Dubai: Fears over a popular children’s app, believed by some Dubai parents to be a potential ‘trap’ by hackers and paedophiles, may be unfounded, say tech experts and informed parents.
In recent weeks, social media circles in Dubai have been abuzz with calls for boycotting ‘Talking Angela’, a free interactive app featuring a voice imitating white cat. “Warning to all parents with children that have any electronic device… there is a site called Talking Angela. This site asks kids questions like their names, where they go to school and also takes pictures of their faces by pushing a heart on the bottom left corner without any notices. Please check your children’s iPods and all to make sure they do have this app!! Please pass this message on to your friends (sic),” says a commonly circulated post on social media.
However it appears parents may have been pressing the panic button unnecessarily. Ammar Akhtar, IT Director, 1callgroup solutions, a Dubai-based company specialising in web and innovation apps, said: “Your child’s security is in your hands. As parents, you must ensure all location-based services are turned off. As long as you are not accessing the app through sites like Facebook, your data is largely secure. The app in question too is no exception.”
Talking Angela, like many other apps, is interactive in nature, repeating in her squeaky American accent whatever she hears users speak. She can also – when the device camera is enabled - read facial expressions and respond when she is tapped or poked. However what has caused panic among parents is that she can also engage users in preset automatic text chats but only when the child mode is turned off.
No concerns
“To me, Talking Angela appears safe and there are no particular privacy concerns that differentiate it from others apps. My daughter also spends time on Talking Tom, another app with similar features and I don’t see any problems,” said a British mum of a three-year-old girl.
