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"Hello Barbie" Listens To Children Via Cloud
jones_supa writes For a long time we have had toys that talk back to their owners, but a new "smart" Barbie doll's eavesdropping and data-gathering functions have privacy advocates crying foul. Toymaker Mattel bills Hello Barbie as the world's first "interactive doll" due to its ability to record children's playtime conversations and respond to them, once the audio is transmitted over WiFi to a cloud server. In a demo video, a Mattel presenter at the 2015 Toy Fair in New York says the new doll fulfills the top request that Mattel receives from girls: to have a two-way dialogue. "They want to have a conversation with Barbie," she said, adding that the new toy will be "the very first fashion doll that has continuous learning, so that she can have a unique relationship with each girl." Susan Linn, the executive director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, has written a statement in which she says how the product is seriously creepy and creates a host of dangers for children and families. She asks people to join her in a petition under the proposal of Mattel discontinuing the toy.
Lisa [playing with Malibu Stacy]: A hush falls over the general assembly as Stacy approaches the podium to deliver what will no doubt be a stirring and memorable address. [pulls Stacy's cord]
Malibu Stacy: I wish they taught shopping in school!
Lisa: [groans, pulls Stacy's cord again]
Malibu Stacy: Let's bake some cookies for the boys!
Lisa: Come on, Stacy. I've waited my whole life to hear you speak. Don't you have anything relevant to say? [pulls cord]
Malibu Stacy: Don't ask me, I'm just a girl. [giggles]
Bart: Right on! Say it, sister.
Lisa: It's not funny, Bart. Millions of girls will grow up thinking that this is the right way to act....that they can never be more than vacuous ninnies whose only goal is to look pretty, land a rich husband, and spend all day on the phone with their equally vacuous friends talking about how damn terrific it is to look pretty and HAVE A RICH HUSBAND!!!!
Bart: Just what I was going to say.
I remember when my daughter was about 2.5-4 commercials were unbelievable effective. Even those commercials that targeted the mother watching with the kid had an impact and my daughter would often get upset we didn't have the right products. I'd love to just see a ban on advertising for kids under 10, and public financing.
From the story summary calling it creepy, to just about every initial response being negative, I cannot help but shed a tear for the love of technology that used to permeate these hallowed (now hollow) halls.
Having a doll that can talk back to you, that can intelligently respond to what you are asking and learn what you want to talk about is not creepy. That is actually really interesting. It could be really cool.
Is there potential for abuse? Sure. Would it be nice to have a clear off switch so it doesn't pick up things it shouldn't? Sure. But that doesn't make it a bad idea, or mean we should kill the baby in the cradle, and see how it actually turns out.
Can the rabid un-thining pitchfork-wielding crazed mobs that roam Slashdot now please take a step back and think about the future at least once?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
We should be so lucky as to live in a world where something like the YLIP really existed, even with all the conflict and problems in The Diamond Age.. but we don't live in that world. We live in a world where it would just blather on about nonsense, meanwhile everything the little girls say will be analyzed by market researchers for better ways to profit from them, and likely have Barbie say things to indoctrinate little girls into being 'better consumers' (read as: PESTER MOM AND DAD TO BUY YOU MORE STUFF) and for all we know brainwash them into being who-knows-what. Then there's the possibility of someone hacking into them and making Barbie say obscene things or things intended to mislead little girls into doing something horribly, horribly wrong, or who knows what. The hell with shit like this, make it go away. It's not the technology that's bad, it's the fact that you can't trust corporations or anyone else with it these days. In fact let's get rid of Barbie entirely, it's a shitty concept that's at the root of all sort of malodorous crap concerning little girls and their development anyway.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!