Children’s smart watch?

[LemonTyger]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could recommend me some children’s smart watches? I was pretty set on the Xplora one but then saw the reviews on trustpilot….
The features I need are:

• Tracking
• The ability to receive and send messages from SELECTED contacts
• NO Internet browsing

This is as an alternative to a smart phone for DD starting secondary school in a few months. Ideally it would be great if there was an app I could view messages too but not necessarily a deal breaker.

We’ve got an Xplora and happy with it. Wasn’t aware there were negative reviews, what is the perceived problem with them?

Some say it’s not functional, others say it is but awful customer service and issues popping up, others around cancelling the sim …. How do you find it? I was pretty decided to order it but honestly not sure I can bring myself too with 1.7* on Trustpilot!!

further to my post above, having a look at Trustpilot now and the reviews are indeed awful. I find that surprising.

Looks like a lot of the complaints are around customer service. I’ve never needed customer service so can’t comment on that. We purchased th watch from Amazon and just set it up and used it, no need for any help. I pay £6.99 via direct debit each month for the line rental.

Some comments about it being huge. This isn’t the case for us, son is 10 and has had it for around 2 years, the size is fine.

Phoning can sometimes be hit or miss. Sometimes it just won’t connect. But I’d say 70-80% is the time it’s fine.

Messaging - we can send him messages which he can read. The watch face is too small to facilitate typing replies so he can either send an emoji (thumbs up etc) or record and send a voice message, which is fine.

Tracking is accurate and useful.

Definitely no internet access or anything. That is the extent of what it can do.

Overall we’ve been really happy with it but I know that th next step up will be a phone. The novelty and excitement that he had at 8 has worn off now.

We have an Xplora 2 Go, I’d say our opinion is mixed, the location tracking is very patchy, literally putting DS at the other side of town quite often when he’s not.
I like the ability to call and message though and have found that works so far, we’ve not had it long but I feel more comfortable letting DS out with it on. He needs a bit more independence but is autistic so I do worry. I considered a brick phone put he’d just lose it, the watch is light and strapped on.

Sorry, we cross posted, I had a look on Trustpilot and posted again.

I am surprised by all the complaints about “support”’because it’s really just plug and play. Not sure why you would need support.

You just register the SIM card per the instructions, put it in the watch. Download the app onto your phone. You add yourself (and up to one other) as guardian which means you can track them.

you then add in other contacts and only the people on this contact list will be able to call.

Only people with the Xplora app will be able to send messages.

so for example husband and I are guardians so can call / message and track son.

other contacts are grandparents, cousins and a few friends with similar watches. They don’t have the app so can’t message, just phone calls.

I mostly get voice messages from DS on it, asking if he can go to a neighbours house, saying he’s coming home or that his bike is making a funny noise.

We have the Xplora 3 and the tracking is very accurate.

I think as you go up the range they do get better.

We will shortly have to decide whether we upgrade to an Xplora 5 or get a cheap mobile (my preference would be the Xplora 5 as I’m quite against mobiles, but we’ll see)

Yes, same

Interesting about different experiences of how accurate the tracking is! I did see poor tracking as one of the things complained about in recent review. So even if I got the X6 instead of the cheaper XG03, I’m worried the tracking might be naff? I’d get needlessly quite worried if the tracking said DD was somewhere she wasn’t and shouldn’t be….

Good to know needing customer service is unlikely though. Feeling very unsure about it….

Would love to know if anyone has any other experiences or suggestions of other smart watches?

I have the Xplora 6 and the tracking is… okay. It’s usually 5-10 mins off. But my son is 9, I can’t imagine him being happy with this when he’s much older. It’s ugly and clunky and doesn’t really allow him to contact his friends. It’s great for a stopgap as he plays out and walks himself to school so we can call him home or he can ask if he can bring a friend back or whatever, but you can’t text or anything.

Ah, wish I’d known this! TBH, the one we got was half price at only £50 so I don’t expect miracles.

Kidsoclock
https://www.kidsoclock.com.au/?srsltid=AfmBOopR9dkLUpCTN84_0C67Zki0wr2vG2kYk3vjjdakOE4uodU_muLT

Thanks everyone, I’m now pretty certain an Xplora definitely isn’t what I’m looking for! I want to love it, but it just doesn’t have the reliability etc I’m looking for. I also thought children could send texts on it, and reliably call. Definitely thoroughly put off it!

Absolutely no clue which one to get now though! And to find one with decent reviews..

Thank you, they only deliver to Australia and New Zealand. I am in the UK, probably should’ve put that in my original post!

Check the secondary school rules. With the new rules around mobile phones school bans can include smart watches.

The Xplora has worked perfectly well for what we want it to do but it’s not anything like a phone. Any reason not to get a dumb phone? I’d think a watch for a high schooler would be very unusual. They really are geared to little kids.

otherwise an Apple Watch maybe? You can text via talking / a pretty awful handwriting option (no keyboard). I don’t think there are any watches with actual keyboards but I didn’t look for that specifically.

(if you plan on reading your high school aged child’s texts you should make sure she and her friends are aware. My daughter was horrified to find out her friend’s mum was reading everything she wrote)

An Apple Watch is an option, I hadn’t considered it really until your suggestion! I was looking at specifically children’s ones, I’ve just looked into it and it seems like it might be the best option. Very expensive though.

I’ve also considered a dumb phone, along with Pinwheel and The One Phone. I ruled out a dumb phone, because rightly or wrongly, I would like tracking for peace of mind. The others are still on my mind, I was originally thinking of revisiting for year 8 or 9, but perhaps I’m better off getting a Pinwheel or One Phone to begin with given the cost of an Apple Watch… A smart watch just feels like a more minimal approach to smart phone type things/ tech, which in my mind is a good thing and I feel aligns better with the smartphone free childhood movement. I’ll have to think about it a lot more.

I think it’s pretty responsible parenting to want to monitor your child’s messages though! I’ve seen threads on here where parents were criticised for not checking their child’s phone…. you can’t win sometimes. I think most do monitor their child’s messages at this age!

Have you checked the school allows smart watches? Our school didn’t. Well, they treated them like phones so they had to be in their bags, not to be seen. Just in case that makes a difference to what you would buy.

i actually just looked it up out of interest and there are Apple Watches - and garmin, and Amazon knockoffs, with keyboards. Would be safer than speaking all her texts. I think at that age you can focus on adult smart watches.

Not at all the point but my daughter is 13 and I haven’t read her messages for a couple years now. I did at the beginning, and I randomly take her phone without warning to scroll through and see who she is chatting to, but I’d never actually read through them. But if you wanted, how my daughter’s friend’s mum did it was by setting her daughter’s WhatsApp account up to sync with her own laptop so the account is mirrored.

Oh and I just got a used Apple Watch SE for myself on eBay for £60. Could look at refurbished etc.

Friends of ours got their 9 yo DS an imoo which they all like. We looked at one for DD but they are massive and are banned at her school, they have to be handed into the office like phones and collected at the end of the day, so we’ve gone for an old refurbished iphone with all the parental controls enabled!
TBF she only takes it out of the house when we aren’t dropping off/picking up and we’ve not had any issues but we haven’t allowed whatsapp or any social media.

Check school policy. The school I teach at, and also at my DC’s school, smart watches are banned. Even with no internet access, the message feature would be an issue.

They are allowed at the school as long as only used for telling time, otherwise confiscated. I very much doubt she’d turn school mode off as she’d hate to get into trouble. So I think it will be fine.

I thought Garmin were a reputable brand too, I was thinking bounce 2 but then checked their Trustpilot! I don’t really want to get a random Amazon brand as concerned about reliability, Apple seems to have good parental control settings too.

I’m not planning on allowing WhatsApp any time soon, I’m not sure when, at least 13 which I think is minimum age, but I will remember that tip for when I do allow it. Thank you.

A refurbished SE might be the way to go, thank you! Or perhaps from cex as they’ve got a good warranty. That might be the perfect solution for first year or two of secondary. I definitely need to think about it more, but leaning towards this at the moment.

Watching this with interest as I've ordered a Kidsnav one after going backwards and forwards over what to get. I only ordered it yesterday so its not arrived yet.

I've recently got the imoo. It can video call and you can send messages/voice notes. It's all set up using an app on parent's phone. A bit of a faff to set up.

You can't read messages sent between the watch and other contacts. But you do preset/aporove the contacts list.

There's also a setting for school hours/amy thine you set where you can disable calling and it becomes only a watch.

Has GPS.

Most annoying is the programmed language used. Badly translated imo. Eg. 'The "Kid" tried to call'.

Only a week or so in, but works well. Not too big, lightweight. Also it informs the caller if the watch is connected to WIFI or using data which is useful.