Here’s what I read on Facebook:
I can’t even in words say what I just found out. I am SHOCKED and want to tell and let my friends and family, so they can be made aware, so they can make sure their children are safe.
Angelica stayed home from school today and thank GOD she did.
Because she was on her iPod playing a game called talking Angela, which is similar to talking Tom, anyway as she is sitting next to me this interactive cat says to her “Hi angelica where is your brother?”
She says “OH he’s right here next to me”
The cat says “Cool”, then the cat says “So what do you do for fun?
Angela says “I don’t know”.
Now I’m being quiet and listening because I think its weird this Angela cat knows she has a brother and is talking to her like a person.
Then its voice changes and in some weird robotic voice it says “angelica when you date, what do you do on your dates?
She looked at me at this point, got red in the face and said nothing.
Then it said stick out your tongue, I’ll stick mine out too”
It asked “what are some things you can do with your tongue? I can find many things to do with my tongue, let’s interact with our tongues.
At that point I had heard enough.
I shut it off!
I was freaked out, called the police department, they came to the house, said they would have the internet investigations unit and paedophile investigations unit look into it.
They called me an hour later and said “something or someone” is behind that cat.
They don’t know if it is local or overseas.
While the police officer was there and angelica was talking to him she told the police officer Saturday night her cousin and her were on the Angela app and it asked the girls their names, what her sisters/ brother’s name was what school they BOTH went too, and it took a picture of angelica.
This is under serious investigation right now.
When I googled talking Angela app I can’t even begin to tell you what creepy stuff came up.
Google it for yourselves.
But some things are: the talking cat asking girls for their phone numbers and if they’ve had their first kiss.
Take this app off your phone please.
There’s a big chance this could be a door for pedophiles.
The police have said they have seen things *like* this but never actually through a child’s app, but that they are not putting it past them.
The girls told the talking Angela app, the innocent cat as they thought on Saturday their names and she had a brother and then on Monday morning when angelica turned the app back on, it had remembered her name and that she had a brother.
These things AREN’T supposed to ask you questions and especially not questions about dating, using tongues or kissing.
I am disgusted.
I don’t feel safe at all right now.
Knowing that there was some creep talking to my daughter and my niece through a talking app.
Please if you have this app or any like it the police are saying take it off of your phone.
Some crazy accusations for sure. Let me tell you that right when I saw this that I ran to all my kids’ iPads, iPod touches, and iPhones and removed Talking Tom and every animal like Angela the cat that is associated with it. This really is scary. And you know what, it’s totally believable. All the newer devices have webcams, there is voice recognition with these apps, they can mimic you as they’re intended. So, what’s to stop a hacker from getting in the code and chatting with you real-time. Hackers can hack your email, chat, and IM programs so why not hack an animal and video chat with you?
But, I said this cannot be true. So, I Googled this Facebook chat and sure enough, it has gone viral with discussions here and there. The main rebuttal, from Naked Security, says it’s bogus and cannot possibly happen with the real tech service guidelines and protocols of app creating.
These talking animal apps allow the user to take screenshots to be shared via Facebook and Twitter. This is supposedly the only real ability of the user to show his or her face, and this is supposedly only shared to Facebook or Twitter, and nowhere else.
My take on this whole thing is that it could certainly be true. Hackers morph into so many different advanced ways. We have seen hackers take over computers and then move onto identity theft situations. We have also seen Gmail, email, and chat programs be hacked as well. What’s to say a video chat program, such as Talking Tom or Talking Angela, cannot be hacked and used to chat, extort, and take advantage of young users? That being said, you should remove this app for now as whether it has happened or could happen, it’s a viable possibility that we should not play Russian Roulette with.
If you feel your computer has a security issue, has a computer virus, has been hacked, you should take immediate action and hire a computer service technician to take care of it. The longer you let a possible computer IT issue linger, the worse your computer may get. Or try ExamLabs to certify yourself.
