To think we've made a mistake with DS big present?

[lynzmb]

We got DS6 an Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet for Christmas to replace an ancient iPad. I'm pretty tech savvy but I have really struggled to get certain apps on the kids profile - YouTube Kids seems extremely difficult to add, research talks about side loading etc which just seems like an almighty faff. I'm worried we keep running into problems like this, DS will lose interest and it was v expensive.

I'm wondering if we return it and look at another android tablet instead. Seen a few people suggesting Samsung with Family Link app for parental controls.

I'm feeling stupid already for not realising the limitations around Amazon tablets so please be kind! Or is there a simple solution I'm missing?

maybe, just maybe everyone does it slightly differently?! Good for you that Father Christmas brings small gifts. Ours brings all the gifts and we send money to him, our kids understand we’ve got to work hard during the year to be able to do this. Not sure if that is really “nonsense” as you put it.

Because he’s 6. I have (slightly) older children. Very few of my friends with (slightly) older children who gave their children tech at a young age don’t now regret it.

YouTube (kids or otherwise) is a nightmare. Yes there’s lots of great stuff on there. But the majority isn’t great and it’s highly, highly addictive.

Age 6 I’d think a suitable present for the amount you might spend on a tablet would be a scooter, bike, Lego, anything really that’s not bloody tech!

6 year olds are (almost all) at school and have limited time after school and at weekends to play, be 6, use their imaginations, play sport, learn an instrument, go out for walks and bike rides etc etc. If you give a child tech they will often choose that over everything else. Not always, but often.

You say he’s losing interest. Great! Why not offer him something else that he can swap the tablet for that will actually benefit him and be fun?

If you’re young enough to actually believe in Father Christmas you are not old enough for your own iPad.

This. Ours are 8 and 10 now and has access to iPads in COVID (age 3 and 5) so we could work.
The 3 year old learnt to read from Apps before they started school
Apps and screens are not the enemy provided they are used in moderation.
A few years down the line now they have limited screen time and limited access to apps. They use Minecraft education but not Roblox, they use Duolingo and Simply Guitar.

They also play excessively with Lego, are widely read and excelling at school.

Giving kids early access to screens does not mean you will have a teenager who plays on YouTube and never comes out their room because they are addicted to gaming.

But once children have their own device it is hard to let them only use it for school. The best intentions often slide after a few weeks or months.

Most schools don’t assume a child has their own device. My dc are at independent schools and only have minimal need for tech for homework up till year 7. All of it can be done on my work laptop or at school if needed.

It's the world we live in these days. Technology is everywhere. They use it at school. It's only going to keep developing.

Teach kids how to use it safely, rather than restricting them from it out of fear.

I wouldn’t want my child having free access to YouTube (even if it is Kids version) as it it absolute brain rot and addictive.

I have to take issue with this - the stuff my kids have learned from youtube surprises me still. It started out with ABC songs and shape songs (my eldest got a certificate for knowing the most shapes in primary - all from a youtube song), he's now a history and geography nut (don't ever challenge him in Worldle - he recognises every country), he can bend your ear off about the causes of world war II or the relative merits of various military strategies. My youngest can cook a perfect swiss roll, crepes, and goodness knows what else, although unfortunately his specialist subject is pokemon rather than anything useful - but that's lead to following tutorials to draw and sculpt various characters which he also does beautifully

We've been watching exam revision videos to remind me how some of his maths works, language videos, music etc. or if we want to learn how to do something, there will be someone to teach us on Youtube

It's not like plonking them down in front of the TV and being forced to watch whatever is on - these kids are actively chasing their interests, and those interests are varied and interesting, and generally lead away from the ipad in the same way that a book from the library would.

@lynzmb I found the same as we got DS1 a kindle fire and found it really hard to add things. We managed in the end but it was such a pain!

I had an iPad which was not great given the price. My DH has a Samsung tab which was far better than my iPad and cheaper.

For the other two kids we got Lenovo tablets which have been brilliant.

I think the Fire tablets are great for young kids. They don’t need anything ‘better’ or to watch youtube. Good games and shows and they have a great warranty and are hard wearing. I don’t find my kids hard to use at all?
6 year olds don’t need anything more

We've only ever used Fire Kids for the dc. I like that they are limited, it's just what we want for the dc. We have just got dd1 the older kids version as she is nearly ten and we've now let her have roblox and added a few websites. But the kids youtube youtube through the web links can't have any parental controls apart from setting the age so we have just removed it.

She can watch youtube on my phone still where I routinely block anything I don't like. Both have access to Netflix and cbbc stuff on the Fire plus all the games, it's more than enough.

Agree with a PP who said that it is broken and you will replace it for him. But also, perhaps it being a bit limited is a good thing, especially as he is so young.

So don't let it slide. That's on you as a parent if you do. Make it a habit "you can watch for 20 minutes then we're going to the park". "Play for 10 mins then go get your book".

A lot of schools do actually assume this though.
i don’t know any that didn’t need access to tech really, and a lot of people don’t have work laptops

I think people need to calm down… my 5 year old has a fire tablet, it was a bit of a faff but I worked out how to remove the excess of apps and limit to only a few games that we approved e.g. shape sorters, puzzles, sago mini etc that are educational and fun. She also has kids YouTube which is limited to songs we approve and add only - songs she’s learned at school via smart tv and her nativity songs which she was asked to practise at home. She likes going on it for half an hour and then she’s had enough! It provides a bit of down time as physically she will be on the go all the time (she was like that before the tablet came along - it’s not the tablets fault lol)

Both my kids have had their own ipads since they were 3. 💁They liked the CBeebies games. They're 7 and 9 now.
They're not addicted to screens, they both prefer playing with lego, cycling, drawing, gymnastics etc. They use them a moderate amount, mostly for minecraft, which they play with friends from their classes. DS has been working on building a 'mega mansion' with his best friend. It's nice, they're having fun. I remember when I was a kid playing on my Gameboy for entire days during the holidays.
They only use them when in the same room as one of us. They were used more during lockdown. Oh and when DD was recovering from heart surgery.
There's a world of difference between chucking a screen at them and leaving them to it all day and allowing some use of specific apps.

I take your point. However, I have many friends who would disagree. One child I know taught himself piano from YouTube. He practised a lot over a few years and it was fabulous. His mum said he only uses YouTube to learn piano. That’s it. She really believed that. Then she saw his useage and it was thousands and thousands of hours and only a tiny proportion was anything to do with music. Most was him watching people playing fortnight etc and general scrolling of shorts.

Shes an amazing mum. Really on it. But also works, has things to do in the house etc and wasn’t monitoring her child 24/7.

I haven’t RTFT but popped on here to say that all of my friends who are teachers and LSAs think that screen use is a leading cause of behavioural issues in the classroom.

Firstly the kids get left with the tablets for extended periods of time because they seem well-behaved (or make no demands on their parents).

But because they have control over what they see and do on it, they do not learn to be responsive to adult requests or how to negotiate with peers, or how to compromise in terms of waiting for what they want, making do with an activity that is not precisely what they want, etc. So, we’re seeing reception and y1 kids being far less obliging than ever before, which disrupts classroom learning.

This is aside from all of the evidence now suggesting that screen use at a young age wires the brain differently (something to do with dopamine I seem to remember) causing a loss of focus and possibly contributing to ADHD like symptoms. Apps and content have to capture and hold attention so they are deliberately designed to do so, over time making the brain less willing/able to attend to things that are less stimulating/novel (like ordinary life which doesn’t deliver dopamine hits at the same rate).

Many private schools entirely ban smartphones in secondary schools these days. I can’t wait until state schools do too so that limiting the screen time of our kids doesn’t sabotage their social reputations as much as it does atm.

Hold off screens for as long as possible!

Because they are 6
And tablets are ridiculously expensive
And kids are losing any ability to communicate or deal with the world because they've only been exposed to digital crap
And the child is 6!!

You can Google how to add playstore to an Amazon pad. I've done it several times.

Ive never commented on this site before but a 6 year old having a tablet is insanity. Highly recommend you read glow kids. Tablets (even when used for educational purposes at school) are so detrimental to their development and wellbeing.

Why does a 3 year old need their own tablet???! Insane.

It really isn’t that easy. If it was, we’d all be fine.

look, tech isn’t “bad” but screen addiction is real and it’s hard to take screens back once they’re introduced.

My dc have switches and I gave them an old iPad when they were 6 and 8. Removed it after a month (it “broke”) because no matter how much I monitored it and supervised, they were obsessed with it. The oldest now has a school device but it’s so locked down that they really can only do school work on it.

What was a nightmare for my dc was YouTube. Utterly addictive for them. They would scroll and watch for hours and hours if I let them, which is why I have removed it from our lives (it’s blocked on the WiFi).

I don't think YABU to want to return it- tell DS santa messaged you to say there is a fault with them so he's calling them all back to workshop and sending something to replace it. I'm surprised so many are very anti Kindle fires though. We have just bought a second so kids have one each for long drives (we have a few europe driving trips in 2025) and we've found our DD's one great but we do only use it for the white noise app nightly and watching pre downloaded stuff from Netflix in the car or for school homework apps like timetable rockstars and Ed shed spelling. She isn't allowed to browse web or go on YouTube and has shown no interest either in doing that. We have it pin locked so she can't get into it at night when it is playing white noise. I guess when she's older we might need something better based on what people are saying here.

I have a 6 year old. She has a tablet which she's allowed to use pretty much only when taking long journeys. Do you know when she's at her most focussed and creative? When she's given absolutely no external stimulation from technology or her parents. I'm not saying she should be left to her own devices all the time but I think it is vital that children are allowed this space for some of the time. It's vital for them to really experience true 'boredom' so that they can learn to use their own creativity and their own initiative. Not only are tablets addictive but they foster an entitlement to instant gratification. I'm not saying tablets are evil but we can't ask them to babysit our young children then wonder why they're growing up obnoxious, entitled and lacking any drive or attention span. I don't think people are wrong to point out that they're damaging any more than it's wrong to point out that smoking is damaging.

They don't need it. They actually have lots and lots of things that they don't need.

We had Amazon fires when boys were 3/4 years old for flights and they just watched stuff on Netflix / played basic games. I hated them!! So difficult to use. Return and get a refurbed iPad on blackmarket. We have refurbished iPads for them which cost around £120 and they are brilliant