Strollerderby : cameras

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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Baby Exploitation and Election 2008

Madeline Holler — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:28:00 GMT

It's parenting that borders on questionable. It's the kind of thing you do with your kid where you're just asking for trouble. It's shallow, it's risky, it's exploitation of your own flesh and blood. And I love it!

A freelance writer and filmmaker from New Hampshire took his itty-bitty daughter all around the Granite State during the heyday of primary election campaigning. He had one goal in mind: getting baby Dahlia photographed with each of the presidential candidates (except Mike Gravel, who he says freaks him out. Understood.)

The result is a fantastic slideshow, which, just between us parents, is rather telling about those presidential hopefuls whose arms he managed to drop his (sometimes wet) daughter into. Without even passing around the Purell! (In October, November and December? Is he insane?!)

Oh, plus a bonus pic of Dahlia with Chuck Norris, who looks very at ease with the little gal. I'll never watch "Walker, Texas Ranger" with enthusiasm again. (Wait, I have never seen the show.)

Political Nanny gives a full analysis, examining the various baby holding techniques, "Black Power" kidwear and a curious leg-gripping trend among the menfolk.

Photo: Slate.com

Big Brother is Watching You[r Kid] On the School Bus

Karen Murphy — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:32:00 GMT

You decide—good idea gone awry, or just good idea? Apparently the new accessory on school buses is a video camera, recording your kid's every nose-picking moment.

The idea is to provide an objective record when there's a bus-related dispute. Hey! Did the bus driver haul off and whack my kid for no reason like my kid says, or does my kid have a bone to pick with the driver because he made him keep his head inside the window and embarrassed him in front of everyone? Who's telling the truth? The camera will know!

And the cameras supposedly deter bullying, too. Which would have saved my daughter's birthday cake from having been consumed by the ~~fat piglike girl~~ evidently very hungry girl who extorted it from her last year, thus providing life-long birthday cake-related scars.

And the ACLU is on board with the idea, too, stating that school buses aren't a place where kids would normally expect privacy.

So how come I don't like it?