hello barbie

Talking toys?

Some years ago we met a few toys that were able to pronounce a limited collection of sentences, such as "Hi! how are you?" or "nice to meet you!". But when I was a child I could have never imagined that my talking-whinnie the poo would answer back to my question and would be able to hold a conversation!

Now, the world famous Barbie doll is able to to recognize voices, answer questions, propose games and even chat with a kid! It was first introduced in NY's toy festival and first fears are already appearing. It seems like this barbie records conversations, sends them via internet to a Talktoys center which analyzes them and then uses a program similar to those integrated in smartphones to answer back and learn from its owner.

At first sight, it could seem an amazing toy, it is, indeed, a revolutionary doll, however, privacy advocates defend that this product could misuse the information it records, which may, eventually, be sent to third parties and violate privacy rights. In addition, some consumer associations denunciate that to analyze this conversations has no further purpose than studying the market to develop more effective publicity.

As I see it, we have to consider both sides of the coin: this doll is a revolutionary toy that can help children make fun. However, I understand all this fears and worries, because this doll doesn't sound innocent to me at all... I mean that this product is attractive for children, of course, but from my point of view a toy capable of holding conversations with children could not only misuse the information it gathers (not the toy but the company) but also diminish children's imagination, because if the toy answers back... there's no space left for the kid to think!