Children and tablets

[Pinkhoodie]

Do you think i wbu to get 9 year old ds a cheap tablet for Christmas?

I'm not sure what's the norm these days so just wanted opinions.

He's not really into toys anymore apart from Lego, so most of his presents are books and football stuff which is what he asked for.

He's got a games console that he uses at weekends, we don't have it on on school nights and he's quite happy with that but he's already got all the games for it.

It’s fine. My much younger son has a baby tablet which he enjoys.

Good idea.

You didn't ask for recommendations but I'd go for a Kindle Fire (you said cheap).

Kindle fires from Amazon are so cheap at the moment.

That's the one I was thinking of heropa it's cheap and comes in different colours.

Not sure what I'm worried about just feels like a really grown up present.

I personally can't stand seeing children glued to the things, but I guess at 9 it's not an unreasonable gift.
Have you thought about whether he'll have any access to the internet?
What controls you'll put in place? What games he can have?

So long as you've made sure he is completely safe, and the bulk of apps are somewhat educational, I can imagine there are benefits.
I get stressed about making sure such things are completely safe - especially when the kids seem to know ways around almost everything! (Perhaps I'm just too technologically stunted)

Just don't allow unrestricted access, the odd half an hour on a fun app or researching an interest is healthy, but it's so sad to see them staring at a screen rather than running round the park with their friends.

Cross post! Kindle fire sounds good, (although I don't know the ins and outs), loaded with lots of books it sounds like a wonderful gift.

Tendergreenbean that's a bit how I feel. They can be so addictive, I get addicted to my smartphone.

He likes playing games like hangman and connect 4 on my phone so stuff like that. He's getting into music too so thought he could do all that with it.

I am a bit worried about parental controls. Though I've no doubt in a couple of years when he starts secondary school, he'll be having a mobile phone so thought it might test the waters a bit.

My 4 year old had one last year cos I got sick of her pinching my phone to play alphablocks and "teach your monster to read"

She watches trash on YouTube occasionally but mostly it's educational games. They use them loads at school and should be learning html programming as part of the school curriculum so it makes sense to get them used to them at home too.

Dd has a Samsung tab 2 we bought it second hand but they aren't too bad new

DC has my old iPad mini and is getting a Kindle Fire HD 8 for Christmas. If you buy a £40 Kindle you will need to buy a memory card so weigh up the cost of that versus a bigger one.

I limit screen time but DC can do school work on them as well or watch tv.

The Lenovo tablets are good and well priced for a decent spec.
Not as restrictive as Kindle Fire being android.
Shame Tesco don't do their Hudl anymore - they were great and v cheap.

My 5 year old DS has a tablet - great for educational apps - and rubbish on Kids Youtube on a Friday evening after a busy week.

I've just bought a kindle fire kids for my daughter's 8th birthday. It has a kids interface which massively limits her ability to access any content I have not approved. It also allows me to set time limits for game play, internet use and reading. I'm quite pleased with it.

www.o2.co.uk/help/nspcc

O2 and the NSPCc have an Internet safety partnership to help parents with safety settings and the like.

My pair are 9 and have had tablets since they were 7, they also use them at school quite a lot. They have limits around how much they can use them but they are an enjoyed part of their life.

sainsburys have the amazon fire 7 for £25. I got DD 6 one for her christmas.

DS had a Kindle Fire last year when he was 3. I like the parental controls - he has his own homescreen that only gives access to the apps and books I've ok'd and he can't access the browser or youtube.

He doesn't overuse it, and it's fantastic on long car journeys.

My 3.7yo ds1 absconded with my tablet when he was about 2yo. We switch off wifi so he can't do anything inappropriate. He mostly plays maze type games and cbeebies stuff. I don't let him on the internet on his own there's some very wierd stuff on you tube which comes up as kids stuff.
Looking around schools for my son next year they have tablets and pcs from reception years.

Those games all sound good OP.
I think spotify have parental control settings so you don't get sweary music, and the whole "recommending music based on what you listen to" seems good for children who are still discovering their music taste.
Much better than youtube IMO (apparantly where "the yoof" are listening to music these days) which always makes me pearl clutch when some song with incredibly suggestive lyrics and videos comes next on "autoplay". I would never leave a child unsupervised on youtube!

Regarding internet safety, my DP says you can hide the browser programme on some tablets. So in effect, apps that require the internet will still work, but any DC's won't be able to just browse the internet.
All sounds rather complicated, but worth it.

Tablets are great. Mine got Amazon Fires last year to replace aging Tesco Hudls from the previous year. Youngest is almost 9.

Its also worth installing a good ad blocker, one that blocks ads within games.

Many of the free games feature ads for other games, some get you to watch them in exchange for free coins or whatever but often they just pop up and random intervals, I’ve had the occasional time where the game being advertise doesn’t isn’t suitable for a child.

I’ve also had once had a porn advert pop up in a child’s game, (dd didn’t see it, was when I was checking the game before letting her play, one rule is I install and check the game first) there’d been an issue with the company that provides ads and developer sorted it but I deleted the app, I now know how to block all ads, within games an on websites but dd prefers paid games with no ads.

Re parental controls, have a look at Qustodio. It's brilliant

Lenovo tablets are surprisingly good for the price, I went for one of those so I could install whatever parental control/ad blocked I wanted and wasn't sure how restricted the Fire is

I'm sure this will horrify a few PPs but my 2 year old has a kindle fire I'm not concerned about him, he can recognise every letter and can count very well, great vocab, and I haven't tried to teach him any of that, basically it's all through using the tablet.
He's very sociable, very imaginitive, he runs around for a lot of the day, we read lots of books and play together a lot too :) I like the Kindle Fire! Only downside is you can't get the YouTube Kids app, but that's not such a bad thing as that's not actually that regulated.

I'm going to get flamed but saw some research lately stating that screen time causes the same type of addictive brain reaction as heroin, and can actually stunt brain development. Just to let you know. I used to be all for it any now I can't forget this. Not gonna let mine have anything for as long as possible.

Cheesemumma I'd be really interested in reading this research, I have always been against tablets for my children but as they get older my husband is starting to believe it might be good for them. However I am not sure.

I have just been sent this and im worried now!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/219642

as I fear my child is getting addicted to the tablet!

The Kindle fire is good as it restricts adult content so they can't access you tube for example.
The parental controls are good,you can restrict screen time or only allow it after a certain amount of reading done.