foundational—not optional. Natalie started HeyOtto after experiencing firsthand how quickly children began using general-purpose AI tools that were never designed for them. As a parent, she saw a gap between what kids were capable of using and what families could responsibly trust. That gap became the foundation for HeyOtto. Today, she leads product vision and company direction with a focus on age-adaptive AI, parental sovereignty, and transparent system design. Her work centers on one belief: families should not have to choose between powerful AI and safe AI.
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