Strollerderby : Fisher-Price

Kids Digital Cameras Come Loaded with Computer Virus

JeanneSager — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:01:00 GMT

Did your kids just get a camera for Christmas? If you picked up the Fisher-Price "Kid-Tough," you might want to update your anti-virus software before you plug it in to print out their pictures.

One Minnesota family contacted their local TV news crew after powering up Dad's laptop, and trying to upload their daughter's fresh-minted pictures. No sooner had they pulled the kid's eye views up, when dad Jeff Tapper says his antivirus software alerted him that there were two viruses on the camera.

In other words - not on his computer. News station WCCO put in calls to Fisher-Price only to be told the office is closed for the holidays, but the Tappers have found they're not the first to have this problem. Other parents have put out the warning in reviews on Amazon, over at Consumer Reports and other spots around the Web.

It doesn't seem to be a United States-specific problem, as parents around the world are making the reports, nor is there one specific virus to beware of as parents are reporting different warnings from their anti-virus software.

There's no recall out yet, but is anyone surprised that these things were made in China?

Image: Amazon

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Walkie-Talkie Teaches 3-Year-Old About Drugs and Sex

Jen Chaney — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:33:00 GMT

Deborah Pancaro's three-year-old son recently heard some weird stuff on his toy walkie-talkie. First he heard some guys saying "10-4." Then he picked up some chatter about marijuana and plans to visit a strip club.

“They said we should go smoke some weed, and were talking about being in a strip bar, some really explicit things,” Pancaro told the Associated Press.

Turns out the Diego walkie-talkie the West Virginia mom bought at Wal-Mart was intercepting -- you guessed it -- truckers talking via CB radio. (Either that, or it was picking up dialogue from "Pineapple Express.") Pancaro sent a letter to Fisher-Price, manufacturer of the product, asking them to either recall it or fix the toy so it won't be so sensitive to interference. A spokeswoman for Fisher-Price says the company has tried to call Pancaro twice to no avail. Meanwhile, the Wal-Mart Web site says the walkie-talkie has been discontinued. No word on whether the boy has developed a sudden interesting in visiting a place called The Bada Bing.

Neither Diego nor his cousin, Dora the Explorer, had any comment on the matter. When approached by a reporter, Baby Jaguar said he didn't have time to talk because he was really busy trying to score some weed.

(Kidding! Kidding!)

Fisher-Price Wants to Hire Your Kid

Karen Murphy — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:23:00 GMT

Dust off your kid's resume because Fisher-Price is hiring. Not just hiring either, but they're looking to add kids onto their board. Attractive skills include leadership qualities, human resources, project management, sales skills and creativity in design or concept, with a total of six kids being hired. Five-year-old Saige Bayne is the first hire, snapped up due to her drawing and design skills.

So what's going on here? In a ploy to corner the toy market and ~~attempt world domination~~ make lots and lots of money, Fisher-Price is recruiting kids to establish sort of an in-house focus group so as to better ~~exploit~~ market to their target audience. So yeah, while it would be a hell of a lot of fun to be the next "Big" and help design toys and play with them all day (oops, I'm talking about me here, but I'm sure it would be fun for kids too), I'm a little concerned about the exploitative nature of this proposition. Not that Fisher-Price is the first to employ this brilliant idea; focus groups have long been used to better hone product lines that in turn sell more products and therefore make the company more money. But in the excitement of being a part of new-toy development, do these kids realize they're being used?

You have to live in Australia to be eligible, though, so it cuts me and my kids right out of contention. Oh well, we'll have to find total world domination another way.