DigilitEY conference 2019

1. WG4 SYMPOSIUM – RESEARCHING THE
INTERNET OF TOYS
The constantly-entertained child, the robotic
friend and the guilty parent: Representation of
IoToys in ads and commercial discourses
Patrícia Dias, CECC/CRC-W, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Rita Brito, CRC-W, Universidade Católica Portuguesa; Escola de Educação, ISEC Lisboa
Reconceptualising Early Childhood Literacies: An International Conference
COST Action IS1410 DigiLitEY - The digital literacy and multimodal practices of young children
March 7th and 8th, Manchester

2. Theoretical framework
• Conceptualization of IoToys and state of the art of research
(Mascheroni & Holloway, 2017);
• Domestication Theory as relevant theoretical framework to explore
the adoption of smart toys by families (Berker, Hartmann, Punie, &
Ward, 2006; Haddon, 2011; Holloway & Green, 2017);
• Media Representation Theory (Lacey, 1998; Stevenson, 2002;
Franklin, 2002; Barnett, 2003; Wright et al., 2005).

3. Research Questions
Q1 - What are the commercial discourses about the IoToys?
Q1a - Who do they address?
Q1b - How are toys, play and children represented?

4. Methodology
Mixed methods:
• Search for adds using the keywords IoToys, smart toys, intelligent toys,
connected toys + content analysis of collected adds (N = 46; collected
from November 15th 2016 to January 6th 2017);
• Discourse analysis of the adds (N = 46) and of the websites of the
products featured in the adds (N = 37), focusing on the representations of
smart toys, parents and children.

5. Sample

6. Sample

7. Sample
Smart Toy Number of Adds
tgoma 1
OSMO 1
Lego Dimensions 1
Sphero BB-8 Droid Star Wars Robot 2
Furby (Hasbro) 1
VTech Little Smart Top 1
AliveLab Ltd Mardles 1
My Puppy Pal (Leapfrog,) 1
Play-doh touch, Hasbro 1
Marbotic Smart Letters, Marbotic 1
Marbotic Smart Numbers, Marbotic 1
FurReal Friends (Hasbro) 2
Skylanders 2
Sphero 2.0 (Orbotix) 1
Roboter (UNTECH Robotics) 1
Kidi fluffies (Vtech) 1
Robot Robi (Fisher Price) 1
Hatchimals 2
I-Bob Magneto 1
Nenuco Happy School 1
Dash and Dot 1
Code-a-Pillar Ficher Price) 2
Evolution Robot (Clementoni) 4
Mio Amico Robot 1
Zoomer Puppies (Concentra) 2
Zoomer Kitty (Concentra) 1
Amiibo (Nintendo) 1
Smart Monkey (Science for you) 1
Pokemon sun e Pokemon moon (Nintendo) 1
Disney Inifnity 2.0 1
Mario Kart (Nintendo) 1
HitechRobot 1
Teksta the Robotic Kitty 1
Teksta Robotic Puppy 1
Teksta Electronic Moving Dinosaur Robotic T-Rex 1
RoboSapiens (WowWe) 1
My Benny Bear 1

8. Findings

9. Findings

10. Findings
Q1a - Who do they address?

11. Findings
Q1 - What are the commercial discourses about the IoToys?
Q1b - How are toys, play and children represented?

12. Findings
Q1 - What are the commercial discourses about the IoToys?
Q1b - How are toys, play and children represented?

13. Findings
Q1 - What are the commercial discourses about the IoToys?
Q1b - How are toys, play and children represented?

14. Findings
Q1 - What are the commercial discourses about the IoToys?
Q1b - How are toys, play and children represented?

15. Conclusions and Discussion
THE CONSTANTLY
ENTERTAINED CHILD
THE ROBOTIC
FRIEND
THE GUILTY
PARENT

16. Thank you!
pdias@ucp.pt
rita.brito@iseclisboa.pt