Spy-game toys are in danger of turning children into adults before theirtime, says Nadine O'Regan

George Orwell predicted it, but even as recently as 1984 few of us would have believed it possible. Surveillance cameras scrutinise us on our streets, in our supermarkets and in our banks. We watch shows such as Big Brother and buy magazines filled with paparazzo photographs. This is an age in which even Crimeline has begun to look like a Channel 4 reality show.

The extent to which our fixation with the private lives of others is harmful is the subject of fierce debate. But whatever the pundits decide, one thing is certain. The trend seems to be filtering down through the generations. In January, a US toy company called Wild Planet launched seven products from its Spy Gear range in Ireland. They included a tracking device, a lie detector and a listening device that enables its user to overhear conversations at the other end of a room (pictured below).

Sound slightly creepy? It becomes much more so when you consider that the products are targeted at six-year-olds. Even in the best-case scenario, these toys could foster an unwelcome self-consciousness in children who have barely begun school.

"You cross a line when toys encourage snoopiness," says Dr Gemma Kiernan of the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education at St Patrick's College in Dublin. "These toys bring children into an adult world, detracting from their time as children and the time that's given to them to explore child issues."

Chris Jones of Vivid Imaginations, which distributes Spy Gear, believes her concerns are needless. "Kids become self-conscious with things like fashion," he says, "but not so much with the toys they use. We market our toys to age groups that are not as socially aware. They haven't formed those social opinions yet."

But Dr Kiernan believes that's the problem. "During those middle years, children are developing mentally, emotionally and socially," she says. "They're developing a sense of themselves, and it's very easy for them to pick up negative as well as positive values. Giving children toys that promote mistrust passes on the message that it's okay to invade people's private space. It doesn't encourage honesty."

Perhaps the most striking element of these products is that they work. Action Man could never fire bullets. Toy soldiers were never in danger of bayoneting one another. But Spy Gear enables children to enact their daydreams - and perhaps suffer the consequences. "These toys could be quite appealing for children, but they wouldn't be aware of their harmful effects," says Dr Kiernan. "Children could very easily eavesdrop on conversations that are not appropriate to them."

Not surprisingly, the promoters of Spy Gear say the line has some unquestionably positive attributes. As Jones says: "The range entertains children and stimulates their minds. Kids use these toys to explore and play properly. It lets them use their imaginations."

The same cannot be said of another, far more sinister-sounding product developed by Dan Tibbs, a former polygraph examiner with Niagara Regional Police Service, in Canada. Liar Liar Pants On Fire is a board game featuring a lie detector capable of measuring blood flow and skin responses. The concept is that it looks like a game but works like an interrogation. The website that sells the game encourages parents to play Liar Liar with their children and ask them questions set by the manufacturer - including "Have you ever gone through someone's drawers without them knowing?" and "Have you ever kissed a boy or a girl?" Tibbs has said his product is not only fun but also a great way to bring parents closer to their children. Dr Kiernan doubts it.

"The game has the potential to be really interrogating of children, to almost criminalise them. There are far easier ways for parents to find out what they want to know about their kids than having to resort to using lie-detector tests. It's not sending children a good message."

Jones has similar fears. "I'd be concerned that kids could see it as feeling like their parents are intruding and questioning them. It could break down the trust barrier. Put it this way: I'm not sure I would have wanted it when I was a kid."

Jones has a point. On one US website, schoolchildren decried the game's purported merits. One girl, Gini, wrote: "I don't know that I would want to play this game with my parents, or any other individual for that matter," she wrote. "I wouldn't want to lie, but some of the questions are just silly and too personal. If your parents really want to know something, they should ask you and trust you to tell them the truth without the use of this game. It's simply a matter of trust."

Orwell could hardly have put it better.