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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.

7 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. 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. 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 TimMD909 · · Score: 2

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

  3. 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.

  4. 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.........
  5. 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.