law protecting children 13 years and younger from having data collected from them.
The prevalence of AI toys on the market depends on price and consumer willingness to buy, experts say.
Source: Mattel
The thought of a child’s toy listening in on a family 24/7 is unsettling. While smart toys can be useful, educational tools for kids, they also pose privacy risks which toy makers and privacy experts are still learning how to balance.
Smart toys made with artificial intelligence, such as machine-learning capabilities, can collect different forms of data from kids. Whether an AI-enabled toy is personalizing lessons based on how fast your kid learns shapes, or a doll is learning your kid’s favorite ice cream flavor, toy experts expect more of these toys to be introduced in the years ahead, even though early missteps and high sales prices have limited consumer interest to date.
“As an AI toy starts to learn the child, this means the toy in the next 15 years will be smarter than the parent and gather all this data that could one day hurt the child,” said Will.i.am, singer-songwriter and chair of the World Economic Forum’s Smart Toy Awards’ judging committee, recently speaking at CNBC’s Evolve Global Summit.
Forms of smart play
AI toy concerns vary based on toy type and the capabilities it has in terms of collecting data.
In general, smart toys learn from children and provide an adaptive and responsive play experience. However, there are two main categories of smart toys that fit within this framework. First, smart companions, which learn from and interact with the child during activities. Second, programmable toys designed with machine learning that move and perform tasks to teach kids educational skills.
One example of the latter is ROYBI Robot, which creates personalized lessons to teach kids educational subjects like science, languages and math. It has a camera and microphone to detect facial and emotional reactions from kids, but all of the information collected is controlled through a parent or guardian’s account.
While ROYBI Robot is a smart toy that handles data collection ethically and responsibly, according to Seth Bergeson, an artificial intelligence and machine learning fellow at the World Economic Forum, there are other smart toys that have risked personal and data privacy.
Cautionary toy stories
Between 2014 and 2017, a toy company named Genesis Toys sold My Friend Cayla marketed as an interactive doll that could listen to and respond to kids. The problem: it was recording its conversations with kids, as well as conversations with parents, siblings and anyone else around the doll, Bergeson said, and able to share the data with third-party companies.
“This is a really troublesome example and cautionary tale for a toy,” Bergeson said. “There were several FTC [Federal Trade Commission] complaints filed in the U.S. The nation of Germany just banned the toy completely and called it a concealed espionage device, and ordered families to destroy the toy if they had it at home.”
Another example, better known in the U.S. for its privacy backlash: Mattel’s Hello Barbie.
Similar to My Friend Cayla, Hello Barbie was designed to talk with children, take in information about them and create a profile of the child in order to develop better conversations in the future. For instance, if a child told Hello Barbie about their favorite ice cream flavor or the sports they play, then Barbie created a persona of the child.
“There are severe consequences around child protection laws,” said Stephanie Wissink, a senior research analyst and managing director in the consumer practice at Jefferies. “When you start creating a technology profile of a child, you are crossing a privacy line.”
Mattel’s Hello Barbie was released in 2015 even though concerns preceded the launch, but it was met with a social media campaign titled, ”#HellnoBarbie” to demonstrate consumer opposition to the doll. Hello Barbie is no longer manufactured but can be found used on eBay.
Mattel did not respond to a CNBC request for comment.
Kids and privacy laws
There are rules in the United States to protect a child’s personal privacy as it relates to internet data.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) protects children 13 years and younger and their personal information on the internet from being taken without express approval from parents, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
“The purpose of COPPA is to control systems, and limit and restrict the attempt to collect data on children,” said Alan Butler, executive director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a public interest research center focused on privacy issues.
EPIC, along with other parties, filed a complaint to the FTC in 2016 about Genesis Toys and its My Friend Cayla dolls along with another product, iQue intelligent robots. EPIC said these toys collect, use and disclose recordings of children’s voices without parental consent, which is a direct violation of COPPA, according to the complaint report filed.
