Alexa suggests shocking “penny challenge” to 10-year-old

She said: “We were doing some physical challenges, like laying down and rolling over holding a shoe on your foot, from a [physical education] teacher on YouTube earlier. Bad weather outside. She just wanted another one.”

But Alexa then responded: “Here's something I found on the web. According to ourcommunitynow.com: The challenge is simple: plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs.”

OMFG My 10 year old just asked Alexa on our Echo for a challenge and this is what she said. pic.twitter.com/HgGgrLbdS8

— Kristin Livdahl (@klivdahl) December 26, 2021

The girl did not follow Alexa's instructions and her mom shared that she, yelled, ‘No, Alexa, no!' like it was a dog. My daughter says she is too smart to do something like that anyway,” the mom tweeted.

The information Alexa pulled from ourcommunitynow.com, meanwhile, is actually a January 2020 article warning parents about a viral “Outlet Challenge” on TikTok. “Fire departments, electricians, and school systems are all trying to get the message out about just how dangerous it is to try this,” it says.

Amazon told the BBC in a statement that it had updated Alexa to prevent the assistant recommending such activity in the future.