TIME EUROPE
December 11, 2000, Vol. 156 No. 24
Tumult in Toyland
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The issue is particularly pertinent at the most sophisticated end of the spectrum, where worries have been raised that fully interactive toys actually "dumb down" the play experience by offering a finite number of scenarios to children — thus limiting their imaginations. A smart toy, it seems, is not the same thing as a toy that makes kids smart. "There is evidence that if children are not properly stimulated, their development will be affected," says Dr. Polly Carmichael, clinical psychologist at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital. "In the past, children had richer individual fantasies. Now there are fewer opportunities for that." Stig Nielsen, a father of three children — ages 10, 8 and 5 — from Elsinore, Denmark, is determined to reverse the trend. "All our children draw and paint," he says. "It is our attitude that the more of the content of the play that is created by the children's imaginations, the better."
Naturally, some manufacturers disagree. "Technology has clearly made its entrance here," says Monika Collée, spokeswoman for Zapf, the German company that is Europe's biggest dollmaker. "But our idea is that the dolls, whether they have various functions or not, open a complete world to the child." In 1998, Zapf developed Baby Annabell, $65, a doll that reacts to touch and sound, burps when it is being fed and starts crying when its owner talks too loudly. This year, the company is introducing Molly, $54, programmed to behave like a toddler — among other things, she giggles when touched. Other robo-tot offerings include Vivid Imaginations' chatty Amazing Ally, $98, and the realistically responsive Mon Bébé à Moi, $59, from France's Group Berchet. Not everyone is enchanted. "Children of four," fumes Dr. Jane Prince, principal lecturer in psychology at the University of Glamorgan, "have a right to know what not being a mother is like."
Wooing Mom and Dad is a central part of toymakers' strategies, especially parents of very young children. Industry experts say such parents are increasingly looking for products that both amuse and teach. In 1996 Ravensburger, a traditional German toymaker, began to produce CDs for young children using new media. "We started offering 'edutainment,' an intelligent entertainment," says spokesman Heinrich Hüntelmann. This Christmas, the company's learning computer for four-year-olds, the Logic PC Mini-Laptop, $35, is already sold out. Next spring, Ravens-burger plans to produce an electronic book that tells stories and reacts to touch.
Yet it seems that the more parents and manufacturers tinker with the notion of what "play" should be, play itself comes under threat. "Children are aware of a degree of expectation of how they perform with the toys that they're given," says Prince. "The opportunity for creative play is constrained by parents' anxiety to fill children's waking moments with educational activities."
Even as Christmas approaches with visions of cyberpets dancing in heads, some classics of the Continental toy industry are holding firm. Retailers say board games, valued by child psychologists for their social interaction, will probably have a strong festive season. In the U.K., the new version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," $50, based on a TV show popular in many European markets, looks likely to do well — though, traditionalists be warned, this year's version has the voice of British television presenter Chris Tarrant programmed into a microchip.
The trend seems irreversible. Coming soon: Interactive E.T., $50, a luminescent, loquacious doll that speaks 400 words, knows 1,000 phrases and can adapt his behavior to his owner's. Like Poo-Chis and Lego robots, Interactive E.T.s can "communicate" with one another — stories, jokes and general chitchat — a scenario that might give pause to parents who remember artificial intelligence gone beserk in Philip K. Dick's 1968 classic sci-fi book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which formed the basis for Ridley Scott's 1982 cult film Blade Runner. Will Interactive E.T.'s conversation be intelligent? Possibly. Artificial? Certainly.
With reporting by Erika Buck/Paris, Sue Cullinan/London, Regine Wosnitza/Berlin and other bureaus
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