Alexa… can you help me with my child’s homework please! Parents are relying on tech to answer tricky questions when children are studying, research shows
- Some parents hide extent of their virtual assistance from offspring, poll shows
- Increasingly difficult school assignments are believed to be behind surge in use
- Fifty-five per cent said they ‘secretly answered’ homework on voice assistants
More than two-thirds of parents turn to Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home to help with their children’s tricky homework.
They are relying on voice assistants as they struggle to name all the wives of Henry VIII or explain Pythagoras’s theorem.
Research from TalkTalk has found that use of smart plugs, typically used to connect voice assistants to a power source, rose by 47 per cent over the past year.
More than two-thirds of parents turn to Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home to help with their children’s tricky homework. They are relying on voice assistants as they struggle to name all the wives of Henry VIII or explain Pythagoras’s theorem
Increasingly difficult school assignments are believed to be behind the surge in usage of the devices.
Increasingly difficult school assignments are believed to be behind the surge in usage of the devices.
The connectivity provider’s poll of 1,002 parents with children aged six to 13 found that almost seven in ten (68 per cent) have used voice assistants to help with homework.
Three quarters (75 per cent) claim schoolwork is more difficult than when they were in the education system, with just over half (52 per cent) previously providing wrong answers.
Two thirds – 66 per cent – said they felt embarrassed for not knowing the right answer in front of their children.
However, some parents hide the extent of their virtual assistance from offspring. Fifty-five per cent said they had ‘secretly answered’ homework questions using these devices.
Families rated history, geography and maths as the ‘toughest’ subjects.
The connectivity provider’s poll of 1,002 parents with children aged six to 13 found that almost seven in ten (68 per cent) have used voice assistants to help with homework. The Amazon Alexa is pictured above
Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) needed help identifying King Henry V111’s wives, while 67 per cent required assistance to explain Pythagoras’ theorem.
Other questions parents most commonly ask their voice assistants include the global population to the nearest billion, the names of the Hindu festivals, Holi and Diwali, and the date of the Great Fire of London.
Jonathan Kini, managing director at TalkTalk, said: ‘Our latest Internet Insights report reveals how we’re living in a golden age of gadgets.
‘Across our network, customers are embracing the smart tech takeover. As am I – just the other day I found myself using our voice assistant to help with my son’s homework.’
The poll found that 56 per cent of parents had bought new smart device technology in the last year to improve their day-to-day lives.
More than eight in ten – 84 per cent – said having fast and reliable internet access helped their child learn.
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