A new Senate report is raising concerns about just how safe “smart toys” that connect to Wi-Fi are from hackers.
Millions of kids’ and parents’ information has already been exposed.
That’s one reason you won’t find any smart toys on the shelves at Play Today Toys.
“Many creepy factors that are just freaky to me personally, and many parents have concerns about this,” said the Julington Creek toy shop’s owner, Scott Nelson.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson unveiled his new report Wednesday, calling for toymakers to create more comprehensive policies for smart toy data protection.
Sen. Bill Nelson is a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
Last year, a hacker breached consumer data collected by VTech Electronics, which manufactures tablets for kids.
The breach exposed the data of more than 6 million children and 4 million parents, including kids’ names, genders, birthdates and photos.
Jesuzaine Marshall’s three kids all play with VTech smart toys. She said she thinks they’re safer now that the breach has been exposed.
“I’m not scared to buy (VTech smart toys) because they have more different and more high-tech information about the VTech,” said Marshall.
The report points out that researchers also found security vulnerabilities in the Fisher-Price Smart Toy Bear and the KGPS hereO GPS watch, which could have exposed a child’s real-time physical location to hackers.
“As time goes on, you know, regulations will step up. Toy manufacturers will put in those protocols, but again, no one guarantees 100 percent safety from being hacked,” said Scott Nelson.
Sen. Bill Nelson’s report calls for the Federal Trade Commission to keep a watchful eye on how toymakers are protecting personal information.
The report also recommends that parents check whether a particular toy has been the subject of a data breach in the past before they buy.
You can find the full Senate report here.
hereO released a statement:
<br/> Whilst hereO was included in this report, at no point was any child ever at risk. Firstly, the watch hadn't even been produced yet, so no children could be wearing them. Secondly, after we were contacted about the potential issue (which related to the smartphone app during its testing phase) in December last year, we fixed it within four hours.
The safety of children is paramount to absolutely everything we do – it's why hereO exists, and the reason the hereO watch includes features like child safety zones, breadcrumb trail logs and a panic button. It's also why we dealt with this situation so quickly, and continually work with leading edge technology partners.
Since addressing the issue, we've been working with two world-leading cyber security firms who carry out random penetration tests of the hereO watch, smartphone app and systems to ensure there will never, ever be privacy concerns or a situation where a child is put at risk.
We're very thankful to Rapid7 for highlighting the issue to us a year ago, during our testing phase, and grateful for the valuable support of the global IoT community in our combined and relentless efforts to maintain a bar-none, zero-tolerance environment for the safety and security of our users.
Cox Media Group
