Webcam Barbie?

[she_wolf]

I'm usually indifferent to Barbie, the doll having good points and bad points as far as I'm concerned, but Webcam Barbie? As the video review (NSFW) states, this is f#$ed up. Seriously Mattel, in all the "look what we can do with technology" talks, did you never stop and think about just what you were creating and who would most likely want

Comments

[she_wolf]

I grew up with a pair of Midge & Christy dolls, I think they spent their time riding little ponies and fighting ninja turtles. As a plastic roll-model the doll has had sexist moments, but she's also had every career under the sun, including computer engineer, and I could think of things much worse for kids to play with.

That said, I think you're right that the big issue here is how hidden the camera is. The idea (kids making movies of their Barbie play) is cute, but that they can share it online easily and no one can tell right away that the doll is a camera is uncomfortable to say the least. If the doll came with a plastic movie camera that lights up when recording, so everyone around knows what it is and what it's doing, the concept might not be so chilling.

[datura_inoxia]

The idea itself isn't bad. I can see this actually encouraging creativity by allowing children to record the "stories" they make with their dolls. For me, the problem comes with the automatic upload to the web. Children have no concept of privacy and I agree that a lot of creepy stuff could happen as a result. The video-cam idea is kind of neat, but it should be for off-web only fun!

I agree: Mattel was obviously jumping on the technology bandwagon and not thinking things through!

[she_wolf]

Glad to hear I wasn't the only one who winced at the idea of these videos being easy to post web: while I wouldn't be surprised if there were some extremely youthful youtube posters out there, at least the site has an age restrictions that it tries to enforce, and requires parental permission between the ages of 13 to 17. There's no mention of that with Barbie webcam, and I question if parents will view all videos before they're posted online.

Overall I agree that they do have a neat concept: watching people play with dolls is fun (Re: I'm a DC vs Marvel). However, keeping the camera all but hidden, and allowing the videos to be web-postable, is all but asking for trouble.