Page 2 – Kidzu

Decline in Youth Sports Participation Growing

Doug

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October 5, 2017

Decline in Youth Sports Participation Growing

Despite the nation’s obsession with sports, there is a growing problem when it comes to youth sports: a decline in youth sports participation and the healthy habits and bodies that go with it.

According to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), more than 21 million kids between the ages of 6 and 17 play team sports on a regular basis. Another five million are engaged on a part-time basis. Participation is highest before kids reach their teenaged years, when a general decline begins.

Most alarming, however, is that there also is a decline in youth sports participation across all age groups. Consider that in 2014 nearly 20 percent of kids were deemed inactive; that number swelled to more than 37 percent just a year later.

Part of this decline is being blamed on the nation’s sedentary culture, meaning kids are mimicking their parents and sitting out the playground and sports in favor of online games and smartphones. Across all age groups, nearly 82 million Americans were considered inactive.

But other factors were also listed, including:

A growing trend of forcing kids to specialize at one sport at increasingly early ages. The result: more and more kids are alienated from particular sports because they can’t keep up.
The high cost of specialty clubs, camps, and trainers that price out lower income families (activity levels decline with income levels).
Parents’ fears about safety – particularly related to concussions – keeping kids out of sports that risk contact, including football, basketball, and soccer.
Poor quality or behavior of coaches, who place too much emphasis on winning and are helping to drive the specialization trend.
Commitments in cost and time.

Health Benefits Outweigh Risks

While all of these concerns have merit, the truth is that the advantages of youth sports far outweigh their risks, and many education and child health experts warn that a continued decline in participation will result in even greater levels of childhood obesity, diabetes, and other health problems – most of which already stand at epidemic levels.

The United States, for example, already suffers the highest percentage of obese youth compared to 15 other developed nations. Between the ages of 5 and 17, nearly 40 percent of girls and 35 percent of boys are obese. (An individual is considered obese when body fat indices are at least 32% in females and 25% in males.)

And non-active children don’t just suffer physically. Numerous studies demonstrate the academic benefits of active lifestyles and team sports. Kids who play sports or spend a minimum of 60 minutes a day in physical activity are twice as likely to get straight-As as their less active counterparts.

Student Athletes Make Good Students

Doug

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October 5, 2017

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Most of us grew up hearing stereotypes about ‘dumb jocks.’ Turns out, however, that student athletes are more likely to be smarter than their more lethargic counterparts.

In fact, research from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and elsewhere demonstrates that kids who are physically active – particularly in youth sports – are more than twice as likely to get straight-A’s as less active kids.

In another study by the University of North Texas, kids with healthy hearts and lungs were more likely to perform well in math and reading. In fact, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that student athletes are generally more receptive to learning, fare better on tests, and don’t stress under the pressure of tests and exams as much as others.

Of of which is important at a time when so many schools are cutting back on organized sports and even good old-fashioned ‘gym’ class – stretches of time when kids historically got a lot of their exercise. In fact, the CDC recommends at least 60 minutes of hearty physical activity for kids, especially teens. It’s been found that kids who receive mostly Ds and Fs rarely if every participate in sports and other physical activity.

Ironically, many parents who want their kids to excel academically will choose NOT to have their kids participate in sports, mistakenly believing that such activities will steal time from their studies. Similarly, some parents keep kids away from traditional sports – e.g. football, basketball, soccer – due to concerns over concussions and other sports-related injuries.

Yet studies confirm just the opposite: that kids who have the opportunity to take part in sports and other physical exercise will do better in the long term. And remember, an active lifestyle doesn’t mean a child has to bash into others wearing pads. Dance, for example, is an outstanding mode of exercise (among other benefits).

In one such study published in January 2012 in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, participation in physical activity was directly correlated to strong academic performance in children.

And in another study, it was demonstrated that in schools where children are provided daily exercise through Physical Education or related programs, test scores were higher. Specifically, over a three-year period students’ academic achievement improved so long as they were permitted physical exercise during regular school hours. Elementary-aged children who received ‘active breaks’ demonstrated stronger focus on subjects.

The bottom line: Parents need to ensure their kids are physically active and schools need to provide such outlets for their students.

Summer Camp as Digital Detox?

Doug

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October 5, 2017

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By now you’ve likely heard that technology – especially the kind found in a smartphone – has been likened to ‘digital heroin,’ as addictive to the brain as real drugs. But did you know summer camp is a wonderful path to digital detox?

There is a growing body of research to suggest this notion of addiction to digital technology is more than simple armchair psychology or simply the hysterical rants of stressed-out parents unable to get their kids to disengage from digital technology.

In his book, “Glow Kids,” Dr. Nicholas Kardaras says that brain images have proven that digital screens can generate just as much pleasure (in the form of dopamine releases) as sex. Other research is connecting screen time to a host of ailments, including depression, anxiety, ADHD, addiction, and more. It can get so bad, says Kardaras, that a child’s brain eventually can show the same damage as if it was addicted to cocaine.

So what’s a parent to do, particularly in an age when schools are actually introducing more screen time in the form of laptops, tablets, and other digital learning devices? One answer: send your kids away to camp, where the digital tech is strictly verboten.

In an All Things Considered podcast that aired earlier this year, reporter Anya Kamenetz visited a number of summer camps which, as she noted, enjoy the unique distinction of being one of the nation’s only ‘tech-free zones.’

According to the American Camp Association, fewer than one-fifth of the nation’s more than 8,400 overnight camps permit and kind of Internet connectivity at all, and less than 10% allow mobile phones. Some camps will even evict campers who violate the no-phone policy.

What that all adds up to is a kind of detox for kids otherwise accustomed to spending multiple hours a day texting friends, checking social media channels, and otherwise constantly being plugged in.

Digital Detox for Mom and Dad Too?

Not surprisingly, many if not most of the kids struggle going cold turkey. But counselors report that, within a few days, not only do their young campers stop missing the tech, they actually start to enjoy themselves in the same ways earlier generations of campers did: by going for hikes in the woods, canoeing, horseback riding, playing games, and simply talking with each other, face to face.

What is surprising when it comes to the tech-free policies, however, is that parents often turn out to be a bigger problem than their kids. “We started to hear from camp directors … that parents were the most problematic areas of a camp experience,” Barry Garst of Clemson University told Kamenetz.

Garst, who researches youth development, said counselors have told him modern ‘helicopter parents’ will demand constant updates about their kids. How often? One counselor said “up to 100 messages a day.”

“The number one concern is the separation that parents feel, and the difficulty in accepting a different type of communication with their child when their child is at camp,” said Garst.

To combat the problem, camps are putting in place training policies that help not just campers – but parents – understand that camp is a tech-free zone and that this policy is good for all involved – most notably, kids, who need to disconnect to rediscover the natural world around them.

5 Big Reasons Dance is Good for Kids

Doug

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October 9, 2017

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Asked by someone for advice on living a good life, baseball great Satchel Paige responded: “Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching.” Intriguing, isn’t it, that, along with those two heavyweights of the human condition – love and money – he included dancing?

Anyone with children knows that almost from the moment a child can walk, he or she begins to gyrate to music, legs and arms moving, head bobbing. Rare is the child who doesn’t occasionally and spontaneously lapse into dance while navigating a grocery store aisle with mom or hardware store with dad. They literally can’t help themselves.

Dance and Boys

But with age comes self-consciousness, and by their early teens a majority of kids – particularly boys – cease to dance or, if they do, it’s in private. Which explains why those early middle school dances so often are characterized by girls on the dance floor while boys watch from the periphery.

Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching.

Yet across time and culture, dance has played an enormously important role in human evolution. Far from being simple motion set to music or cadence, dance is human cognition, language, art, and expression all rolled into one.

And dancers are highly unique, wrote Ursula Le Guin, in that they, more than any other human, “have the most accurate, vivid sense of their own appearance. What dancers look like is, after all, what they do.”

We could do on and on about this, but suffice it to say there are many reasons why dance is good for kids. Here are five we consider particularly important.

Confidence

One of the many reasons early teens become self-conscious and abandon dancing is the physical awkwardness that comes with puberty. Legs and arms sprout out like weeds, feet expand, and normally simple tasks become accidents waiting to happen.

By learning dance, however, children become far more aware of their bodies and how to move them in meaningfully expressive ways. And by becoming confident dancers, teens – yes, even boys – become comfortable taking the dance floor and connecting in meaningful ways with others.

Flexibility

Dance requires physical dexterity, limberness, flexibility and strength. Many is the first-timer who is surprised by how physically demanding those first lessons can be, yet equally grateful when they start to experience a newfound sense of confidence in their movements.

Expressiveness

As with other art forms, dance is a powerful means of expression for children who may not yet have the powers of language at their disposal. A ‘hyperactive’ child, for example, may simply need an outlet for expressing the unconscious feelings and emotions coursing through their veins.

Exercise

Until they push into their hormone-addled teenage years when sleep becomes a mainstay, kids enjoy (and parents often suffer through) boundless energy. On rainy days, a child literally might be bouncing off the walls. Dance is an excellent way to enable kids to burn off energy without the physical risk often associated with more traditional sports (e.g. football, basketball, soccer, etc.).

Socializing

A central challenge facing kids is learning to ‘play nice’ with others, particularly when working in class on increasingly complex projects. Like theatre, dance requires children to master a skill both individually and within a group. This choreography of movement is an excellent way for kids to learn to depend on others and, similarly, to have others depend on them.

Creating Wingmen for Dance

Dance

Cindy

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October 18, 2017

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In an era when kids mistakenly equate social medias ‘likes’ with actual friendships, a growing number of youth clubs and organizations are fighting back with activities aimed at developing empathy, compassion, and genuine forms of connectedness.

Once such initiative is Wingman for Dance, a national youth leadership program aimed at fostering real connection between dance students rather than, as is traditionally the case, that onus falling entirely on the instructor.

“As a dance teacher, I have noticed that the climate of youth culture has changed dramatically. There is a higher level of self-absorption,” says Jessica Michaels, program director for Wingman for Dance.

She adds: “Young girls in particular are obsessed with how many likes and comments they can get on social media. Wingman for Dance encourages them to think about others. It helps them realize we are all different, we are all unique, and that is not a bad thing.”

Since the program’s April 2016 launch, nearly 20 U.S. and Canadian dance studios have signed up for the $99 program, which includes a number of guides and support services aimed at creating empathy and connection between dancers.

One such activity is called Story Dance, which calls for groups of three to four dancers to draw three ’emotion’ words from a hat, then interpret those emotions through movement. The rest of the class attempts to decipher the emotions involved.

The Wingman for Dance program is part of the Wingman youth leadership program and sponsored by Dylan’s Wings of Change foundation, created by Ian and Nicole Hockley in honor of their son Dylan, one of 20 first-graders killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. As his parents put it, Dylan had autism and often depended on a network of peers to help him fit in and communicate – his ‘wingmen.’

Click here to learn more about the program.

Wingman for Dance from Jessica Michaels on Vimeo.

New Zealand Police Using Camps for At-Risk Youth

Doug

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October 18, 2017

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New Zealand Police Using Camps for At-Risk Youth

This article first appeared in New Zealand’s Northern Advocate on Oct. 18, 2017.

Outdoor activity camps in which at-risk youth learn about teamwork and good decision-making could be part of the solution to the Mid North’s high youth crime rate, a police officer says.

A spike in youth offending – in particular the appearance of 18 young offenders on a single day in the Kaikohe Youth Court, 12 of whom were charged with aggravated robbery – has rung alarm bells in the justice system, with Principal Youth Court Judge John Walker saying he was “very concerned”.

Senior Constable Rob Cameron, a Kerikeri-based Youth Aid officer, believes the youth camps he and other officers run through the police charity Blue Light could help tackle the problem in the long term.

The first camp, called Ko Wai Au? (Who Am I?), was held earlier this month at Lonsdale Park, near Matauri Bay.

Four youths, aged 11-13, had been chosen from each of the Kerikeri-Waitangi, Kawakawa-Moerewa, Kaikohe and Kaeo areas and teamed up with a police mentor from their area. Some had been chosen for their leadership potential and others because they were “at risk”, though none had come to police attention for the wrong reasons.

They took part in outdoor activities such as waka ama and bush walking, and competed as teams in problem-solving challenges such as erecting a flagpole on an island using lashings they had been taught earlier in the day.

However, the real benefits came from extensive contact before and after the camp between the police officers involved, the 16 boys and their families. That contact took the form of mentoring, home visits and activities such as waka ama.

“If we hold four camps a year that would mean significant, positive police contact with 64 kids and their whanau every year,” Mr Cameron said.

The three-day camp was run along military lines thanks to Constable Ihaka Lenden, a former Navy physical training instructor, with order, urgency, lots of push-ups and standing to attention.

“I thought that would go down like a cup of sick, but the kids loved it.”

The final day featured a tough team challenge and an award ceremony with the boys’ whanau present.

“The idea is to build relationships with police, to give these kids a skill set that lets them make the right sort of choices as they go through their teenage years. We see it as a positive thing we can do to try to counteract the spike in serious youth offending we’ve got in the Mid North, and prevent the all too easy slide into a life of crime.”

Police had committed to providing staff and vehicles for the camps but Blue Light received no police funding. Instead, the officers ran a series of fundraisers at The Warehouse in Kaikohe and Kerikeri, making enough to pay for the first two camps.

The October 3-5 camp was run for $1300 with costs kept down by, for example, officers’ partners doing the cooking. Blue Light camps in Auckland cost $500 per child, beyond the means of many Mid North families.

Blue Light members were working to find funding streams to allow the camps to continue.

Other staff involved in the camp were Constable Richard Avery (Kaeo), Community Constable Roger Dephoff (Kawakawa), Sergeant Robert Rakete (Mid North youth services) and Wally Te Huia (non-sworn, Kaikohe).

“All the guys doing this really believe in it,” Mr Cameron said.

“Some have grown up with challenges themselves.”

Robbie Schaefer: What Makes Kids Tick

Doug

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October 19, 2017

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We’re fortunate here at Kidzu to be good pals with Robbie Schaefer, creative polymath who knows a thing or two about what makes kids tick when it comes to music and the arts.

Consider just a few of Robbie’s recent or ongoing accomplishments:

– Lead guitarist and singer for the folk band Eddie from Ohio

– Solo recording artist for adults and kids alike

– Founder of One Voice Community, a nonprofit bringing art to the world’s poor and disadvantaged kids

– Playwright and actor for his very own life story

– All-around good guy

Who better, then, for Kidzu to interview than a man who has dedicated a considerable chunk of his life to making music that inspires the child in all of us.

K: What drew you to music for kids?

RS: I kind of stumbled into that side of things because of my own kids. They actually appeared in some of my songs. What really drew me – and draws me – to performing for and with kids is how emotionally accessible and open they are to music. Often kids are more adept at speaking in the language music much more than words.

Music is the language for the language-less place in us.

K: Why is music so effective with kids and adults alike?

RS: You’ll hear people say that music is universal. But I’d alter that a bit to instead say that music elicits a universal emotional response in us. Music is the language for the language-less place in us.

K: Do you find that important for kids?

RS: Yeah, I do. Music with kids is a bit like fertilizer or water for a plant. It brings out something that life can bury very quickly. You can see it in a kid’s eyes when you connect with them via music. Something remembered shows up.

K: You’ve spent a lot of time in poor villages in Africa and India and more recently in the refugee camps. What does music do for child refugees?

RS: Most of these kids have been bouncing around from place to place, homeless, facing food shortages, not speaking the language. So there’s obviously a real deficit in their lives when it comes to music and the arts. When we introduce this common language of music, in a matter of hours or days we literally watch these refugee kids start to re-inhabit their own skin. A little glimmer of confidence reappears, like, ‘Oh yes, I remember this world.’

We literally watch these refugee kids start to re-inhabit their own skin.

K: How do kids and music differ around the world?

RS: Kids love ritual, structure, repetition. You don’t see a lot of that here in the West other than with kids in a particular discipline – like learning an instrument or in the school band. So when I do a song writing workshop, I make sure that every day begins and ends with the same music ritual. Maybe it’s just singing the same song each day while facing each other, then the next day, same song, different kid across from you. You can think of it as opening and then closing the experience each day.

K: We like to say that kids teach us as much as we adults teach them. Have you found that to be true?

RS: Absolutely. Kids will often surprise you. In Nicaragua, this school we [One Voice] were at didn’t have a music program. This boy named Richard – who fancied himself a lady’s man and class clown – was always interrupting class, making faces. One day I gave the kids a chorus and told them they had to create the lyrics, and the theme was family. Well, the next day Richard comes back with three verses of a Rap song about family being what you choose vs. what you are born with. Now, the point here is nobody was assigned homework and nobody else got it done that fast. But music opened up something in Richard that compelled him to create and share.

K: In your experience, at what age do kids stop being so open?

RS: Kids can start losing this as early as 4^th or 5^th grade. I attribute it to that peer-driven desire to conform. And here in the West, there is a growing pressure to achieve vs. to create. If I compare songwriting between 2^nd and 5^th graders, those older kids are not willing to fail, to take a chance, to look silly.

The creative process encourages failure – it depends on it.

K: Which is a shame.

RS: Which is a real shame, yes. Because music gives us permission to be silly, to fail. The creative process encourages failure, it depends on it, and kids can only grow if they’re willing to take risks and fail.

K: Is this a global problem?

RS: I see it more in the U.S. than in other countries, and I attribute that to the entertainment culture and how it’s being sold to younger and younger audiences. Which means kids are facing the need to conform at younger and younger ages. In poorer places like India or Nicaragua where entertainment isn’t nearly as prevalent in the lives of kids, I see much older kids still willing to take a chance, still lacking in the inhibitions that really thwart kids in the U.S.

K: OK, so what can parents do to keep music and the arts alive in their kids, especially as they grow older?

RS: There are a few things parents can do.

First, I always urge parents to make a habit of offering new things to their children, because you never know which one is going to light that inner fire.

Second, don’t tie achievement to these experiences. In the U.S. in particular, we’re so consumed with achievement we forget that without failure creativity isn’t even possible. The achievement will come if they learn to experiment with and love what they do.

Third, don’t force your child to take piano or guitar or participate in the band. If they feel forced they’ll likely hate it and if they hate it they’re going to abandon it the first chance they get. And maybe resent you as well. I mean, how many adults do you know who were forced to take piano lessons, yet haven’t touched a piano in years? It’s almost a cliche, right?

Fourth, practice what you preach or, better yet, play the music and sing the songs and grab your mate and dance in the kitchen. Show your kids your own love and appreciation for music, don’t just foist them off on some instructor. Kids always mimic their parents first. If you’re touting music in a music-less house, your words are going to ring hollow.

Lastly, take a chance yourself, be a kid again, try something new. In a riff on Gandhi’s famous quote, why not ‘be the change you want to see in your child.’ How cool would it be to say:

“Mom is taking a painting class.”

“I didn’t know mom paints.”

“She doesn’t. But she’s trying.”

It’s harder for us, it takes time and effort, but how much more rewarding is that for all involved? And joyful.

K: Thanks Robbie.

RS: My pleasure!

Another Study Confirms Dangers of Football for Boys Under 12

Doug

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October 23, 2017

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Another Study Confirms Dangers of Football for Boys Under 12

A new study suggests that the age at which boys begin playing football offers the strongest indicator yet as to who is at risk of long-term neurological problems. Conducted by the Boston University School of Medicine, the study shows that boys who start playing before the age of 12 “have more neurological issues (both cognitive and behavioral) as adults.”

The study’s authors examined 214 former football players with an average age of 51, whose participation in football ranged from the pros and college to high school and youth leagues. What they found was that the duration or how long the game was played was less important to neurological health than the “age of first exposure” or AFE.

Young players who experienced more cumulative head impact exposure had more changes in brain white matter.

This finding is particularly important given that many youth football leagues start boys as young as 5, an age when most physicians warn children’s bodies and particularly their skulls and brains, aren’t remotely prepared for full contact, let alone the kinds of repetitive collisions associated with football. (A study with similar findings from 2015 noted that “youth football players may incur hundreds of repetitive head impacts in one season.”)

Specifically, the Boston University study found that youth players “with an AFE before age 12 had greater than 2× increased odds for clinically meaningful impairments in reported behavioral regulation, apathy, and executive function, and greater than 3× increased odds for clinically elevated depression scores, compared with those who began playing at 12 or older.”

Coming on the heels of other studies showing similar problems in the brains of children who start playing before the age of 12, it is little wonder participation rates in youth football are plummeting. While there has been an extensive focus on the impact of concussions, neurologists and healthcare professionals increasingly are concerned about the impact of those “hundreds” of sub-concussive impacts.

A 2016 study by Wake Forest School of Medicine used a combination of MRIs and Head Impact Telemetry System (a tool for tracking both the number and severity of helmet collisions) of 25 football players, ages 8-13. The authors looked at the brains of the kids before and after the season, and found “young players who experienced more cumulative head impact exposure had more changes in brain white matter.”

This most recent study is certain to add still more ammunition to an issue that many argue has contributed to a 20% decline in participation levels in youth football (ages 6-12) over the past eight years. The Chicagoland Youth Football League has experienced a 25% drop in registrations over the past decade, from nearly 10,000 kids to 7,500 last year.

The drop in youth football numbers has, in turn, impacted the high school level. Chicagoland’s home state of Illinois, for example, had more than 51,000 high school payers in 2007, but nine years later that number had shrunk to 42,682.

Some youth sports leagues recognize the concerns and are considering scrapping tackle football programs at least until kids are 12 or older. If studies continue to confirm the negative impact of tackle football on those under 12, it’s probably safe to assume those plans will become a reality. An important development given the overall decline in youth sports across the country.

Kids Under 8 are Increasingly Digital

Doug

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October 24, 2017

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Just about every child in the U.S. under the age of 8 lives in a home with a smartphone, says a new study from Common Sense Media, and a stunning 42% of these little ones now have their own tablet, up from just 1% in 2011, conclusively demonstrating that kids under 8 are increasingly digital.

Other key findings from the report, which focused exclusively on media use by kids ages 0 – 8:

Time spent on mobile devices tripled from 5 minutes per day in 2011 to 48 minutes per day in 2017
Overall, children spent more than 2 hours per day on screen media
Despite recommendations from pediatricians, nearly half of all kids watch some screen media before bed (and 42% report TVs almost always on in the background)
Children from poorer and/or less educated homes spend nearly twice as much time on screen media
Hispanic/Latino families express the most concern about their children’s media use, whites express the least

We’re using [digital screens] for our benefit, not for the child’s benefit.

These results should not surprise anyone, says Douglas Gentile, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University, given their ubiquity in modern life. What should be of concern, adds Gentile, is how much more difficult it is for parents to monitor what their children are consuming through those screens.

Another concern: while parents increasingly are using tablets and smartphones to keep kids distracted, says Gentile, in doing so they may be “building a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster, because we’re using that power for our benefit, not for the child’s benefit.”

All of which is why we, at Kidzu, believe strongly in the power of extracurricular activities – including, in this case in particular, camps – to keep children’s minds and bodies busy with something other than electronic devices.

One interesting revelation from the report: when given a choice between digital screens and old-fashioned paper books, the majority of kids chose the latter. In fact, of the 29 minutes kids spent reading each day, only 3 minutes was spent reading on a digital device.

IoT Toys Pose Serious Security Risk

Coach Carr

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October 24, 2017

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Thinking of buying an Internet-connected toy or device for your child this holiday? Do so with the understanding the data these Internet of Things (IoT) toys collect – your child’s location, words, images, video, etc. – could very well end up in the hands of hackers.

“Assume breach.” That’s the advice of a software security expert, who opts not to buy such devices for his own children and believes that there is an abundance of “connected toys out there with serious security vulnerabilities in the services that sit behind them.” (But more on this fellow in a moment.)

For the unfamiliar or non-technically minded, there are billions and billions of interconnected devices that constitute the Internet of Things. Think here about smart home devices like Amazon Echo or Google Home, Nest thermostats, refrigerators, home security systems, automobiles, smartwatches…. The number of IoT devices is growing at a staggering rate akin to a kind of digital Big Bang.

If you ask me, this is as bad as it can get.

The concern for security experts, is that these IoT devices also are making their way into the bedrooms and toy boxes of children, and even onto their wrists. Why the concern? Because in far too many cases there is little to no security present in these devices, nor the kinds of government protections most consumers have come to expect.

Translation: the safety of your children could be at risk if the data collected by these devices falls into the wrong hands. (Which helps explain why back in July, the FBI cautioned parents to think twice before buying IoT devices for their children.

Wrote the bureau: “These toys typically contain sensors, microphones, cameras, data storage components, and other multimedia capabilities – including speech recognition and GPS options. These features could put the privacy and safety of children at risk due to the large amount of personal information that may be unwittingly disclosed.”

Not So Smart Teddy Bears, Watches, Barbies

Consider, for example, what software developer Roy Solberg discovered after affixing the Gator 2 smartwatch onto his daughter’s wrist: a complete absence of “any layer of security.” Meaning, any nefarious hacker could easily “track your kid and even start seeing patterns in when a child usually goes to school or after-school activities.”

Solberg wasn’t alone in his investigation into Gator Watch, which, ironically, is pitched in part as a convenient means through which parents can keep track of their kids. In a report on its investigation into the safety of four smartwatches sold to children (including Gator Watch), the Norwegian Consumer Council Union found security lapses in three of them.

The NCC’s conclusion: “Any consumer looking for ways to keep their children safe and secure might want to think twice before purchasing a smartwatch as long as the faults outlined in these reports have not been fixed.”

As Solberg pointed out in his investigation of the Gator Watch, its utter lack of security measures means it’s possible for someone to trick parents into thinking their child is safely situated at one location when, it fact, that child is being whisked somewhere else.

Concludes Solberg, who conducted extensive testing on the device: “If you ask me, this is as bad as it can get.”

Unfortunately, Gator Watch isn’t alone. In 2015, similar security issues were discovered in popular ‘smart’ Barbie dolls, enabling hackers to gain access to the dolls and spy on the children playing with them. By hacking into the doll’s microphone, a perpetrator could record everything the doll heard along with position location data.

And for two weeks beginning Christmas 2016, Spiral Toys, makers of CloudPets IoT teddy bears, left two million recordings between parents and their children (along with more than 800,000 user name/password combinations), completely unprotected.

Investigations into the breach demonstrated an unknown number of individuals accessed the information, some to ransom the maker. Which brings us back to our security expert, Troy Hunt, who specializes in security-related issues for Microsoft.

You must assume data like this will end up in other peoples’ hands.

In a blog post about the incident, Hunt wrote: “Cloudpets left their database exposed publicly to the web without so much as a password to protect it.” The post, which we strongly advice parents to read, dives deep into the issue and points out how difficult it can be even for experts like Hunt to get the makers of these devices to pay attention to the risks.

And what advice does Hunt, who has young children of his own, offer parents? “I don’t particularly want innocent childish behavior like playing with a toy to be recorded and stored on other people’s computers.” Hunt sees no reason for kids to own such devices.

And what of those parents who insist on buying IoT devices for their children? “Assume breach,” he says. “You must assume data like this will end up in other peoples’ hands. It only takes one little mistake on behalf of the data custodian – such as misconfiguring the database security – and every single piece of data they hold on you and your family can be in the public domain in mere minutes.”