My Friend Cayla/Trivia
Trivia about My Friend Cayla includes:
- Banned in Germany: German authorities banned the doll[1] as they deem it to be an "illegal surveillance device", allowing insecure connections within a ten-meter radius and can eavesdrop on unwitting children for less-than-savoury purposes. While the doll could be played "offline" like any other doll, i.e. without powering on its online speech abilities, the authorities were (understandably) paranoid enough to advise parents to outright destroy[2] or at least throw the doll in the bin as if it were Chucky, or otherwise face a $26,500 fine if they fail to dispose of it.[3] One German mum who couldn't bear the thought of obliterating her daughter's Cayla instead donated the doll[4] to the German Spy Museum in Berlin, where she is displayed alongside the Nazi-era Enigma machine and various Cold War spy gadgets.[5]
- Genre Killer: This along with other high-profile toy hacking incidents such as the CloudPets data breach[6] more or less soured the reputation of internet-connected toys and killed off any market opportunity for it, though some parents apparently remain oblivious to the fact that such toys pose a risk to their children.
- Back to My Friend Cayla
- ↑ Our Friend Cayla: No Longer Welcome in Germany!
- ↑ Parents Advised to Destroy My Friend Cayla Dolls
- ↑ Parents In Germany Face $26,500 Fine If They Don’t Destroy Controversial ‘My Friend Cayla’ Dolls
- ↑ Germany Issues Kill Order for a Domestic Spy—Cayla the Toy Doll
- ↑ Spionagepuppe „My Friend Cayla“ – oder auch: „Abhören von Freunden, das geht gar nicht.“
- ↑ Hackable CloudPets pulled from Target, Walmart, Amazon and more