To refuse to buy Amazon Echo for nephew 7 birthday?

[Margot88]

So I (foolishly!) asked SIL what to buy for nephew 7th birthday. Her response was to buy him an Amazon Echo Dot for his bedroom because apparently he likes talking to Alexa. I know that by asking I've created much of this situation myself, but normally the response would be to say what he's in to right now and leave it up to us to choose the exact gift - say, Star Wars theme or Spiderman as examples in previous years. My head says to just buy what his mum has asked for, but I can't quite bring myself to buy something that will encourage him to be isolated in his room and I would rather get him something that encourages hands-on play and interaction with his peers.

It's no more lazy fuck parenting to shout up the stairs "your dinner's ready" than it is to say "Alexa, tell the kids their dinners ready". Not to my mind anyway, unless one of you super parents can tell me otherwise

For all Amazon Echo fans, please just read this, even though the article is favourable towards the Echo, there are still some things to considers.
This could be of an issue with the GDPR but considering Britain won't be a part of the EU soon, Amazon won't be obliged to inform you anyway (they always listen to you).

www.howtogeek.com/324644/are-my-amazon-echo-and-google-home-spying-on-everything-i-say/

Now, I'm not paranoid. I'm not a criminal either and I am aware my footprint on the internet is pretty big anyway but I still wouldn't feel comfortable with the thing listening to my everyday conversation and sounds the whole time.

You are giving the gift so you should do whatever you feel it is right.

My husband and I are web & software developers and we are reluctant to give technology to our son (true, he's 9 months old). We would rather encourage for him to understand how things work, why they do what they do and not just use it. I have to admit, we don't have Alexa (or a similar product).

I have already gotten my son amzn.to/2JpUxhW just in case it won't be available when he's older :)

With regards to gifting technology, I feel parents should buy kids whatever they feel is appropriate. I personally, stick to toys, books or money (money would usually be handed to parents - not kids).

nisagrl similar here, both working in IT and the idea of being surrounded by those things with no knowledge of all the aspects (and clearly many contributors have zero idea) just makes me shudder.
We both love constructive toys which make the kids think instead of something that does everything for them.
And instead of audiobooks, we want our daughter to read. She won't get a great vocabulary and know the spelling by listening.

With every new technology and medium brews another moral outrage. I think sometimes it's a kneejerk reaction and it only sees the harm and it doesn't credit those who use it to not have a modicum of sense.

My husband is an investigative journalist who has been working on a series about who is data harvesting, how they are doing it, what information is being gathered, who is buying it and why. And seriously, it would make your toes curl. I'm not kidding about data as private and seemingly innocuous as your bowel habits being recorded. (Along with your sexual behaviour, obviously.) There is even the beginnings of a hint of voter data being harvested and certain voters finding themselves unregistered. We're the least 'tinfoil hat' people you can find and have always been very techy (we can both code and hardware engineer a little for fun), we're early adopters of most technology.

But there is no way in fuck we'd go near equipment like the Echo as we prefer to choose what data about ourselves we put out there and not have every last conversation and aurally captured intimate moment we have recorded, transmitted and sold for other people's benefit.

Like I said. Lazy fucking parenting

What a lot of fucking ridiculous hyperbole

Just because your imaginary "friend" is an awful parent due to Alexa, doesn't mean other families don't use them to augment all the other stuff they're doing.

Won't something THINK OF THE CHILDREN

When I wrote that Buckets it was clearly in response to the earlier point that Alexa facilitates lazy parenting.

Data harvesting is a different issue which has nothing to do with lazy fucking parenting.

Buckety, if this is in the UK, I can't see where Echo will be a problem for the people and households. From what I see, the data privacy laws are getting closer to the US ones which allow for more private data storage and sharing with the government and other companies.
From what I can see and read, people don't seem to mind, so that's all fine.

I personally wouldn't get it for a child that young and I have stopped asking my SIL what her DC s want for birthdays as she always says very specific things that are usually out of our price range and never asks what my DS wants for his birthday in return - always gets stuff he never plays with - so now i just get all nieces and nephews a gift voucher for either a toy store or clothes store depending on their age, then they can get what they want and SIL/BIL know exactly how much we've spent so they can't complain that we've gone 'under budget' ever again!

A dot does all the same things but has a smaller speaker - I bought one as a present from Amazon for only £35, so this could be an alternative if the price of the Alexa is too high.

I was given an Alexa for my 59th birthday and it was my star present. Great for all the music and a lot of fun with trivia etc when nieces and nephews etc visit

Honey you have shamed me 😂😂

Given that the latest Facebook scandal proves we can't trust the big tech companies to protect or respect our privacy, and that they are quite happy to work out wiggles around the laws, I can't imagine why anyone would want Amazon or Google actively listening to everything that goes on in their households. Why would you let them listen to and record your children talking about the deepest secrets, hopes and fears. Horrible.

I don't blame you for not wanting to buy one. I would suggest a non-Amazon voucher instead!

Sorry, having just posted I see you were intending to buy the dot anyway, not the Amazon Alexa.

same thging though isnt it collects your data sees what youre doing

but then i suppose fb and other sites do that already

How does it see what you’re doing?

Our dot sees that I get up at 06:30 during term time, that I have questionable taste in emo/pop punk music, that I listen to bbc radio, and that I set timers for 20 minutes quite frequently, and that the smallest child listens to classical piano at bedtime.

Governments are quaking, I can tell you, quaking in fear of what’s being bred in the north.

My 6 year old has one in his room and we have them
around the house. We dance together to music he suggests and he listens to audio books as well as asks it questions. We have found it useful at routine times when we are in the bedroom ie morning time getting ready, bedtime whilst spending some time reading etc. By no way has it isolated him.