(Newswire.net — November 27, 2015) –Dolls are not what they used to be any more, just dolls. Especially not Barbie dolls. Even Barbie dolls have changed in many ways. Here is the most recent example.
It seems that toy makers exploited their vivid imagination to the maximum, but at the same time crossed the line when it comes to privacy issues. It turns out that a new Barbie doll, which is to come out just before Christmas, is a potential spy. It is equipped with Wi-Fi and it will be able to make a proper conversation with its owner. Whatever is said in the conversation will be recorded but according to many, unsafely stored on the servers.Even if the toy makers had children’s best interest at heart, which is fun, they havo also created room for violation of both children’s and parents’ privacy. Some security researchers claim that the doll can easily be hacked. “The problem is you are putting a device into the hands of children which they will have in their private spaces like their bedrooms and you’re connecting it to the Internet.”- internet security commentator Stilgherrian said.
The point is that nobody is sure what children will say to the doll. They may say their address, phone number or a credit card number, which mom and dad won’t be happy about. If the Toy Talk company counted on children being reasonable and revealing just their personal stuff, they made a huge mistake, just having fun in mind.
On the other hand, speaking of personal stuff, this doll could be quite useful in case of child abuse. If the conversations were taped, it would be more than desirable to learn if a child was mistreated by its parent, a nanny or a daycare teacher. Although these kind of revelations might not be taken for granted, since they are coming from chidren who are not easily believed, they should at least raise some interest for the matter to be looked into.
Furthermore, since the conversations are available online, they could draw parents’ attention in case children have some problems or are troubled in any way. Then, they could find a way of tackling the problem without telling them how they have found out about the problem (but only if children are unaware that parents can listen to their conversations with the doll).
There is always something good that can be found among bad things, but the problem is that the doll must be perfected in a way that it should be able (somehow) to distinguish between information and keep only those that can be useful for children and forget about other private things not related to children themselves. Easier said then done, but having in mind how fast technology is developing, it is not impossible. If toy companies achieve that, all parents will be more than willing to buy this doll. Maybe they won’t wait for much longer and everyone will be pleased.