We got the boys an Echo Dot two Christmases ago. It always seemed an unnecessary extravagance to us, and quite honestly, it is. But the world revolves around digital libraries for everything: books, tv, movies, music.
Music. That last one is what did it for us. The freedom from “Mommy, can you play Frozen” and “Papi, will you play the song for the Blackhawks” made it all worth it. Instead, “Alexa, please play Waka Waka Eh Eh by Shakira” has become music to our ears. Then again, sometimes Alexa totally fails us. She won’t play a song we know she knows. She’ll suddenly think we live in California. She will think we’re speaking Spanish when we’re actually speaking English. Or we have to speak Spanish with a hard gringo/a accent. And then, there was yesterday. Yesterday I walked into the family room to hear “…as he walked a path through burning carcasses and massive destruction.” I paused in my tracks and turned toward the smiling tiger that is our speaker and focused more. “...total carnage of all that was in front of him.” “Alexa, stop.” I turned to Nathan, “What on earth are you listening to?” “A story.” He shrugged. He listens to stories all the time. Initially, we started stories and music together, monitoring closely what he was asking for and making sure Alexa was offering kid friendly options, as we had her set up to do. Monitoring also that our child was following the expectations we had regarding what he was requesting. Without many issues, we slowly released control to the point where we’re fine not being in the room when he starts something. “Alexa, what story are we listening to?” I ask, knowing the irritation in my voice will be lost on the AI in our house. “You are listening to Minecraft: The End of Days,” she replies, her tone, in turn, inspiring the head shaking-eye rolling combo I give her. “Yeah, we’re not going to listen to that. Okay, boys?” I head out to continue something - the laundry, cleaning, changing of clothes from 4T to 5T - one of the managerial chores that filled the better part of the day. Five minutes later I flitted into the room to leave a laundry basket for folding after the boys’ bedtime. “...was a complete massacre on both sides…” Alexa droned on. Oh, for crying out loud, I thought. What is happening? “Alexa, stop. Alexa, what story am I listening to now?” “You’re listening to the story Civil War on-” I cut her off. “Alexa, no. Alexa, stop. Alexa, no war stories. Do not tell me any more Minecraft stories or war stories. Alexa, play stories for kids.” I barrage her with commands. “I’m sorry, I do not have access to that on Audible. If you’d like to hear a story-” “Alexa, just tell me a children’s story.” Bingo. A plethora of options more suited to the ears of our four and six year old children are presented. Nathan picks one. “Okay, boys, no more stories about killing people, okay? If you hear that, please turn it off. Actually, no. Just… just ask Alexa for children’s stories. They’ll be better topics for you. Okay? I’ll figure out what’s gotten into Alexa and make sure those are blocked.” So…if anyone knows how to set parental controls specifically on Audible books available via Alexa, I’m all ears. Clearly she has a penchant for bloody war stories right now, but I’d really love her to go back to the unnecessary, yet helpful, extravagance she was before.
2 Comments
3/20/2022 06:01:36 pm
Oh my goodness! Alexa has definitely gone astray with those book choices!
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Megan Fitzsimmons
3/20/2022 06:42:35 pm
Wow, Alexa! She really went rogue today on you and not in a good way. Keep us posted about the parental control situation!
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