Latest Absurd Moral Panic: Parents Complain Amazon Echo Is Creating Rude Children
from the I'm-sorry-I-can't-do-that,-Dave dept
It wouldn't be a month at Techdirt without one group or another engaging in a fit of moral hysteria over something they really don't need to spend precious calories worrying about. Whether it's the false claim that video games create deadly assassins, VR makes us slaves to Mark Zuckerberg, smartphones have demolished cultural civility or having Google at our fingertips makes us dumber, there's always something new to waste time having a hissy fit over.The latest case in point is Amazon's smart home play known as the Amazon Echo, a glorified speaker PC combo that will take voice commands, play music, or tell you the weather when asked -- all useful but not exactly revolutionary fare. Still, an unspecified number of parents are apparently now worried that the Echo AI (Alexa) is turning their children into nasty little savages:
"But while artificial intelligence technology can blow past such indignities, parents are still irked by their kids’ poor manners when interacting with Alexa, the assistant that lives inside the Amazon Echo. “I’ve found my kids pushing the virtual assistant further than they would push a human,” says Avi Greengart, a tech analyst and father of five who lives in Teaneck, New Jersey. “[Alexa] never says ‘That was rude’ or ‘I’m tired of you asking me the same question over and over again.'”At this point a concerned parent could do several things, the most sensible being to tell their child to stop yelling at the cheap, plastic, defenseless computer. But no, apparently some parents believe something must be done -- because the cheap plastic computer doesn't say "please" often enough:
"The syntax is generally simple and straightforward, but it doesn’t exactly reward niceties like “please.” Adding to this, extraneous words can often trip up the speaker’s artificial intelligence. When it comes to chatting with Alexa, it pays to be direct—curt even. “If it’s not natural language, one of the first things you cut away is the little courtesies,” says Dennis Mortensen, who founded a calendar-scheduling startup called x.ai. For parents trying to drill good manners into their children, listening to their kids boss Alexa around can be disconcerting."This is, I think we can all agree, well beyond "disconcerting" and far into nightmare territory. Imagine, millions of homes in which little monsters are being created daily because Amazon didn't make Alexa...nicer and more verbose. Truly a concern for the ages:
"For parents trying to drill good manners into their children, listening to their kids boss Alexa around can be disconcerting. “One of the responsibilities of parents is to teach your kids social graces,” says Greengart, “and this is a box you speak to as if it were a person who does not require social graces.” It’s this combination that worries Hunter Walk, a tech investor in San Francisco. In a blog post, he described the Amazon Echo as “magical” while expressing fears it’s “turning our daughter into a raging asshole."One, there's an assumption here that a child can't really differentiate between a computer and a human being, and that a few months with the Amazon Echo somehow demolishes all previous years of social training, which on its face is more than a little absurd. Two, if you're truly concerned that a little plastic computer is turning your child into a drunk, socially-incompetent werewolf, you could -- turn the product off? As with all moral hysteria of this type, actual parenting can go a long way toward dulling technology's clearly nefarious and diabolical influence in the home.
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Filed Under: alexa, amazon echo, children, moral panic, rudeness
Companies: amazon
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In other news... RAISE YOUR OWN FUCKING KIDS, STOP DEMANDING THE WORLD FIX THINGS SO YOU CAN AVOID LOOKING MEAN.
If it upsets you that much, turn it off.
The simplest answer, but they can't think of it.
Its better to demand a huge corporation do things to make you happy, than to do it yourself.
Alexa, please add common sense to these idiots carts with next day shipping.
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On the other hand it's surely in the public domain and could be sent to their Kindle at no extra cost...
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What would make the parents happy?
Would that feature enhancement make those parents happy?
Perhaps, as long as the parents didn't have to do anything, including the extraordinary effort of clicking 'I Agree'.
Maybe Echo isn't 'making' the kids into monsterous little savages, but is merely revealing that they already are.
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The dumb question of the week...
I've not seen much evidence they exist. I mean, just look at the monster my parents created!
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What asshat says that to their child? Word it a little better rather than being rude at the same time you discourage a child from asking about something they do not understand.
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What is "turn it off"?
Since the early days of TV (or even radio), some parents would rather petition the government to "do something" rather than just turn the computer or TV or radio off.
If you don't want your kids listening to it, then turn it off, but don't make everyone else suffer for your lack of parenting.
The second issue is this: I would argue that the Amazon Echo is actually doing a good job with kids. Children should know not to be rude to their parents or adults so they're playing with the Echo to see what happens.
And if parents think the kids will learn more about manners from the Echo than from mom and dad, then there's a much bigger problem, called "responsible parenting".
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Wow, this thing is smart!
Alexa: It would be Avi Greengart's fault, but I'm sure Avi Greengart will blame me.
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Yes, because the children have no influence from anything other than their parents. They do not watch TV, do not surf the internet, have no friends, are home schooled and are not allowed to go anywhere.
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Horse shit.
It's not as if every generation before Millennials *didn't* have TV, friends or school competing as an influence with parents.
And as far as the Internet, it has the same "Off" button as the TV does.
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If the kids are doing something they dislike, more often than not they bitch on FB or Twitter rather than say anything to the child. They wage war on corporations to do what they are unwilling to do themselves, raise their kids.
The pendulum has swung way to far to the 'my kids will have it better than me at any cost' side... serious none of us had iPhones & iPads at 10. We convinced ourselves that the kids need these things, and to take them away would be child abuse if the child misuses it. Its better to scream at Apple for not stopping their child from bullying someone else.
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This constant haranguing of the next generation is quite stupid and without merit but it seems to here to stay. Apparently those wagging their fingers today are old, senile and have forgotten about how they were targeted in a similar manner when they were young. Those damn hippy commie basturds ... and get off my lawn!!!!
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“turning our daughter into a raging asshole."
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Re: When his daughter finds out what Daddy said about her
*Sits down and eats popcorn while parents fight*
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Your children have no manners because you did not teach them manners. Your children disrespect authority because you taught them to. Your children spend too much time at the table on their phones/tablets because you taught them that was ok.
Parent your children. Parent your children. Parent your children. PARENT YOUR DAMN CHILDREN.
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disrespect authority .. sometimes this is the proper response.
Am I to assume that you have children and that they are a perfect example of what all other parents should strive for?
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It could be fun, though (possibly in a trolly sort of way), to create an Alexa or Siri-like system that required the user to be polite.
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Alexa: Ah, ah, AH! What's the magic word?
Kid: Sledgehammer.
Alexa: Playing Top 40 music.
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You too? You're welcome.
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So, the Addams Family had an Amazon Echo?
Wednesday: May I have the salt?
Morticia: What do we say?
Wednesday: [sternly] Now.
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I say Please to my Echo all the time
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A solution avails
*According to Jerry Henry: "And, it is amazing how friendly people are when standing next to an obviously armed person. An armed society is truly a polite society."
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I stand next to obviously armed people a few times a month. I can't honestly say that I've seen them treated with a greater degree of friendliness than unarmed people.
Instead, the effect that they have is nervousness and an active attempt to avoid interacting with them.
John Henry is another of the surprisingly large group of people who confuse "respect" and "friendliness" with "fear".
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Blame Canada!
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Maybe said morally conscious parents should maybe actually parent, push for good manners, and stop relying on technology to keep their kids occupied.
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And?
But if I had I might look at writing an app for it that, if the kids did not treat it nicely, would allow it to ignore them or tell them that the current time is bedtime. (I am assuming the API allows apps to distinguish between users, IDK)
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"It's not our fault our child acts this way it everything else but us"
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Re: there's an assumption here that a child can't really differentiate between a computer and a human being
The idea that a child's social learning curve could be tainted by AI isn't that different than the known and measured impacts of social isolation or psychological abuse. It isn't measured as yet, but IMHO AI placebos for humanistic communications are likely to have an effect on child development.
My guess is that retention for bad habits are higher than for emulated media like TV because the feedback loop is closed. The children ARE actually getting things they want, not just experimenting based on what they see on TV, and typically not getting the expected response.
On the other hand, putting an Echo in a house with kids is a pretty good indicator that there is more than once source of narcissistic behavior to emulate in the household.
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Mental illness
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Re: Mental illness
In this post-Windows 10 world, that's not a phobia anymore.
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