“Hello Barbie” is designed to have conversations with its young users through recording, storing and analyzing their voices and then responding to them. This creates a “creepy concept” in which children’s intimate conversations can be kept and listened to, said John M. Simpson, the director of the privacy project at Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.

“That potential there is tremendously privacy invasion,” he said. “It’s not clear yet all the things they may do if they start to have further data analysis of the kids’ voices and what they’re talking about.”

The latest toy from Mattel uses voice-recognition software to receive and process the audio transmitted from the doll’s built-in microphone. Soon after the introduction of the Barbie doll at a New York City toy fair in February, a petition emerged online calling on Mattel’s CEO to halt the production of the toy.

The advocacy group calling for the doll’s demise, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, says it generates mechanically-designed play and inhibits children from developing and being creative.

“Computer algorithms can’t replace — and should not displace — the nuanced responsiveness of caring people interacting with one another,” pediatrician Dipesh Navsaria said in a statement. “Children’s well-being and healthy development demand relationships and conversations with real people and real friends.”

Privacy experts questioned why parents would buy such a toy when in-person interactions are readily available and children’s imaginations run wild without the use of technology

The privacy of children is compromised as Mattel is able to have access to recordings and could use the information for personal gain or sell it off, said Jeffrey T. Child, an associate professor of communication studies at Kent State University in Ohio.

“We’re in an era of big data. Companies pay all the time for whatever they can get about people,” Child said. “Any piece of our identity really have some sort of value.”

Child conceded that Mattel seems to be within legal and ethical bounds when it comes to privacy by disclosing to customers the functions of the toy and the information that the company receives.

However, children’s privacy can still be at risk.

The company does require that a parental permission form is signed before the doll is used, a move that verifies Mattel is not in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA, Simpson of Consumer Watchdog said. Parents are given the opportunity through Mattel to listen into the doll’s recordings on a regular basis — something that may not be told to children who tell the toy intimate details of their lives they don’t necessarily want their moms and dads to know.

“Maybe the kid’s being vulnerable, talking about their friends,” Child said. “They don’t anticipate their parents to have ownership over that type of private information that they would disclose to this object.”

Private information that children tell the doll could be used to figure out more personal data that could lead to identity theft and family information being compromised, Child said. Mattel should be doing all it can do, he said, to ensure the data is secure and protected from third parties and potential hackers.

The advancement in technology has both its benefits and drawbacks. Child said the iPads his nephews and nieces possess have allowed him to easily talk and interact with them while seeing their faces, even if they are separated by several states. It’s up to people to decide if the technology’s advantages outweighs its risk, he said.

But Child said the privacy that is being given up to Barbie is too drastic to make the toy a good purchase. He predicted that Mattel would not make a profit off the toy once it was released into the buyer’s market.

“In the world of hi-tech, just because you can do something does not necessarily mean you ought to or even want to,” Simpson, the director at Consumer Watchdog, said. “Sometimes I fear that some of our hi-tech people say, ‘oh we can do this, let’s do it.’ That isn’t necessarily the best outcome.”

Students from Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Mass., including Emily Woodward, above, said they all use the Internet regularly, but they do not ask for parental permission. (Mattias Gugel/Medill)

WASHINGTON — The Republican and Democrat who head the Congressional Privacy Caucus are leading an effort to pass a bill that would tighten regulations on companies collecting personal information about children online, specifically focusing on mobile communications and targeted advertising.

The Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011 is an attempt to update online protections already established for children in The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Congress passed COPPA in 1998 as an attempt to protect the personal information of children online, but it does not address privacy issues that have arisen from new technology over the last dozen years.

So, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., introduced a bill that would require the Federal Communications Commission to enforce guidelines limiting the capability of websites, mobile providers or advertisers to use personal data of children 13 and younger.

At a news conference announcing the bill, Markey and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, co-chairs of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, both expressed concern over children’s online activities that could harm their well-being and future careers

Markey said people should not be denied jobs because of a picture they posted when they were younger.  He also said that a girl who searches one time for weight loss information should not be targeted with weight-loss ads every time she goes online because a company has profiled her as a young female interested in weight loss.

This bill would stop companies from tracking minors online without the consent of parents, and it would restrict the use of targeted advertising. This measure also proposes an “eraser button” that would allow parents to remove any information about their child stored on the Web.

“Parents deserve to know what types of information are being collected about their kids online and how it is being used,” said Barton, a co-sponsor of the bill. “If you don’t like what you learn – our bill will give you the authority to change it with just the click of a mouse.”

As mobile communications become more popular, this bill aims to protect children who uses mobile devices to communicate, such as cell phones and tablets, many of which have tracking components.

Emma Llanso, policy counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, said she appreciates the bipartisan attention this bill has received, but she believes all Internet users should get the proposed protections, regardless of age. She said the spirit of the Do Not Track Kids Act is good, but the bill could lead to mandatory age verification, increased collection of personal information from Internet users and the infringement of teenagers’ rights to access lawful speech online.

Actor Nick Cannon, celebrity spokesman for Common Sense Media, a group that advocates for children’s safe use of technology, spoke in support of the bill at the hearing. He said that even if COPPA is updated to better regulate companies gathering information on the Internet, parents still need to check what their children are doing online.

“Most at that age don’t have the judgment or the maturity to protect themselves from those capable of taking advantage of them by tracking their whereabouts on the Internet,” the America’s Got Talent host said. “Parental supervision should extend from the playground to the internet.”

Facebook requires that its members be at least 13 years old, but that does not prevent underage minors from signing up by saying they’re older and using the social network. According to a Consumer Reports study released last May, 7.5 million Facebook users in the U.S. are under the age of 13; 5 million are under 10.

Children under 13 who post information on Facebook that can be viewed publicly foil safeguards afforded by COPPA, which prohibits sites from knowingly disclosing children’s personally identifiable information.

Eighth graders from Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Mass., attended the hearing to see their congressman, Markey, during a class trip to Washington. At the end of the news conference, they were asked to raise their hands if they use the Internet on a daily basis — all of the students’ hands went up. But when asked how many asked for parental permission, none raised their hands.

Student Mimi Connors, 14, said after the hearing that privacy on the Internet is not a problem she faces right now, but she might care “maybe when I’m older.”

Children ages 8 to 18 spend an average of an hour and a half online daily, an increase of 45 percent from five years prior, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation in January 2010. Cell phone ownership also has increased dramatically, growing from 39 percent of 8- to 18-year-olds in 2004 to 66 percent in 2009.

“Tracking our most vulnerable, our young children, must be outlawed and I am delighted that Congress is finally taking the necessary action with the Do Not Track Kids Act,” said Cannon, a father of 10-month-old twins. “The bipartisan effort demonstrates that the two parties can actually agree on at least one thing — the safety of our children. Kids make up 20 percent of our population but 100 percent of our future.”