Yes, they are mostly spring loaded. There is some sort of motorized mechanism that releases the latch's. If he can pull power from the electric part of the latch's, he won't accidentally eject his grandson.
I played with mine this morning. The struts seem to be made so that they can only lift the weight of an empty seat..... +/- a little. I put a 10 lb weight in the seat to test it. The seat back flipped down as it should (which shouldn't eject a child in a proper car seat) then the latch released as its supposed to. With the weight on the seat, the strut wasn't strong enough to flip the seat up.
So my conclusion is, if the child is properly belted in to a child safety seat, the position of the child safety seat alone will prevent the seat from releasing. If the back of the seat doesn't fold flat in the first motion, the latch's will NEVER release, so the seat can't fold up. If your seat does attempt to flip up with the back in the upright position, then you do in fact have a malfunction.
Any child that is 20 lbs MUST be in a child safety seat by law. If that seat is properly belted in, and the seat is functioning properly, the child safety seat will prevent the auto fold and flip function from happening.
Also, I don't have a way to test this now, but I suspect that these buttons will only function when the vehicle is stopped. Just like the power lift gate.
