Friendly salesgirl

Is Mattel’s new “smart” Hello Barbie doll poised to be a girl’s best friend or an eavesdropping child exploiter? The well-known toy manufacturer has announced plans to market its latest creation, an interactive Barbie that uses Wi-Fi and speech recognition, much like Apple’s Siri voice assistant. The doll records the child’s voice and transmits the recordings over the internet to cloud servers. Voice-recognition software then processes the recordings, and the company sends back responses through Barbie’s built-in speaker.

Hello Barbie can have a unique relationship with each girl, a Mattel presenter said at a recent toy fair in New York. She can play interactive games, tell jokes, initiate storytelling, and listen and learn about each girl’s preferences and then adapt accordingly. She not only understands what is said, but remembers it so she gets to know a girl’s likes and dislikes over time and can use those things in later conversations with the child.

But not everyone is enamored with the new doll. Child privacy advocacy group, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), launched a petition to halt release of what they call a “creepy” toy. They fear the company may use information that Barbie gathers about a child for marketing purposes. “Kids using Hello Barbie won’t only be talking to a doll, they’ll be talking directly to a toy conglomerate whose only interest in them is financial,” the organization’s executive director, Susan Linn, told CBS News. Mattel says it will obtain parental permission to capture a child’s voice, but CCFC fears that won’t necessarily protect children from exploitation.

Mattel predicts the doll will deepen the relationship a girl has with Barbie, eventually becoming the child’s best friend. Some are concerned with the social implications of an electronic doll as best friend. “Computer algorithms can’t replace, and should not displace, the nuanced responsiveness of caring people interacting with one another,” said Dipesh Navsaria, pediatrician and CCFC board member. “Children’s well-being and healthy development demand relationships and conversations with real people and real friends.”

Mattel plans to release the toy in late fall.

Tape dispensing

Spring cleaning season has arrived. Time to clean out the closets and get rid of those no-longer-used items. But what can be done with old VHS tapes cluttering up storage space? Most thrift stores will no longer accept the outdated tapes, which are not yet old enough to be interesting to collectors. Many recycling centers will no longer take them because they don’t contain enough valuable materials to offset the cost of recycling.

The tape itself is made of a phthalate-laden form of polyethylene, or Mylar, that is coated with toxic materials, especially chromium. As long as the tapes don’t break down, they are not dangerous. But environmentalists worry that if owners simply trash the tapes in the nearest landfill, the metals could eventually leach out and contaminate the surrounding water and soil.

A few recycling centers still accept the tapes for a charge, but one way to declutter and help another person at the same time is to send the tapes to Alternative Community Training (ACT) in Missouri. ACT employs disabled adults to recycle electronics, including VHS tapes. ACT charges a fee plus shipping.

And, of course, there is a plethora of craft ideas online. —J.B.