Mother courage: Talking ourselves out of playtime

In which I propose a health warning for toys that talk

Now, I love Barbie, but even I know her conversation doesn’t extend far beyond ‘does my bum look big in this?’. So the news that a creator of animated conversation apps for children, is going to be bringing its technology to 3D toys (first project, Hello Barbie), it brings out the guardian-of-childhood in me.

ToyTalk’s popular apps promote children’s use of complex dialogue through chatting with make-believe characters. Apparently. I can’t say yay or ...