Amazon asked by parents in the UK to change Alexa’s name, here’s why

New Delhi: Amazon is finding itself in hot water in the UK. Several parents of girls named Alexa have asked Amazon to change the name of their voice assistant after their daughters faced bullying in schools due to the same name. Parents are urging the e-commerce giant to reconsider renaming its voice assistant, which is nonhuman.

For those people, Alexa is Amazon’s voice assistant like Apple has ‘Siri’ and Google has ‘Hello Google’. The ecommerce major rolled out the voice assistant in 2015. Currently, all of Amazon’s Echo devices and the Alexa smartphone app respond to commands that start with Alexa.

According to a BBC report, parents have complained that their daughters face constant bullying in school due to the similarity in names.

One parent reportedly said that their daughter, named Alexa, was repeatedly abused and bullied since she began secondary education. The girl was reportedly so scared that she did not want to introduce herself to other children for fear of harassment.

In response to the controversy, Amazon clarified that voice assistants are designed to reflect the qualities they value in humans. The ecommerce major also said that she is saddened by the experiences shared by the parents. “…we want to be very clear: Bullying of any kind is unacceptable, and we strongly condemn it,” Amazon’s statement read.

The mother also revealed that her daughter’s mental health has been affected as a result of the trolls and bullying. Heather (name changed) told the BBC that she had now legally changed her daughter’s name to prevent further trauma. Read also: Twitter to soon appoint Resident Grievance Officer for India

There are currently over 4000 people named Alexa in the UK alone, most of whom are under the age of 25. Read also: Check out the list of major IPOs coming up in July: Zomato, GR Infraprojects and more

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