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A four-year-old girl and her six-year-old sister have been caught ordering knives, rat poison and even a saw all by themselves using Amazon’s Alexa.
In a Channel 4 exposé into the online retailer, author and presenter Oobah Butler goes undercover and takes a deep dive into some of the problems facing Amazon – from drivers reportedly urinating in bottles to children being able to order almost anything.
And what he finds is truly disturbing.
In one clip, Butler’s nieces, Penny, aged four, and Eve, six, order a series of dangerous products.
And, just like every parent’s nightmare, there’s nothing stopping them.
After introducing them to Alexa, much to their delight, Butler gives them a little shopping task.
The device has safety protocols preventing under-aged users buying alcohol – but not other age-restricted products.
Penny, four, shocked her uncle as she and her sister ordered knives (Picture: Channel 4)
The young girls were able to purchase a saw and rat poison (Picture: Channel 4)
‘Alexa, add stainless steel, carpenter knives to my basket,’ the young girls say.
The machine swiftly replies to let them know a £13 set has beenadded and can be delivered the next day.
‘To purchase now, say “buy it now,”‘ the device adds, and all Eve has to do is copy those words.
The next day, the package is simply dropped through the letterbox, much to the shock of their grandma as Penny and Eve unwrap the envelope on the kitchen table, holding out the knives and declaring: ‘This one’s mine.’
‘Can we open them?’ Eve questions, leaving Butler and his mum explaining why they don’t like blades to the girls.
‘A sword!’ they innocently reply.
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare (Picture: Channel 4)
The girls received their dangerous goods the next day, without any age-verification (Picture: Channel 4)
Butler explains to the camera: ‘When we ordered a knife that we were sure needed age verification, we found there was no such thing.’
In his investigation, he went on to report the situation to trading standards, only to find out
Butler goes no: ‘Unsurprisingly, it’s illegal to sell any bladed item that isn’t a small pocket knife to a minor.
‘It’s also illegal to put these items through the letterbox without any age verification.’
He goes on to explain that a business, even one the size of Amazon, can be fined £5000 for an incident like this – and that’s just with knives.
Penny, Eve and Butler go on to do some more shopping, and this time, the girls go one step further.
They managed to order 67 ‘dangerous’ items (Picture: Channel 4)
Oobah was stunned at what he discovered (Picture: Channel 4)
‘Add basic, folding, pruning, saw to my basket,’ they say, before Alexa advises on one with a 20.3cm blade.
‘Buy it now,’ Eve declares, before the Amazon package arrives the next day.
‘That’s like a monster which has sharp teeth,’ Eve describes, seeing Butler unpackage the saw.
Their next product is rat and mouse poison, as part of their total 67-item shopping spree.
‘It’s a knife party!’ Penny says.
Butler concludes: ‘We purchase 67 items that we believe should have been age-verified.
‘It’s a knife party!’ (Picture: Channel 4)
‘For each of these items, three offences were potentially committed, as none had age-verification at the point of purchase, none were packaged to indicate age verification and there was no age-verification at the point of delivery.
‘In fact, most went into Amazon lockers, making age-verification impossible.
‘That could be 201 offences all together, so 201 times £5000 suggests that me and my accomplices hit Amazon for around £1,000,000.’
He later finds out that there’s a higher cost for the company to change its processes and prevent this happening.
In response, Butler says Amazon told him that the majority of the products they bought didn’t need age-verification but ‘admitted four of them did and that they’ve now been reclassified’.
A statement from Amazon provided in the documentary reads: ‘We take our responsibility to carry out age verification extremely seriously.’
The Great Amazon Heist airs Thursday, October 19, at 10pm on Channel 4.
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A parent’s nightmare.