Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), the country’s telecommunications agency which manages the country’s telecommunications has prevented smartwatches for children in the country after it classified them as spying devices.
This decision came months after the agency prevented “My Friend Cayla Doll” indicating that the smart toy listens to kids talks and responds to them in real-time. Bundesnetzagentur described the doll as a real example of “unauthorized wireless transmitting equipment.”
The Agency is now asking mothers and fathers to destroy any such devices and is urging schools to pay more attention to watches with conversation recording function between students.
Bundesnetzagentur President Jochen Homann stated:
“According to our investigations, parents were using the watches, for example, to listen in on teachers during class.”
“Via an app, parents can use such children’s watches to listen unnoticed to the child’s environment, and they are to be regarded as an unauthorized transmitting system,”
It is not obvious whether the German decision to prevent smartwatches was based on the privacy issues associated with them or wider security issues.