On November 2014, Vivid Toys introduced My Friend Cayla to the UK. My Friend Cayla is a talking doll that is connected to the internet. My Friend Cayla is able to talk to children thanks to speech recognition software and Google Translate technology. As the My Friend Cayla website states, you can chat with Cayla, ask her questions, play games with her, etc. There are apps for the iPhone and Androids.
I think its a cool toy for little kids. They now have someone to talk to and play with when they are all alone. But what happens when someone else teaches Cayla a bad word and Cayla repeats it to the poor little children? Luckily, the programmers and developers came prepared. They programmed the software in Cayla to have a black list of words that Cayla cannot use. If anyone says one of the words on the blacklist, Cayla will say that she does not want to talk about it. With the app, you can also add words to the blacklist. If your child has a fear of clowns, you can add the word "clown" to the blacklist. If anyone mentions clowns to Cayla, she'll say that she doesn't want to talk about it. Isn't that great? The doll is absolutely safe for kids to use! Unfortunately and hilariously, that may not be the case.
Hackers were able to hack the software in My Friend Cayla. They were able to lift the restrictions on the toy. The hackers were also able to make the toys say those curse words. It turns out that it is actually quite easy to hack the software and get the doll to say those words. Anyone with basic hacking skills and technical skills could do it. Maybe I could hack the doll in about three years?
The talking doll that was supposed to be a kid's best friend could, at anytime, turn out to be a parent's worst nightmare. Luckily, the toy manufacturers have told the BBC that the majority of the dolls are safe, and the hacking was carried out by a specialist team. All's well that end's well, I guess.
http://myfriendcayla.co.uk/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/09/my-friend-cayla-hacked_n_6647046.html
Very interesting post Jason. It is very admirable yet scary to believe that such a toy exists. Not because of the technology because now, almost anything is voice activated. But to give a doll interactive activity with a human is quite weird per say. The first aspect that really makes me uneasy is the need for a child to have an inanimate object talk to it. Aren't we afraid that this doll encourages introvert behavior with other humans and potential social issues? I mean, we have a child becoming attached to a doll and possible expressing certain topics which the object may not be coded for. Now we have a child that wants to talk to Cayla about topic x with Cayla spitting out "I don;t want to talk about it" back and the child may refuse to discuss it with their parent. Secondly, which has already occurred, is hacking of the toy. Obviously the coding was left for last or simply nobody thought someone would actually dedicate time to get the doll to say such things. But then again, it happened. Interesting what we are shifting our society into.
ReplyDeleteWhile I completely agree that hackers breaking into and controlling the toys is a serious problem for the safety of the children, I feel another concern is going unaddressed. What is the security of the speech recognition information that is going out to the internet to be analyzed? Teaching kids dirty words is unfortunate but if the friendship and connection that the toys are meant for takes place I feel a child might inadvertently tell the doll sensitive information. As you would with a human friend, a child might tell the doll their address, their daily where-abouts, or other information that puts the child or their home at risk. People seem to never consider that a child might poses important information and unfortunately we live in a world where "private" information (particularly when dealing with the internet) is not truly private any longer.
ReplyDeleteWhile this is a very interesting creation, they have failed to consider the effect the doll may have on the child's social development. My fear is that some children may be so attached to their doll that they will believe the doll is real. This will be detrimental to the child because then he or she will not go out and make his or her own friends. They will stay in their house and play with the doll or may use the doll as a substitute for friends. I remember when I was a kid I used to talk a lot and was very social. I used to always go outside and find whoever I could in my neighborhood that wanted to play. I feel that my interactions then has greatly aided to how social I am today. With those toy, many children will not get the social interaction they need.
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