Gone are the days when most parents had to worry about their child getting a splinter from a spinning top – now, experts warn kid’s toys may be spying on them.
A ‘Trouble in Toyland’ report from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund has warned parents to avoid putting some so-called ‘smart toys’ under the Christmas tree this year.
Consumer protection experts say that microphones and cameras in the toys – as well as AI and personal data storage – are placing children’s privacy at risk and heightening instances of grooming and even kidnapping.
‘Our children’s holiday gift wish lists may be filled with stuffed animals that listen and talk, devices that learn their habits, games with online accounts, smart speakers and watches, or all kinds of toys that require you to download an app,’ the report said.
‘All smart toys may pose a risk to children, depending on the specific toy, the age of the child, the child’s technical skills and their capacity to understand what’s OK and what’s not.’
As the range rapidly expands, the $17 billion smart toy industry is set to double by 2027. In an effort to protect children from a new wave of threats, report authors Teresa Murray and R.J. Cross advised parents to exercise caution over smart toy purchases.
They warned against some games, including the popular app Roblox, the Meta virtual reality headset and, as a more traditional choking-hazard, water beads, which the report says ‘can be deadly’.
The research comes after a series of incidents where toys placed children in danger. Last month, an 11-year-old girl was kidnapped on September 10 from Wayne by a man she met while playing Roblox online.
Police say 27-year-old Darius Matylewich took the girl from her hometown after chatting on multiple gaming platforms. She was found safe a short time later, about 135 miles away from her home.
Roblox software allows users to play a wide variety of games and chat with others online – it is one of the most popular mobile games this year.
Roblox denied that the pair met on their game and said they ‘take the safety of our users, particularly our youngest users, incredibly seriously’ and are ‘committed to providing a positive and safe experience for people of all ages’.
The incident followed the FTC and DOJ charging Amazon with violating children’s privacy law earlier this year. The tech giant was ordered to pay $25 million and delete children’s data, geolocation data, and other voice recordings.
Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said: ‘Amazon’s history of misleading parents, keeping children’s recordings indefinitely, and flouting parents’ deletion requests violated COPPA and sacrificed privacy for profits. ‘COPPA does not allow companies to keep children’s data forever for any reason, and certainly not to train their algorithms.’
An earlier 2021 report claimed that Amazon children’s toys were sucking up youngsters’ data including their voice, photos, videos and location.
In some cases, the devices kept the data even when parents specifically asked them to delete it. The new report warned that even a ‘play kitchen and a board game’ are Alexa-enabled and could have issues with child data harvesting.
It also warns: ‘Kids have also accidentally spent a lot of money while talking to a smart speaker. One 6-year-old spent $160 by simply asking her Amazon Echo device: ‘Can you play dollhouse with me and get me a dollhouse?” In 2019, a popular children’s toy was discontinued over fears hackers could get into the toy and steal information about children.
The Fisher Price Smart Toy Bear was marketed to children aged three to eight as an ‘interactive learning friend that talks, listens, and ‘remembers’ what your child says and even responds when spoken to’.
But the new report says: ‘Research found a security flaw in the app would allow hackers to get information about children without permission.
