Is Santa real? A version of Alexa skirts some kid questions

A version of Alexa won’t tell kids where babies come from or spill the beans about Santa. It also won’t explain some things kids might have heard on the news — like what Stormy Daniels does for a living.

Amazon updated its voice assistant with a feature that can make Alexa more kidfriendly. When the FreeTime feature is activated, Alexa answers certain questions differently. Asked where babies come from, for example, the kid version tells youngsters to ask a grown-up.

Amazon.com Inc. says it worked with child psychologists for some of Alexa’s answers, and that the voice assistant is “always getting smarter” with updated an- swers.

“Alexa isn’t intended to be a replacement parent or caregiver,” the company said in a statement. “So we believe it’s important we treat these answers with empathy and point the child to a trusted adult when applicable.”

FreeTime has other features, such as keeping Alexa from playing songs with curse words. Asked to play a Cardi B song, it played a version of the rapper’s “Bodak Yellow” with the explicit lyrics removed.

Parents can also set times for Alexa not to answer when kids should be studying or sleeping. “Sorry I can’t play right now, try again later,” it says during down times. And it also tries to encourage kids to yell out questions and commandsmore politely, thanking them if they include the word “please.”