Today in the Fall of Western Civilization: I give you the iPotty. The iPotty is a colorful, Fisher-Price-style plastic training potty for toddlers. What sets it apart is its built-in iPad mount. While there have been any number of crass cash-in accessories for Apple‘s tablet, this one might just take the cake. Apparently the world ends not with a bang, but a plop.
We’ve featured tech-enabled toilets here on IntoMobile before, and adult versions of this potty mount have been around for a while. But think of the children! This can’t be healthy for the little guys, and who really wants to give them even more reason to rub their poopy fingers all over things?
Advocacy group Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC) has given the iPotty the ignominious honor of its TOADY Award for the Worst Toy of the Year. The TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young children) is given yearly to the toy or child’s product that the parents involved with the group find to be the most potentially damaging to young kids.
The TOADY vote “reflects the growing resistance to the toy industry’s cynical and self-interested promotion of screen-based products for infants and toddlers.” Early childhood development experts agree that “screen time” isn’t healthy for very-young children and their developing brains. At very least, limiting said screen time is encouraged. So the iPotty couldn’t be further from the wishes of most child psychologists.
For its part, CTA Digital has offered up a white paper by Tricia Sulpizio Estrada M.A., the founder and CEO of “Brighter Futures for Beautiful Minds”. It expounds on the virtues of the iPotty as a developmental tool, making potty training a game. Parents interested in buying the iPotty might do well to Google Ms. Estrada, whose background is in marketing.
CCFC’s director, Dr. Susan Linn flushed the whole idea once and for all with this statement:
“Throughout history, kids have mastered toilet training without touch screens. The iPotty is a perfect example of marketers trying to create a need where none exists. In fact, the last thing children need is a screen for every single occasion.”
You can find the iPotty for sale at CTA Digital’s online store. Commercial Free Childhood’s “Worst Toy of the Year” award announcement follows below:
iPotty Wins Dreaded TOADY Award for Worst Toy of the Year
Date of Release:
Monday, December 9, 2013
For Immediate ReleaseiPotty Wins Dreaded TOADY Award for Worst Toy of the Year
BOSTON—December 9—It’s official. Fed up with the latest effort to insinuate screens into every nook and cranny of young children’s lives, members of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood selected the 2-In-1 iPotty with Activity Seat for iPad by CTA Digital as winner of this year’s TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young children) Award for the Worst Toy of the Year.
With 45% of the vote, the iPotty—a potty seat with a stand for an iPad so toddlers can play games and watch videos during toilet training—bested runner-up VIP Upgrade Membership by The Real Tooth Fairies (30%). Monopoly Empire (11%) and PLAY-DOH Create ABCs App (10%) also had impressive showings. Trailing far behind was the Imaginext Mega Apatosaurus by Fisher-Price (3%).
“Throughout history, kids have mastered toilet training without touch screens,” said CCFC’s Director, Dr. Susan Linn. “The iPotty is a perfect example of marketers trying to create a need where none exists. In fact, the last thing children need is a screen for every single occasion.”
Michelle Salcedo of Greenville, SC eloquently explained her vote for the winner: “Toilet learning should be a time of positive interaction between child and caregiver. Also, children should be aware of the cues in their bodies as they learn. This toy takes this social/emotional focus out of the process and substitutes the hypnotism of a screen.” Added Alex Reynard of Royal Oak, MI, “It not only reinforces unhealthy overuse of digital media, it’s aimed at toddlers. We should NOT be giving them the message that you shouldn’t even take your eyes off a screen long enough to pee.”
Other nominees certainly had their “fans.” Voters were especially irked by The Real Tooth Fairies’ gender stereotypes and commercialization of a childhood icon. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater of Holland, NY wrote, “It’s a hijacking of one of children’s most magical tiny creatures, a wee last tradition imagined differently by each child and family.” The Real Tooth Fairies got Ricki Klos of Fort Worth, TX’s vote because “of their oversexed figures… and the fact that corporate marketers can’t leave something innocent alone to parents or children’s imaginations.”
Chris Edwards of Farmville, NC voted for Monopoly Empire “because of the sheer and shameless commercialism that appears to be the essence of this variation of the game.” David Barker felt that the Play-Doh app was the worst because it takes “special pains to stifle all creativity and enforce conformity.” And David Sands, MD, of Fairfield, IA chose the Imaginext Mega Apatosaurus because it “teaches very young children—it’s recommended for ages three to eight—that violence is the preferred approach to resolving conflict.”
But in the end, the iPotty prevailed. It’s the third consecutive year that voters chose a screen-based toy for infants and toddlers as the TOADY winner. Last year, Fisher-Price’s Apptivity Monkey—a stuffed animal with an iPhone in its belly—took home the prize and the Vinci Touchscreen Mobile Learning Tablet won in 2011.
Added Dr. Linn, “Once again, the TOADY voting reflects the growing resistance to the toy industry’s cynical and self-interested promotion of screen-based products for infants and toddlers.”
[Via: CTA Digital, CCFC