Smart Toys: Navigating fun and security challenges in the digital age
Smart toys are redefining child’s play by incorporating advanced technology to enrich the educational and entertainment experiences of children. While these devices offer adaptive educational experiences and access to interactive content, it is crucial to address and mitigate the security and privacy risks that parents need to be aware of.
These toys can transform children’s learning through adaptability and direct interaction, tailoring challenges to a child’s skill level for personalized educational challenges, enabling voice response and movement to stimulate active participation and the development of motor and cognitive skills, and some toys provide access to digital content libraries that serve as advanced pedagogical tools.
However, despite their benefits, smart toys also present potential risks:
- Data privacy and security: Being connected to the internet, these toys can collect sensitive personal data, such as names, ages, and preferences of children, which is attractive to hackers and other types of criminals.
- Privacy vulnerabilities: Toys equipped with cameras and microphones may record conversations or activities without the explicit consent of the users, exposing the private lives of families and especially children to risks against their physical integrity.
- Unsupervised interactions: Some toys allow connectivity with other devices or online players, which could expose children to inappropriate communications.
- Physical security risks: Toys with moving parts or autonomous navigation capabilities could malfunction and cause physical injury or be manipulated to act unexpectedly, including access to restricted areas that violate privacy, representing various risks.
- Vulnerability to hacking: Like any device connected to home networks, these toys can be vulnerable to external attacks, creating insecure entry points that could potentially compromise both the toy’s and the home network’s security.
To ensure that smart toys are used safely and effectively, it is crucial to adopt appropriate risk management strategies, for example, it is important to ensure that toys are purchased from manufacturers with good security and privacy practices. It is advisable to read reviews and check if they have had security issues in the past. Once the toy is acquired, the first thing as a parent to do is to adjust the toy’s privacy settings to minimize data collection and limit connectivity to networks and interactive options such as microphones or cameras.
As a permanent activity, we must keep the toy’s software updated to protect it against new vulnerabilities and cyberattacks, and of course, know who and how the toy connects, especially if it allows communication with other online users. In this way, we can mitigate any inappropriate use or unauthorized access.
It is equally important to involve our children by teaching them the importance of digital privacy and the risks associated with connected devices, promoting conscious and protected use.
Smart toys are powerful tools for child development but entail significant responsibilities in terms of security management. By implementing surveillance and risk management practices, parents can ensure that these innovative devices serve as safe and stimulating resources for children’s learning and fun, while protecting the privacy and integrity of our personal and family spaces.
