Children's advocates raise questions about Amazon's Echo Dot for kids

A group of children's advocates and two lawmakers are raising questions about Amazon.com's The advocates led by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood said Friday that the presence of a voice-activated speaker on children's nightstands is an unwelcome development that could prove intrusive or potentially disruptive to their development. "AI devices raise a host of privacy concerns and interfere with the face-to-face interactions and self-driven play that children need to thrive," CCFC's Executive Director Josh Golin said in a statement. While the group is not suggesting Amazon's new product violates privacy law -- an accusation it has leveled at other tech giants such as Google -- its campaign wades into the murkier debate of how parents should evaluate their children's interaction with speakers. Research into that effect is still inconclusive.