【Semi-dokyumento: Tokkun Meiki Dukuri】

As a parent,Semi-dokyumento: Tokkun Meiki Dukuri I'm constantly listening to -- and a bit wary of -- how my kids are talking to Alexa. Or more precisely, how Amazon's digital assistant is talking to them.

Ask for the wrong song or overhear the wrong news story, and suddenly my son or daughter might be exposed to something I might not be comfortable with them hearing. And even when the content isn't an issue, I sometimes wonder if Alexa's generally cold, utilitarian manner is giving them the wrong impression of how to answer questions.

I'm clearly not alone, since Amazon is stepping up to address these concerns with a new way for kids to use Alexa that leverages FreeTime. FreeTime, you'll recall, is the friendly name for Amazon's parental controls on Fire tablets. The controls let parents set time limits and curate specific content, and there's a premium version, FreeTime Unlimited, which opens up a whole bunch of kid-friendly content from various providers, including Nickelodeon and Marvel, for the tidy monthly fee of $2.99.

FreeTime on Alexa, launching today, works similarly, but on top of controls that limit what kids can do, Alexa's personality changes to the audience. Its answers to factual questions will have a more educational intent, and if you ask it to tell you a joke, they'll be more kid-friendly. Alexa may even try to teach some manners.

Wait a sec -- isn't this Amazon just indoctrinating kids to become future customers? That's no doubt a part of this, but, like Google Family Link and Facebook's Messenger Kids before it, FreeTime on Alexa addresses a real issue: Kids are getting exposed to technology at a very young age, and the nature of the Amazon Echo makes it hard for parents to limit children's access without turning it off entirely.

On top of that, Amazon says it's designed FreeTime for Alexa with strict privacy controls.

"Just like with Alexa, customer trust on this is up front for us," Toni Reid, Amazon's vice president of Alexa customer experience, explains. "The FreeTime developers are prohibited from collecting personal information. We don't share any customer information or audio recordings with the developers. We spend a lot of time thinking about this."

While some data needs to transfer to a third party for a skill to work, Reid says all that changes hands is a transcript -- the instruction that Amazon's voice tech heard -- not an audio file or any customer info.

How FreeTime on Alexa works

In a demo, Amazon showed me how FreeTime on Alexa works. Once you set it up on a particular Echo, that device will assume anyone interacting with it is a kid. That changes how Alexa answers questions -- instead of prioritizing get-in-and-get-out efficiency, it'll take the time to elaborate on answers and provide age-appropriate context.

For example, if you ask, "How many planets are there?" regular Alexa responds, "There are eight planets," but Alexa for FreeTime is much more verbose:

"Our solar system contains eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto is considered a dwarf planet, although it's still awesome."

The wake words you can use with FreeTime remain the same, although Amazon says it's tweaked things so the Echo will respond to younger kids who might have trouble annunciating "Alexa." Notably, Alexa has the same voice, and she doesn't do baby talk.

"We actually have heard from parents and kids that the Alexa voice is fun," says Josh Sherman, director of FreeTime on Alexa. "So we didn't feel the need to create something that's special or different for kids."

The second change is Alexa has a new set of specific responses and Easter Eggs tailored to kids. The most pointed (and probably welcome) one is a feature called Magic Word: When your kid asks Alexa for some piece of information and says "please," Alexa will give them kudos by telling them, "Thank you for asking so nicely."

What kids can't do with Alexa

Finally, there are the limits the FreeTime controls place on Alexa, and there are a lot. An Echo with FreeTime on Alexa enabled won't be able to use most third-party skills like summoning an Uber or even controlling smart home devices like lights and drapes (though Amazon says that is "coming soon"). Asking for news updates won't work (though weather is OK). Parents can set times when kids can't use Alexa at all, and shopping is a no-no, too.

The good news: regular alarms and timers will work fine, and Amazon made sure kids could access music; while songs with explicit lyrics are out, there are many (family-friendly) playlists from IHeartRadio and Amazon that kids can access. Disney and Nickelodeon provide games and skills, and Audible makes more than 300 audio books available. There are custom character alarms, too (including SpongeBob!).

The bad news: Almost all of the content I just mentioned is only available for Unlimited subscribers. At least, for the extra $3 a month (not included in a Prime membership), you also get the content for tablets. One difference in how Unlimited content works for Alexa: While FreeTime on tablets partitions content into various age tiers, on the Echo it's targeted more broadly at kids 5-12 (though Sherman says 5-9 is really the "sweet spot").

Alexa users can enable FreeTime for any Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Plus (the Echo Show and Echo Spot, because they have screens, aren't yet ready for the service), but Amazon is also selling a bundle that includes an Echo Dot, a case that comes in one of three Crayola-inspired colors, a year's worth of FreeTime Unlimited, and a two-year guarantee that lets you return the Dot for any damage to get a free replacement, no questions asked (since kids can be… experimental). The Echo Dot Kids Edition bundle ships May 9 and costs $79.99 (a regular Echo Dot by itself is $49.99).

Since FreeTime on Alexa severely limits what you'll be able to do with the device (the ban on smart home controls feels particularly draconian), it's probably better used the Echoes in kids' bedrooms and playrooms and not communal devices like the ones you might have in your kitchen. You can, of course, disable FreeTime in the Alexa app if you change your mind. Or your kids grow up.

The dream, of course, is for the Echo to recognize who is speaking and enable FreeTime or not depending on if they're an adult or a kid, but Amazon doesn't do that -- at least not yet. The omnipotent smart house of the future still remains a few steps from reality, though Amazon's move here is probably a needed step toward it.