A new challenge?
Children are impressionable and viral challenges are just one among the many dangers they’re exposed to online. We recently reported on a 10-year-old girl who died while participating in the “blackout challenge.” Tap or click here for more and tips on preventing a tragedy like this from happening in your own family. While these types of challenges usually spread through social media, a new story shows the danger originating elsewhere. Twitter user @klivdahl tweeted that her 10-year-old daughter recently asked Alexa for a challenge from their Echo smart speaker. Here’s how Alexa answered: “Here’s something I found on the web. According to OurCommunityNow.com, ‘The challenge is simple: Plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.’” The suggestion seems to be taken out of context from a report warning about this dangerous challenge from Colorado news outlet Our Community Now. The “penny challenge” was briefly viral on social media sites like TikTok about a year ago. As this deals with the dangers of electricity, it should come as no surprise that the challenge resulted in a few injuries. Luckily, the young girl in this case didn’t attempt the challenge.
Do your due diligence
Again, smart speakers can be useful and even fun, but you may find the risks outweigh the benefits. At the very least, your privacy is exposed to a greater degree when you have one of these devices around. Tap or click here to check out a list of more privacy-invading gadgets. Alexa will recognize your child’s voice and offer kid-friendly responses on compatible Echo devices throughout the home, which will hopefully no longer include dangerous challenges it finds on the internet. The voice assistant will also filter songs with explicit lyrics, block shopping and only let children access parent-approved content.
Keep reading
Here’s how to make Alexa say whatever you want ✅ Dangerous challenge suggestions aside, we also don’t recommend putting a smart speaker in a child’s room. To further help keep them safe, here’s how to see what kids are doing on their phones. The 5 most annoying Alexa problems, solved
