Amazon is giving Alexa a kid-friendly personality

As a parent, I’m constantly listening to — and a bit wary of — how my kids are talking to Alexa. Or more precisely, how Amazon’s digital assistant is talking to them.

Ask for the wrong song or overhear the wrong news story, and suddenly my son or daughter might be exposed to something I might not be comfortable with them hearing. And even when the content isn’t an issue, I sometimes wonder if Alexa’s generally cold, utilitarian manner is giving them the wrong impression of how to answer questions.

I’m clearly not alone, since Amazon is stepping up to address these concerns with a new way for kids to use Alexa that leverages FreeTimeFreeTime, you’ll recall, is the friendly name for Amazon’s parental controls on Fire tablets. The controls let parents set time limits and curate specific content, and there’s a premium version, FreeTime Unlimited, which opens up a whole bunch of kid-friendly content from various providers, including Nickelodeon and Marvel, for the tidy monthly fee of $2.99. Read more…

More about Amazon, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Freetime, and Tech