Barbie has been an All-American favorite since its introduction in 1959. She has played a starring role in our popular culture for years; so much so that some girls have gone to great lengths to try to look like her. The bottom line is that Barbie has become a mainstay in many homes.
For this holiday season, Mattel, the maker of Barbie created a version called "Hello Barbie" that is going to be able to be connected to the Internet. Some privacy advocates such as the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood are very troubled by this new Barbie and have created a social media campaign called #HellNoBarbie because they have some major concerns about how the data being collected will be utilized.
A major problem with Hello Barbie is that parents may not always know when a particular conversation is being recorded by the doll and sent to Mattel's third party technology vendor. Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum pointed out to NBC News that the recordings could be utilized in divorce cases and custody battles.
Another issue is cybersecurity. Earlier today, it was reported that Hello Barbie has major privacy and security flaws that could expose the personal privacy and safety of our children. This is a very troubling report. Why didn't Mattel bake privacy and cybersecurity into the design of this toy? Mattel isn't the only toy maker to have overlooked privacy and cybersecurity issues. VTech, a provider of electronic toys for children was recently hacked and exposed the personal information of millions of children.
The bottom line is that we are entering the era of the "Internet of Toys" where manufacturers may soon start trying to one up each other with how their products are connected online. The problem is that is appears that many of the privacy and cybersecurity issues that are paramount to protecting the safety our of kids have not been made a priority in this rush for greater profits.
As a parent, I don't want or need my kids toys connected to the Internet. iPhones and Xboxes are meant to be connected online but Barbie, Ken, and GI Joe are not. Parents must be able to easily control what is recorded about their family in the privacy of their home. What happened to just being able to play with your kids and having a personal moment that is not shared with the whole world for eternity?
Copyright 2015 by The Law Office of Bradley S. Shear, LLC All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label Students and Social Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Students and Social Media. Show all posts
Friday, December 4, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Student Forced To Change Schools Because His Social Media Activity Indicated His Sexual Orientation
The Social Media Age has drastically changed how we interact with others and how we express ourselves. For example, we may connect professionally on LinkedIn, like a product or service on Facebook, or we may film videos about our thoughts and activities and post them on YouTube. These platforms were not available to us just 15 years ago.
While the Social Media Age has created tremendous new opportunities to do business, communicate with others, and express ourselves, there is also a dark side to all of this sharing and connectedness. Its plain old discrimination. According to The Daily Mail, a Texas teen was told to delete his YouTube account and other social media accounts because it showed what the school alleged stated was a "sinful" lifestyle. This so called "sinful" lifestyle was that the teenager was gay. Instead of deleting his social media accounts the student transferred to another school.
This situation is very troubling and further demonstrates the need for students to have stronger privacy protections in the Social Media Age. While it may be easy to identify a student based upon seeing them in a video uploaded to YouTube or other digital platforms, absent a student being required to authenticate their personal social media accounts it may be difficult to identify their Facebook or Twitter accounts because anyone can create a fake account.
The bottom line is that students deserve stronger personal digital legal protections in the Social Media Age and schools should not be required to become the Social Media Police. Maryland's HB 210: Educational Institutions-Personal Electronic Account-Privacy Protection which was introduced by State Senator Ronald Young would go a long way in achieving these goals. The bill would help protect the personal digital privacy of students while at the same time providing schools a legal liability shield against claims that they have a legal duty to police their students' personal digital behavior.
To support MD HB 210 I urge you to reach out to Senator Young's office for more information.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
While the Social Media Age has created tremendous new opportunities to do business, communicate with others, and express ourselves, there is also a dark side to all of this sharing and connectedness. Its plain old discrimination. According to The Daily Mail, a Texas teen was told to delete his YouTube account and other social media accounts because it showed what the school alleged stated was a "sinful" lifestyle. This so called "sinful" lifestyle was that the teenager was gay. Instead of deleting his social media accounts the student transferred to another school.
This situation is very troubling and further demonstrates the need for students to have stronger privacy protections in the Social Media Age. While it may be easy to identify a student based upon seeing them in a video uploaded to YouTube or other digital platforms, absent a student being required to authenticate their personal social media accounts it may be difficult to identify their Facebook or Twitter accounts because anyone can create a fake account.
The bottom line is that students deserve stronger personal digital legal protections in the Social Media Age and schools should not be required to become the Social Media Police. Maryland's HB 210: Educational Institutions-Personal Electronic Account-Privacy Protection which was introduced by State Senator Ronald Young would go a long way in achieving these goals. The bill would help protect the personal digital privacy of students while at the same time providing schools a legal liability shield against claims that they have a legal duty to police their students' personal digital behavior.
To support MD HB 210 I urge you to reach out to Senator Young's office for more information.
Copyright 2015 by Shear Law, LLC All rights reserved.
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