Tablet use for DS8

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We've bought DS a tablet for his 8th birthday. No previous tech or games, we are a pretty untechy family which is probably part of the problem as I'm completely clueless as to how to manage his time on it! What do other parents do with rules around how long, how often and so on?

DS would happily spend every minute, every hour on it, and although we started off saying it was weekend use only, it's now creeping in before school and after school which I'm not overly happily about as it stops him doing anything else. Worse, I can't seem to get the parental controls right - it's an Amazon Fire, and although I've signed up to Kids Unlimited (the right thing to do, right?!), it doesn't seem to block any websites or apps - he's fully able to use YouTube, Google, the lot. I don't get it!

The whole scenario is starting to wear me down tbh. The last 2 nights I've even caught him going downstairs at night to try and find the wretched thing (I've started hiding it in cupboards but he's told me my hiding places are too easy

Help. I need to sort out some sort of sensible routine/use - does anyone have any tips?!

Bump. Anyone?!

The amazon kids fire is pretty easy to set up decent controls.
Google it, there may be videos to follow. Just having the Kids Unlimited doesn't restrict stuff, you have to set it up. The Kids unlimited is for kids apps and books etc.
Our daughter's is set up so she has a kids profile on it, and my husband has an adults/admin profile (password protected).
Her profile means she can't watch YouTube, or access many websites or download stuff. And it has a timer, can't be used before 7am, or after 7pm.

My husband downloads things for her to use via his profile.

Basic instructions here: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?tag=mumsnetforu03-21&nodeId=201730130

You need to Punish sneaking with sanctions that involve loss of the tablet for a period of time
Otherwise you will end up in a cat and mouse game.
Eventually you need for both of you to realise that you set the rules and he sticks to them regardless of what you've asked the tablet to do as they can work their way around most controls and sanctions ime

Amazon will chat you through it on the phone too.... find the 'help' link at the very bottom of their website, then find the 'need more help' option, fill in the details and you'll get a button to phone appear at the bottom. They call you back, but very quickly. I've found them to be helpful on the phone as the Kindle Fire was really alien to me (having only used iPads before), they talked me right through the set up.

Here is the link to the parent dashboard. Once you've set up your child account for your DS, you can administer it here: amazon.co.uk]]

DD is 9yo and she earns marbles in exchange for 15min device or TV time. She gets them for doing various maths, English, times tables and reading. We have a jar and she swaps them for time. I use the Amazon Parent dashboard to give her a daily allowance and any more I just logon and up the amount.

Even if DD circumvents the allowance (by knowing my 6 digit code), I can see on the Parent Dashboard what she's been doing and for how long.

Not sure what happened to the Amazon Parent Dashboard link but it's here: amazon.co.uk here]]

Ok, I think MN is broken, I definitely did it right that time, basically it is... parents. amazon. co. uk

We have the following set up for DD on her Kindle Fire...

Weekdays
Off until 15:00, then goes off at 20:30
30mins app time
Unlimited books and audible
No web/video

Weekend
Off until 7am and goes off at 20:30
1hr app time
Unlimited books and audible
30 mins web
30 mins video

She has to earn marbles for anything over and above, unless she's having time for an educational app (I can check she's used the time for this on the Parents Dashboard). To be fair, DD is pretty good. She knows I'd remove the device completely if she isn't sensible with it.

Thanks everyone. Brilliant Mumsnet. I didn't realise I had to set it up on top of the Kids thing but obviously that now makes total sense.

Practical tips very useful too, I will definitely set up the time limits and get rid of Youtube. I like the idea of rewarding the educational app time too - he would probably like this and this is one of the reasons I bought the thing in the first place!
Thanks.