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At Least Two Million Children Now Using Smart Speakers in the UK: Report (strategyanalytics.com)

Posted by msmash on from the growing-expansion dept.

Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home are proving a big hit with Britain's kids, according to the latest survey from Strategy Analytics. The report adds: According to Smart Speaker User Survey -- UK Results, at least two million children are now using smart speakers in the UK, particularly for listening to music, searching for information and hearing jokes and funny stories.

52 comments

  1. 1984 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Big Brother is happy to have such a obedient followers.

    1. Re:1984 by cayenne8 · · Score: 2

      Big Brother is happy to have such a obedient followers.

      Yep, the old saying is true...

      What one generation accepts, the next generation embraces.....

      Constant surveillance will be the common 'norm' to them as they grow.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. Not really that smart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So I can imagine a kid doing homework with a smart speaker and basically learning nothing. But when testing comes along you won't have that crutch to fall back on. Its like social sites, they do nothing to improve the social health of human's. Smart speakers just make us even more lazy and unable to think for ourselves.

    1. Re:Not really that smart by olsmeister · · Score: 2

      Yeah, they're just like books. All that information at your fingertips and so easy to obtain, but not committed to memory. It's a tragedy. That printing thing really turned us into idiots.

    2. Re:Not really that smart by registrations_suck · · Score: 1

      So I can imagine a kid doing homework with a smart speaker and basically learning nothing. But when testing comes along you won't have that crutch to fall back on.

      Oh, give it some time. It may not be very long before students can use these devices on tests because it is unfair to have dumbasses competing with non-dumbasses without something to level the playing field.

      Equality Now!!!

    3. Re: Not really that smart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aren't we fortunate, then, that pretty much none of human existence requires testing?

      Outside of school, which itself is an anachronism, I have only been required to pass one closed book test:. To get my driver's license.

      Surprise, surprise, in the real world you boss doesn't care if you have a book open on your desk to do your job. So long as it's done correctly and on time.

    4. Re: Not really that smart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Surprise, surprise, in the real world you boss doesn't care if you have a book open on your desk to do your job. So long as it's done correctly and on time.

      Sure. But when hiring, they look at your grades. They are worse if you can't do some exams without books present. The boss wants those who don't need the most basic books all the time - people who knows stuff. They may still have books open, but books on more advanced topics.

  3. 'alexa...' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    'tell me when mom pulls into the driveway'

    *fifteen minutes later*

    'mom has arrived'

    *mad scramble to put porn away and look like you've been doing your school work*

  4. Smart Speakers? by gerald.edward.butler · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You mean Big Brother monitoring devices that this generation is being conned into making an integral part of their lives. They already carry around a tracking device for everywhere they go and everyone they communicate with, now, they're getting used to having 24/7 audio monitoring within the walls of their own homes. They've tried a couple of times for 24/7 video monitoring too (XBox Kinect and now "Live" Cam). They'll get there eventually.

    I'm glad I only have a few years left on this world, it's going to be a terrible place to live for the coming generations. The only way to fix it is to have a major World War, wipe out 3/4 of the population, and re-boot civilization.

    What a terrible time we live in!

    1. Re:Smart Speakers? by alvinrod · · Score: 2

      Get some perspective. This is the best time to be alive in all of human history and it's only going to get better in the future. That isn't to say it will be free of strife or that humanity won't have new sets of problems to solve, but if you take an objective measure of humanity on just about any metric, it's better now than at any point in time.

      In 50 years, it's within the realm of possibility that extreme poverty will be eliminated. If you're overly concerned with the potential perils of modern society, you're more than free to move to any of the places on earth where they don't exist. Not that there isn't cause for concern with regards to the information that can now be collected on people with these new devices, but it pales in comparison to the concerns that many in the world still face over whether or not they'll be able to eat tomorrow.

    2. Re: Smart Speakers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Year, right!

    3. Re:Smart Speakers? by olsmeister · · Score: 1

      Alexa, unlock the bomb shelter and turn on the heat.

    4. Re:Smart Speakers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't speak for anyone but yourself, Mr. Ego. Yes, technology has the potential to solve problems, but it also has the potential to create new ones. Chief among those is the elimination of personal privacy.

      Of course, technology itself isn't the one doing the stalking, monitoring, and recording. It's other people trying to take advantage of you.

      Call me a crackpot, but I'll bet my house that once they figure out how to read minds, it will become impossible to live on this planet without having your every thought monitored and recorded. I can only hope I die before that day arrives.

    5. Re:Smart Speakers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the best time to be alive in all of human history...

      That's completely subjective.

      ...and it's only going to get better in the future.

      You must be very young if you actually believe that.

      In 50 years, it's within the realm of possibility that extreme poverty will be eliminated.

      It's within the realm of possibility now, so why hasn't it already happened?

      Get some perspective.

    6. Re:Smart Speakers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's within the realm of possibility now, so why hasn't it already happened?

      There has been a MASSIVE reduction in extreme poverty over the last 40 years.

    7. Re:Smart Speakers? by gerald.edward.butler · · Score: 0

      Glad to see that a shit-eating, ass-licking, cock-sucking, child-molesting anonymous coward speaks for the entirety of slashdot and the geographic region around my house. If you are their spokesperson, then, I could give a shit less what "they" think.

    8. Re:Smart Speakers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In 50 years, it's within the realm of possibility that extreme poverty will be eliminated.

      Not likely.
      Some people/cultures will use the elimination of poverty as an opportunity to have much more children and see them all live. This uses up all resources and the next generation see poverty and starvation return.

      Poverty is easily eliminated, and was always easy to get rid of. No couple have more than 2 children, it is as easy as that. No increasing resource conflicts, no need for destructive wars to use up excess people, so wealth accumulate over generations. Usually, tech gets better each generation too, which makes us more wealthy.

      But populations who stop their growth is under constant threat to be overrun by those who go for growth (and therefore see war as the natural way to expand. "The others have more stuff than us! Go get it!") Poverty is eliminated in most of the western world - but will never be eliminated unless others agree to stop their growth.

    9. Re:Smart Speakers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have cause and effect backwards. It's counter-intuitive, but having fewer children doesn't make you rich, being rich makes you have fewer children.

    10. Re:Smart Speakers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but which makes you happier?

    11. Re:Smart Speakers? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      For exactly these reasons as CPU power becomes greater and memory cheaper, so server less systems will dominate. Cheap processing power at home, why send information to a corporate controlled and manipulated server. The home sever the processes your voice locally will dominate because it will promote exactly that and of course market the threats of corporate controlled servers.

      Once home voice recognition becomes cheap enough, so the corporate advertising and manipulation service becomes totally undesirable and will only be for the poorest, which of course are not desired by marketing companies, except those selling corrupt politicians. So Google as the leading manipulator of the poor and for everyone who can afford it, a local home server, that does not reach out to it's corporate masters and in fact becomes the gateway between all your devices and their corporate masters, ACCESS DENIED.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  5. Join the Bandwagon marketing campaign by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Everybody else has one", says the sales pitch whilst implying that you or your kids will not fit in with society without one.

    1. Re: Join the Bandwagon marketing campaign by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, it's absolutely true. You won't fit into society if you do not conform. You don't want to be "stranger danger", do you?

  6. Please Fix the title by schwit1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At Least Two Million Children in UK Now Under Audio Surveillance

    1. Re:Please Fix the title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At Least Two Million Children in UK Now Under Audio Surveillance

      This is so sad.

      Alexa, play Despacito.

    2. Re: Please Fix the title by TimMD909 · · Score: 2

      Glad that GDPR prevented this... Oh wait...

  7. Smart Speakers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dumb people.

  8. Our new technology is bunk by alternative_right · · Score: 1

    Not to be an unreasonable skeptic, but these things offer little that anyone needs. You can listen to music by playing MP3 files. These gadgets seem like a way of further dumbing down the internet instead of pushing people to be better than they are right now.

    --
    Alternative Right.
    1. Re:Our new technology is bunk by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      Not to be an unreasonable skeptic, but these things offer little that anyone needs. You can listen to music by playing MP3 files. These gadgets seem like a way of further dumbing down the internet instead of pushing people to be better than they are right now.

      Not just dumbing down but not even as functional.

      For music, I like looking at my playlists, all the songs from an artist, etc. For most things, looking and clicking is less clunky than a voice interface.

      Now where a voice interface is useful is, say, while driving. But my living room is the last place I would ever need a voice interface.

    2. Re:Our new technology is bunk by olsmeister · · Score: 1

      For most things, looking and clicking is less clunky than a voice interface.

      Ummm, no. Complex things, probably so. Simple things, probably not.

    3. Re:Our new technology is bunk by ranton · · Score: 1

      My Amazon Echos are the easiest way I know of to play a playlist or album, or check the weather in the morning. Before I would have needed to either always have my phone on me (not always true at home as it might be charging or I might not be wearing pants), or I need to go find my phone, open an app, and select a playlist.

      They certainly aren't that useful, but they do a small number of jobs very well. I sure get a lot less long term use out of other things I have spent $100 on.

      --
      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
    4. Re:Our new technology is bunk by MerlinTheWizard · · Score: 2

      For adults, those gadgets just flatter our natural laziness and make us feel as part of a giant group, a very strong even if unconscious motivator.

      For kids, I think those are more simply seen as toys. Kids love talking toys and toys they can interact with. The motivation here is more about fun and discovery.

      In both cases, it's remarkably easy to get those gadgets adopted by large user bases.

      For sure they just look like necessary steps towards a 1984-like, world-wide totalitarian regime. The only missing part for now is video, but I'm certain it's just a matter of a few years. Devices with integrated video will happen. They will be marketed as wonderful aids that you can wake up by waving in front of them, but also that can look after your cat when you're away, after the elderly and maybe even after your kids so you won't need any babysitters anymore. A huge potential market, so it WILL happen. Then we'll have the infrastructure for total surveillance. What Orwell didn't envision though, being influenced mainly by the soviet regime, is that it's not just our governments that will be able to spy on us all. It's also private companies, potential hackers and governments from foreign countries.

      We're not heading towards "1984". It's possibly going to be a lot worse.

    5. Re: Our new technology is bunk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a radio, like a straight man.

  9. Enjoy your life being recorded by ITRambo · · Score: 1

    Nothing will be private for these poor kids. Enjoy your new "smart" speakers citizens.

    1. Re:Enjoy your life being recorded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kid: (fapping noises)
      Alexa: Ordering condoms, a blow up doll, and a cock ring. Would you like a butt plug with your order?

      Seriously, I expect somewhere out there is already available audio recordings of people, including kids, being sexual in various ways near these damn speakers.

  10. Dumb Speakers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dumb Speakers are making your children subservient idiots of the deep state. I encourage all of you propagating retards to keep trusting your children with electronics.

  11. Siri..... by Zorro · · Score: 1

    Read me 1984 by George Orwell.

    1. Re: Siri..... by TimMD909 · · Score: 1

      I'd only be interested if the forward was written by Edward Snowden

  12. Common conversations with the Smart Speaker by Seven+Spirals · · Score: 1

    "Alexa, what is mom getting me for Christmas?"
    "Hey Google, what was Dad doing to Mom last night?"
    "Alexa, send me a six-pack of rubbers."
    "Alexa, show me all the tobacco vaping products I can buy right now."
    "Hey NEST theromstat, please record all mom's conversations today and save to 'momsaid.txt' on my phone."

    1. Re:Common conversations with the Smart Speaker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Hey Google, what was Dad doing to Mom last night?"
      "Hey Google, what is fisting?"

  13. Tonight on Doctor Who... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This sounds like the setup for a Doctor Who episode. Millions of kids in the UK are using these devices, then they all get abducted/zombified/turned into slime and only some old eccentric who takes young people into his magic box can save them!

    1. Re:Tonight on Doctor Who... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least we got him to stop offering candy.

  14. GPDR? by MerlinTheWizard · · Score: 1

    It's not there to help prevent this. It's just there to make people believe they have a choice.

  15. Children groomed by smart speakers to spy for DPRK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Spies payed in game tokens.

  16. We're heading toward "Brave New World" by alternative_right · · Score: 1

    In my view, and I state this in addition to your excellent points, we are heading toward "Brave New World": our desire to be important, successful, experience pleasure, etc. will make our consumer society into a soulless empty hell in which there is no escape. We're already mostly there. The movie Idiocracy began as satire, became prophecy, and now is basically a documentary, and that's in a dozen years.

    --
    Alternative Right.
    1. Re:We're heading toward "Brave New World" by MerlinTheWizard · · Score: 1

      Speaking of Idiocracy. http://www.24usatv.com/feeds/h...

  17. Easier than clicking? by alternative_right · · Score: 1

    I have an old laptop with 200 gigabytes of MP3 files. I can waddle over to it, hold the donut I am eating with my teeth, and click on whatever I want.

    Is Alexa that much easier?

    --
    Alternative Right.
    1. Re:Easier than clicking? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol, yes no waddling required...but you have to stop chewing long enough for Alexa to understand what you said....it is a dilemma.

  18. A straight man? ARE YOU SURE? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I suspect, sir, that you have an Apple product hidden in your rectum, and I intend to tell the world that your radio was only a beard.

  19. Requires a deliberate person by alternative_right · · Score: 1

    This requires you knowing what you want, instead of randomly shouting out song titles because they appeared on social media, as most people seem to do.

    --
    Alternative Right.