Original story

SatWeb/HansardEU realtime transcript, EP 25.4.2015

Speech by Dame Stacia Hawkwind, MEP, at preparatory committee prior to 1st reading of the Bill on the Prohibition of Advertising Toys and Dolls

Madam Chairman, fellow MEPs,

I must admit I had not grasped the full import and danger of this question until last weekend, when I visited my constituency and spent Saturday evening at home. If you will permit me, I shall offer you a brief fragment from my family life that may open your eyes as much as it did mine. Naturally it would be ideal if all of us had the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the toys under discussion, but regrettably time does not allow. The manufacturing plants are turning these advertising devices out as fast as they can make them, and soon voters across the continent will be well and truly brainwashed. How will we then be able to reach a sensible decision?

Although we are currently very hard-pressed with work on a number of new items and directives, I decided to travel home physically for the weekend. I have noticed that videotelephony does not always give an accurate picture of everything that is going on in the home or in the constituency office. What I saw and heard on Saturday made me change my stand on the Bill under discussion.

My seven-year-old son had received as a free gift this latest model of the Cyberads Inc. Cyberteddy. The bear has been in our household for a month now, and I had previously seen it onscreen in my son’s lap. On those occasions, however, it did not speak! I wonder if you would feel happy about toys speaking to your children in this fashion. Listen to the following recording and draw your own conclusions on the growing Cyberteddy army, already a million strong if we are to believe the manufacturers’ recent boasts.

“Goodnight, Sammy! Today was a nice day. Can I come shopping with you again tomorrow? There’s an advertisement on the multivision now, please let me watch the advertisements, they have new programming routines and new things for me to talk about… It’s nice that you are here beside me watching, Sammy… Do you need a new pullover like that one? Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a new virtual-geared tricycle? Can you stroke me a bit, it feels so good…Hey, now you’d like a Gelawhopper ice-cream, I bet…”.

And there is more. This teddybear could be straight from the pages of a behaviourist textbook. He is easy to befriend, he is easy to please in the initial stages, and he appeals to the caring and sharing instinct of the child. Gradually he begins to demand that he may watch digivision and multivision casts - particularly the paid commercials. Thousands of advertising agencies who have bought Cyberads licences are already inserting into their satellite commercial spots a datastream that feeds advertisement agents into the cybertoys’ memory units. Before anyone recognizes it, the teddybear has wrapped the family around his paw. In this way he able to influence viewing patterns, shopping preferences, and little by little can probably affect the mental well-being of the entire home.

I was alarmed to see that my own household was in shocking disarray. There were opened packages and boxes of various shapes and sizes littering the floor, and the entire apartment was dusty as though nobody had cleaned for weeks. My husband admits that things have got out of control, but he is reluctant to deprive the boy of his dearest toy and friend.

The speed with which this phenomenon has spread across the continent means that we cannot call on long-term statistics to register changes in buying habits. I firmly believe, however, that this form of covert operant conditioning, making use of Skinnerian “baby box” doctrines in the worst possible fashion, cannot be allowed to continue.

I propose therefore, in the strongest possible terms, that we vote in favour of the Bill on the Prohibition of Advertising Toys and Dolls. Thank you.

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 4/5
  • Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: kyllä; arviointi-ikkuna on 2010–2020
  • Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: kyllä, erittäin vahvasti
  • Ilmiön ydin: verkottuneet ja puhuvat lelut keräävät tietoa lapsesta, vaikuttavat hänen kulutusvalintoihinsa ja synnyttävät vaatimuksia mainonnan rajoittamisesta.

Älylelut, sovelluksiin kytketyt nuket, vaikuttajamarkkinointi ja käyttäytymiseen perustuva mainonta ovat tehneet lasten kaupallisesta profiloinnista todellisen kysymyksen. Lelukohtaista täydellistä mainontakieltoa ei ole syntynyt, mutta lasten dataa ja kohdennettua markkinointia rajoitetaan.

Johtopäätös: ydin lelujen välittämästä personoidusta vaikuttamisesta toteutui olennaisilta osin.