What to Do If You Are Worried That Your Child’s Toy Is Spying on You
My daughter has a toy dinosaur that talks to her. She named him Bob, and she can ask him anything: What is the circumference of Jupiter? Who won the 1965 World Series? What are Hokey Pokey really? But she’s four, so she basically asks him how to pronounce her name.
Bob is in the category of smart toys and therefore I have to keep an eye on him. Earlier this week the FBI released a social advertising, informing parents about the potential dangers of these toys with microphones, GPS-tracking, Wi-Fi connection or via Bluetooth. The FBI warns that these devices could give criminals access to children’s photos, home addresses and other private information. This has happened before: baby monitors have been used to terrorize babies . The company that sells smart teddy bears has leaked credentials of 800,000 users . And one security expert discovered that the scarecrow itself could be hacked and turned into a spy device .
This is undoubtedly disturbing. But instead of walking around and holding the ax over Bear Potter, poor Bob, or anything else that connects to the Internet, take these sensible precautions.
Read about the toy. Josh Ochs, founder of Safe Smart Social , a digital safety resource for parents, teachers, and students, recommends checking Amazon reviews to see if other parents have noticed anything odd about the toy. Let’s say, for example, it suddenly turned on in the middle of the night. “We need to work together,” Ochs says of the new frontier of smart everything. “You are not on an island.”
You can also read about COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) and see if the toy manufacturer is taking additional measures to anonymize and protect all data received. It turned out that my child’s talking dinosaur is 100% compliant with the US Children’s Family Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). And he only listens when users actively interact with him by pressing on his tummy. He does not overhear or engage in casual conversations. We leave Bob.
Typically, you do not need to provide the child’s last name, email or address to be able to play with the toy.
Delete information regularly. Many toys have a reset button that you can press to delete any information the toy has collected.
Place the toy in a closet or chest when not in use. Either turn it off or remove the batteries. “Make sure he doesn’t hear what’s going on,” says Ohs. “Nobody wants Alex in the children’s room.”