Barbie Takes Over the World

• Author | Marlee Sacks
• Date | 11/4/2019 8:30 am

As the world of technology advances, the products we buy advance right along with it. Yes, even the toys that we buy our children are more likely to have some type of technology aspect connected to them. These are known as “smart toys.” Smart toys silently connect data on your family through the use of cameras, microphones, and sensors. It pays attention to your child’s movements, interactions, and even location. As this idea opens up new experiences of play for your child, it also runs the probable risk of a smart toy to be hacked by cyber criminals. This means anyone could hack into the camera, audio system, or even find out where your child’s toy is located.

Take a toy as simple as the classic Barbie doll. There is a new type of Barbie doll on the market known as Hello Barbie. *It uses a microphone, voice recognition software and artificial intelligence to create a call-and-response function, similar to Siri, making it the world’s first interactive doll. Hello Barbie connects to the internet via WiFi and has a microphone to record children, and that information gets sent off to third-parties for processing before responding with natural language. Since the doll connects to WiFi, it makes it more susceptible to being hacked. This means the audio and perhaps even the location of the doll could be up for grabs by those miscreant cyber thieves. You wouldn’t want your child’s Barbie doll to become the ultimate surveillance device against you and your family, would you? We’ve all pondered the idea of robots taking over the world, but do we now have to worry about our child’s dolls taking it over instead?

Listen. We are not telling you these things to scare you, we are only telling you so that you can become aware of the potential vulnerabilities of the new phenomenon of internet toys. So, before you go out and buy your child the new toy craze, do some research. Decide if that toy or device has the opportunity to put your child in any unnecessary danger. Be cautious if the toy:

• Connects to Bluetooth and or the Internet via WiFi

• Contains speakers, microphones, cameras, and recording devices

• Has speech recognition capability

• Has geolocation capability

• Contains wireless transmitters and receivers

• Connects to a mobile app

• Has cloud connection capability

• Remains connected to the cloud even when it is off

• Stores your data internally

• Requests name, address, date of birth or any other personal information

• Does not come with an End User License Agreement or EULA

• The cloud storage provider is not identified in the EULA

*Samuel Gibbs, “Hackers Can Hijack Wi-Fi Hello Barbie to Spy on Your Children,” The Guardian (Guardian News and Media, November 26, 2015).