At last, a USB security token for girls!
Pre-teens in Mattels' free Barbie Girls
virtual world can chat with their friends online using a feature called
Secret B Chat. But as an ingenious (and presumably profitable) bulwark
against internet scum, Mattel only lets girls chat with "Best Friends,"
defined as people they know in real life.
That relationship first has to be authenticated by way of the Barbie
Girl, a $59.95 MP3 player that looks like a cross between a Bratz doll
and a Cue Cat, and was recently rated one of the hottest new toys of the 2008 holiday season.
The idea is, Sally brings her Barbie Girl over to her friend Tiffany's
house, and sets it in Tiffany's docking station -- which is plugged
into a USB port on Tiffany's PC. Mattel's (Windows only) software
apparently reads some sort of globally unique identifier embedded in
Sally's Barbie Girl, and authenticates Sally as one of Tiffany's Best
Friends.
Now when Sally gets home, the two can talk in Secret B Chat. (If
Sally's parents can't afford the gadget, then she has no business
calling herself Tiffany's best friend.)
It's sort of like an RSA token, but with cute fashion accessories
and snap-on hair styles. THREAT LEVEL foresees a wave of Barbie Girl
parties in the future, where tweens all meet and authenticate to each
other -- like a PGP key signing party, but with cupcakes.
Without the device, girls can only chat over Barbie Girls' standard
chat system, which limits them to a menu of greetings, questions and
phrases pre-selected by Mattel for their wholesome quality.
In contrast, Secret B Chat lets girls chat with their keyboards --
just like a real chat room. But it limits the girl-talk to a white list
of approved words. "If you happen to use a word that's not on our list
(even if it's not a bad one), it will get blocked," the service
cautioned girls at launch. "But don't worry -- we're always adding
cool new words!"
