I speak Portuguese and agree that this is pretty strange. This accepts "Forgive the boy" as a correct answer, but spoken Portuguese usually would use the verb "perdoar" if you wanted to say "forgive." This definitely isn't an expression used in northern Brazil.

This sentence is right but only can be use in a restricted situation like 2 kids having a stupid disagreement (tipical from young boys) and the mother of one of those kids say something like "come on, forgive the boy!" to end with that stupid situation. And, in portuguese from portugal "desculpa o menino" ou "perdoa o menino" are similar. By the way, is more usual to use "desculpa" than "perdoa" in the situation I talked.

I agree, my brazilian partner says he's never said it in his life. Guess it's just vocab practice

I agree. Sounds like this was decided by a computer.