Are Your Child's Smart Toys Spying On You? Privacy Risks With Internet-Connected Toys

With technology making inroads into every aspect of our life, toys are also undergoing a change. Smart toys are replacing traditional ones like dolls, superhero action figures, and other play sets.

Smart toys, which may be connected to the Internet, are available in various forms like toy robots, dolls, or toy cars. The typical features of these toys include functions like data storage, microphone, Bluetooth connectivity, speech recognition ability, and digital cameras. To operate these toys, users may be required to provide information like email id, home address, user name, password, and date of birth.

While children find these toys extremely interesting and entertaining, smart toys come with risks to privacy, similar to other smart gadgets. The problems related to privacy are compounded by the fact that the toys are operated by children, who are usually unaware of digital privacy issues.

Several research studies have suggested that smart toys can be hacked or the information requested by these toys from the user can be accessed and saved by an unscrupulous manufacturer or software developer for use later.

Let us look at some privacy infringement risks that smart toys can expose children and their families to:

1. Taking photographs: Young children prefer to keep smart toys like dolls with them at all times, as they consider these toys trusted friends or family members. As a result, the toys accompany the children wherever they go - to the toilet, to bed, to change their dress, and so on. Because of this, hackers can use the camera in smart toys to photograph children during different times, when they are undressing, taking a bath, or in awkward positions. Such images can then be circulated on the Internet in the form of child porn. In India, the production, creation, and circulation of images showing the private parts of children, using children for creating child porn, or capturing images of children in sexually explicit positions are punishable offenses both under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (amended in 2008), as well as under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. However, legal provisions may not deter criminals from committing such crimes.
2. Stalking: Hackers can use smart toys to gain access to the child and the child's family. They can then take photographs, record conversations and monitor the movements of the victims. In other words, smart toys can be turned into tools for spying. Women, including caregivers, mothers, and female relatives of children, need to be especially careful as they may be targeted by stalkers using these toys. As a cybercrime victim counselor, I have dealt with several cases where women have complained of receiving messages from stalkers who seemed to be aware of everything the victim was doing. The Indian Penal Code has been amended to introduce provisions to criminalize stalking, including cyberstalking. Similarly, the POCSO Act also offers penal provisions for stalking children. However, the number of individuals who report cases of stalking is still low in India. It is, therefore, necessary that if you suspect being stalked, consider reporting it to law enforcement agencies and taking precautionary steps to prevent virtual as well as online privacy infringement by checking cyber security loopholes.
3. Providing unauthorized access to personal data: Often, we use the same email id, phone numbers, and security codes, which we use for purposes like Internet banking, to operate other gadgets connected to the Internet, including smart toys. This may present a security threat. For, if the web applications controlling the smart toy are accessed by hackers, they may even get access to our personal data like banking details. Even though the Information Technology Act, 2000 (amended in 2008), addresses the issue of unauthorized access and causing damage to data and/or reputation (very loosely) as both a civil and criminal offense, the victims of hacking may find it very difficult to establish how the data was accessed if they are unaware of the risks posed by smart toys.

While smart toys do pose the above-mentioned, and more, hazards, it doesn't mean that we should deny children a chance to own them. We must always remember that, as aware and alert parents, we can make smart toys safe for our children by managing how our children handle them and play with them. Furthermore, we should also make our children aware of the risks smart toys can pose to our privacy and security if not handled carefully.