Privacy Nightmare: Smart Toys Can Track Your Child’s Every Move

Smart toys have been on a steady incline in recent years.

This is likely due to its fancy ability to use artificial intelligence (AI) to communicate with its users.

So, it’s pretty understandable if you happen to see these toys end up as a must-have item in their wish lists.

However, are these smart toys safe for your kids?

Or can they potentially be used for more malicious reasons?

Last year, the United States Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) released their 38th Annual Safety Report.

This year’s report leans in heavily on the rise of smart toys, and the potential safety risks it has on you and your child’s privacy.

The report also touches on the potential dangers that social game Roblox can have on young children.

What Is A Smart Toy?

A smart toy usually refers to toys that uses artificial intelligence to work its function.

These toys are primarily marketed as a ‘learn-while-you-play’ toy, which helps development of various parts of your child’s intelligence.

Which is true, to an extent.

It is true that some toys do in fact help build development of children, like in the case of Orbit.

But, this isn’t the case for all smart toys.

In fact, cases where smart toys are recalled by manufacturers due to its security breaches has happened pretty often.

Risks of Smart Toys

Now that we understand what smart toys are, let’s talk about the potential risks.

Some possible risks of having smart toys are:

• Smart toys may use microphone or camera to identify your child’s voice and facial expressions
• Toys can use the information they gather from conversation and send it to the company’s external servers
• Smart toys can store data of your children for the manufacturing company’s use
• Potentially can cause breach of privacy from hackers
• Excessive spending from in-app purchases
• Use data gathered for marketing of products
• Possible inappropriate content being downloaded
• Smart toys can impair child’s development

Identifying A Suspicious Smart Toy

As parents, we must learn to identify what smart toys can potentially be inappropriate for our child.

If you are looking for a smart toy for your child, consider this checklist by the PIRG before purchasing a toy:

• Presence of a microphone or camera
• Ability to connect to wireless networks
• Ability to connect to Bluetooth
• Data collection of children under 13 years-old
• Data collection of people in general
• Privacy policy of the smart toy
• Presence of application to use with the toy
• In-app purchase ability

It is extremely important for parents to identify all these details when considering to buy a smart toy.

If a smart toy has one or more features of this checklist, it doesn’t mean that it is entirely a no-go.

Try and check out reviews of a toy to see other parents’ perspectives on the toy.

Parents must be able to make the right choice and be aware of all the pros and cons of a smart toy on their child specifically.

Are Smart Toys All Bad?