Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Move Over, Santa! Kids Are Asking Alexa to Bring Them Presents

Move Over, Santa! Kids Are Asking Alexa to Bring Them Presents

Ordering items from Amazon has never been easier, but young children are asking Alexa to deliver them presents and parents aren’t always able to step in before packages are on the way.
Zibby Owens was in therapy a few months ago when her phone started buzzing with notifications. They were texts from Amazon confirming that several “Paw Patrol” toys were en route to her house.

“It was one after another,” said Ms. Owens, a New York-based podcast host.

She said she had allowed her son, then 4, to use her iPad while she was getting ready that morning. It had an Amazon.com shopping app on it. Her little boy figured out how to touch the microphone icon in the search bar in the Amazon app and say “Paw Patrol.” Amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa, obeyed, bringing up numerous toys from the popular children’s show. The little boy managed to add more than a dozen items to the cart and tap “buy.”

Ordering items from Amazon has never been easier. There are now more than 100 million Alexa-enabled devices around the world used by tens of millions of customers each month-in kitchens, bathrooms, even cars. People can place orders from just about anywhere.

For children too young to spell, Alexa has opened a magical world that rivals the North Pole. For parents with such precocious youngsters, muzzling Alexa is a must.

By the time Ms. Owens reviewed all the orders, it was too late to cancel them. “Boxes and boxes arrived. He was jumping up and down with excitement that he had ordered all this stuff,” she said.

Ms. Owens let her son keep a board game and she saved some items to use as birthday gifts for other children. She shipped back the rest, which led to many tears. She also deleted the shopping app from her iPad.

Resourceful kids have found success-or at least partial success-using only their voice, no app required.

Josue Sierra came home from work one day and found a package from Amazon containing Tesla-branded running pants. When he asked his wife if she had ordered them, his then 5-year-old son walked in and said, “That’s not what I ordered. I wanted a Tesla.”

His son had placed the order with Alexa on the family’s Echo.

“We thought it was funny and sent the pants back,” said Mr. Sierra, a digital marketing executive in Elkton, Md. “I immediately went into the app on my phone and activated the voice PIN.”

Parents can have Alexa devices set a PIN that needs to be spoken before making a purchase. Parents can also turn off voice purchasing from Amazon. When a parent enables FreeTime (including Amazon’s parental controls) on an Echo device, or uses the Echo Dot Kids Edition, all voice purchasing is automatically disabled.

Parents can passcode-protect Fire tablets and disable shopping entirely, or require a confirmation code that Alexa will prompt users to say when they want to place an order from Amazon. Alexa doesn’t work in FreeTime on any Fire tablets.

Parents who use the Amazon shopping app on Apple and Android devices can disable the 1-Click order setting to prevent children from bypassing the shopping cart and placing an order automatically. On Apple devices, parents can go into the Login & Security section of their Amazon shopping app’s account settings and choose to require fingerprint login or facial recognition to access the app, which could be a pain for frequent Amazon shoppers. The other option, of course, is to keep the app off devices that the kids frequently use.

Brendan Dickinson nearly ended up with 100 boxes of dead-fish and spoiled-milk Jelly Bellys. Mr. Dickinson was making pancakes one morning last summer when his then 3- and 6-year-olds were playing the gross-out jelly-bean game BeanBoozled. When he left the room momentarily, he heard one of his kids say to the Echo Show device, “Alexa, buy 100 BeanBoozled.” He checked his Amazon app and canceled the order right away.

“We had a conversation about what this all means and it never happened again,” said Mr. Dickinson, a partner at a venture-capital firm in New York. “I did tell them it’s totally cool that they ask Alexa what the weather is.”

Joe Ross was riding the train home from work one evening a couple of years ago when he got an email notification that an American Girl doll was on its way. He figured his wife had ordered it for their then-5-year-old daughter for Christmas. But then he got another notification for the same doll, and then another.

Mr. Ross, an economist who was living in New Jersey at the time, thought his Amazon account had been hacked, so he called the company and was told the orders had been placed through Alexa on his Sonos speaker. It turned out his daughter had repeatedly said something like, “Alexa, buy me the best American Girl doll.”

Mr. Ross was able to cancel the orders before they shipped, and he added a passcode to his account.

Sometimes, just sometimes, the ploy works.

Allison Slater Tate’s daughter, Lucy, won a Fire tablet in a kindergarten raffle two years ago. The day she brought it home, Ms. Slater Tate and her husband were leaving for a college reunion out of town and didn’t even think to set up parental controls. “I thought she would read books and play games,” she said. “I didn’t think she’d end up on Amazon.”

But when she was at her reunion, Ms. Slater Tate began receiving numerous notifications about purchases. One was a large play grocery set. Lucy had ordered some $300 worth of toys. By the time Ms. Slater Tate, a freelance writer near Orlando, Fla., called home and talked to the babysitter about what had happened, the items had shipped. Ms. Slater Tate suspects Lucy had searched for one toy and then saw dozens of other suggested items.

Ms. Slater Tate said her husband wanted to send everything back but she said the thought of returning it all was too much, so she kept everything and doled out the toys throughout the year.

“I thought everything was free and I could buy whatever I wanted,” said Lucy, now 7.
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Extreme Heat Wave Sweeps Across Europe, Hitting Record Temperatures
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Germany Votes to Suspend Family Reunification for Asylum Seekers
Budapest Pride Parade Draws 200,000 Participants Amid Government Ban
Southern Europe Experiences Extreme Heat
Xiaomi's YU7 SUV Launch Garners Record Pre-Orders Amid Market Challenges
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's Lavish Wedding in Venice
Russia Launches Largest Air Assault on Ukraine Since Invasion
Massive Anti-Government Protests Erupt in Belgrade
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Hungary's Prime Minister Criticizes NATO's Role in Ukraine
EU TO HUNGARY: LET THEM PRIDE OR PREP FOR SHADE. ORBÁN TO EU: STAY IN YOUR LANE AND FIX YOUR OWN MESS.
Hungarian Scientist to Conduct 30 Research Experiments on the International Space Station
NATO Members Agree to 5% Defense Spending Target by 2035
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
International Astronaut Team Launched to Space Station
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Iran Intensifies Crackdown on Alleged Mossad Operatives After Sabotage Claims
Trump Praises Iran’s ‘Very Weak’ Response After U.S. Strikes and Presses Israel to Pursue Peace
Oil Prices Set to Surge After US Strikes Iran
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
×