Talking Tom and Talking Angela apps: Pedophile hoax and sex ads hover over claims to ‘strangle’ 5-yr-old for nudes
A shocking incident in Anne Arundel County, Maryland seems to have surfaced after police said a cell phone told a five-year-old to take naked pictures in the bathtub and threatened the child with strangulation if they didn't do so. As per a WJLA report, cops received a call for help on Wednesday, September 16, 2020, and are urging parents to use extra caution after the child pornography incident.
Reports claim that the officers found several questionable cell phone apps on the child's phone, including Talking Angela, Talking Angela 2, Talking Tom 2, and Talking Ben 2. According to police, the apps told the little one to click naked pictures while in the bathtub along with photos of siblings. Police in Anne Arundel County said parents need to monitor children's online activity and asked them to report any suspicious activity to police.
"The Anne Arundel County Police Department is urging parents to constantly monitor their children's online activity and use of social media," police said in a press release. "Please report any suspicious social applications to the police department."
Allegations, facts and denials
The titles most similar to those applications are these six games developed by Slovenian tech company Outfit7:
"My Talking Angela"
"My Talking Tom 2"
"Talking Tom Jet Ski 2"
"Talking Tom Cat 2"
"Talking Ben the Dog"
"Talking Tom and Ben News"
According to a Patch report, the apps' developers, Slovenian tech company Outfit7, has denied the claims. "The claims have no factual basis and are completely untrue," company spokesperson Daša Rankel told Patch in an email. Meanwhile, the app titles listed by the police are unofficial names of the apps as the applications have different official designations.
Although there seem to be no further developments on the report as of now and the true source of the allegations are not known, it takes us back to a 2014 and 2015 incident. My Talking Tom app was embroiled in controversies in connection to two pop-up ads for "Affairalert.com", placed by Plymouth Associates Ltd.
Talking Angela and the pedophile hoax
In 2010, the chatterbot app "Talking Tom Cat," was first introduced as a fully animated, interactive 3D cartoon character that not only repeats what users say but can also tickle, poke, play or dance to the tunes of your favorite songs. With more than 350 million downloads now, the app gained much popularity among little ones. After being released in 2011-2013 for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Google Play, the app’s successor, "My Talking Angela," was released in December 2014.
Soon after, a hoax went viral on Facebook that the app was being controlled by pedophiles who were targeting children. According to The Epoch Times, one of the false rumors began on the fake news site Huzlers.com. A message at that time read: "ATTENTION PARENTS & GRANDPARENTS! My future daughter-in-law just received this warning from a friend on her page. Do not let your child download the Talking Angela app! It is very creepy! Gracie downloaded it without asking to her kindle fire because it was free and a really cute cat. She brought it to me to answer the question it asked. I immediately noticed it had activated the camera. It had already asked her name, age, and knew she was in the living room! I immediately deleted it!" The hoax was soon debunked by Snopes.com.
At that time, Graham Cluley of Sophos Security said in a blog post denied those allegations. "The truth is that Talking Angela appears to be entirely benign, and there are no obvious privacy concerns that differentiate it from thousands of other iPhone apps," he said. Not just that, developer Bruce Wilcox, who collaborated with his wife Sue, told CNET that the advanced technology has fooled people. He said "people will see their own fears and fantasies in what it says." Calling parents "hypersensitive", he added, "For Angela it is all about her feelings. And Angela is selfish at times. And not only can she be rude but she can detect you being rude and react appropriately. This user is deeply involved in emotional reactions to Angela. That’s what we strive for."
Talking Tom and invitations to “f**k”
In 2015, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received complaints from two parents that their 7-year-old and 3-year-old children saw explicit ads while playing the game. As per a Naked Security report, one ad included a selfie of a naked woman with the words "Wanna fuck?" written on a mirror. Text below the image stated "Want to fuck her?" with the options "Yes", "Maybe" and "No". The second ad was similar to it with slight variations.
Plymouth Associates denied placing the ads in the app and put the blame on “a malicious third party,” as opposed to an affiliate. However, the company couldn’t identify who was responsible. The advertising watchdog ASA then said, "Given that the ads promoted Affairalert.com and they were the sole beneficiaries, we considered that Plymouth Associates were responsible for the material and for ensuring that it was compliant with the Code."
They also concluded: "We were concerned... that their procedures had not been adequate to ensure their ads only appeared in appropriate mediums. Therefore, we concluded that the ads had been irresponsibly placed and breached the Code." Plymouth Associates were told to ensure such ads do not pop up again.
Outfit7 has since released 22 more games and amassed 13 billion downloads. With the recent news, we can only say one thing: Wait a meoww-ment and stay paw-sitive!