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Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund’s
38th annual “Trouble in Toyland” report looks at the smart toys,
like microphones, cameras, connectivity, and location trackers.
“Smart toys can be useful, fun or educational, but interacting
with some of them can create frightening situations for too many
families,” said Abe Scarr, director of Illinois PIRG Education
Fund.
PIRG highlights an incident two months ago when a man kidnapped
an 11-year-old girl he encountered while playing the popular
mobile game Roblox. The child was eventually found safe about
135 miles away from her home.
Earlier this year, Amazon was accused of violating federal
children’s privacy laws through its Alexa service by collecting
the voices and geolocation data of children under 13 years old
and using the voices and data for its own purposes.
Besides smart toys, Illinois PIRG Education Fund looks at
several low-tech threats, including water beads, button
batteries and recalled and counterfeit toys for sale.
Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky said important
advancements have been made over the years with toy safety.
“Fifteen years ago, we passed the Consumer Product Safety
Improvement Act which did things like take away lead and dyes
from toys that children might chew on,” Schakowsky said.
The authors of the report said they tested both Meta’s newest
virtual reality (VR) headset, the Quest 3, and its new junior VR
accounts aimed at children ages 10 to 12. They note that the
experts they interviewed recommended parents avoid VR for their
kids and teens this holiday season.
Scarr said every year, about 150,000 children are treated in
emergency rooms for toy-related injuries.
“There is so much more we can do to protect them,” Scarr said.
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