A group of children's advocates and two lawmakers are raising questions about Amazon.com's new Echo Dot for kids, which was announced last month.
The advocates led by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood said Friday that the presence of voice-activated speakers on children's nightstands is an unwelcome novelty that could prove intrusive or potentially disruptive to their development.
“AI devices raise a host of privacy concerns and interfere with the face-to-face interactions and self-driven play that children need to thrive,” CCFC Executive Director Josh Golin said in a statement.
(Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
While the group is not suggesting Amazon's new product violates privacy law — an accusation it has leveled at other tech giants such as Google — its campaign wades into the murkier debate of how parents should evaluate their children's interaction with speakers. Research into that effect is inconclusive. But consumers — grappling with how to deal with kids who speak to voice assistants before they can walk or waste hours in front of screens — are demanding that technology firms design products that address compulsive tech use and other bad behavior.