Responsible Design

Mattel (Barbie) has recently launched a new product called "Fashion Fever".
It is basically shopping boutique playset for children aged 5 +. It basically
comes with little store and outfits for your doll, and a "credit card" like card that you
could swipe to complete the transaction. This is meant for the little girls to get that
Shopping Experience (as if they're aren't getting exposed to that early enough).
Yeah, it might be fun and all, but it doesn't teach the children any kind of responsibility.
Being at a young age, they haven't even developed a sense of what's right or wrong.
Products like these aren't neccessarily "bad" as long as you teach them appropriately,
but children don't know, thinking credit cards = free money.

1 comment:

LeeVos said...

When I saw this I thought right away that I wished it had been around when I was little. I think you are making a good point though about the fact that it will not teach any sort of responsibillity for young kids. But I dont think this product is really going to hurt their already media and commercially influenced minds anymore that the next Barbie toy. For me I loved the grocery store set when I was little I just liked using the till and swiping stuff. So I think this may be more about having fun swiping a card than anything else.