This week I answer a request from a mom-friend of mine about Alexa & Siri. Please feel free to send me suggestions! And please share this if you know someone who might find it helpful!
Voice Assistants like Alexa and Siri can be fantastic family helpmates. They can also be problematic. Today I’ll lay out the potential problem areas, give you options & instructions for setting up parental controls plus share my favorite voice commands— some of which are very practical others very, very silly. Ok let’s dive in!
What parents need to know
Voice Assistants raise 3 main issues for me— two serious and one very annoying.
Inappropriate content: Right out of the box, Voice Assistants can expose a kid to explicit language, violence, or sexual content. They are trained on a massive dataset of text and code, which may include some inappropriate material. If you don’t set up some guardrails its basically like the open web. Depending on the age of your kid and your values about content this is a major or minor concern.
Privacy concerns: Voice Assistants are constantly recording their surroundings which means they hear everything including information about your kid and their voice. This data could be hacked or misused.
Unauthorized or unintended purchases. Again without proper set up, your kid may be able to order things without you realizing it!
VA relationships like human ones need boundaries to work. Isn’t that a nice segue into parental controls? Here's how to get started:
Alexa
You have two paths to chose from with Alexa: Amazon Kids or Alexa Kids Mode. Let me explain:
If you have an Alexa that is solely for your kids to use, set up Amazon Kids:
Open the Alexa app and tap the Devices icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Select the Alexa device you want to set parental controls for.
Tap the Settings icon in the top right corner of the screen.
Scroll down and tap Amazon Kids.
Tap Set up Amazon FreeTime.
Follow the instructions on the screen to create a child profile and set up parental controls.
Once you've set up parental controls, you can control what your child can access and when they can access it. For example, you can set time limits for how long they can use Alexa each day, block access to explicit content, and prevent them from making purchases without your permission.
If this Alexa is being used by multiple family members, enable Kids Mode (which is relatively new).
SIDEBAR: Before I knew about Alexa Kids Mode— which I did NOT know about until researching this article— so literally this past weekend— we were pretty much rolling the dice with Alexa in our house. I thought I was so clever because I had canceled Prime Music which I naively thought meant my kids couldn’t play songs with explicit lyrics. Then my son causally mentioned that he just asks Alexa to play from MY Spotify account. Ughhhhh.
FWIW wanting to addressAlexa’s foul mouth has led to my own personal reckoning with why. I am not actually opposed to my kids hearing language in song lyrics. I want to talk about some concepts when they do like sex, violence, misogyny, homophobia, racism and conflicting emotions about songs & artists I used to love that haven’t aged so well. Unfortunately nothing kills a fun kitchen dance party faster.
But anyway, back to Kids Mode which allows you to create a profile for your child. Alexa will be able to recognize their voice and automatically give kid-friendly responses. She can filter songs with explicit lyrics, block shopping, let kids access parent-approved-content, and give age-appropriate responses.
Siri
To set up parental controls on Siri, you'll need to use the Screen Time feature on your iPhone or iPad.
Open the Settings app and tap Screen Time.
If you haven't already set up Screen Time, tap Turn On Screen Time.
Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.
Tap Purchase Restrictions and select Don't Allow.
Tap Websites and select Limit Adult Websites.
Tap Siri and select Don't Allow.
Once you've set up parental controls, Siri will not be able to access any adult content or make purchases without your permission.
What else parents need to do
Make sure to use a strong password for your Amazon and Apple accounts.
Enable two-factor authentication on both accounts.
Talk to your children about internet safety and why you are using parental controls.
Monitor your children's activity on Alexa and Siri devices regularly.
Don’t forget about Siri on Apple Watches if your kid has one!!
Paid subscribers can read on for my favorite Voice Assistant prompts! Please considering upgrading to paid if you haven’t already. Your support helps me keep writing!
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