Read MNers’ feedback on the Amazon Fire Kids Edition tablet. Non-testers, £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED!

[AaronMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for those 30 MNers who tested the Amazon Fire Kids Edition tablet.

Here’s what Amazon has to say about the product: “Fire Kids Edition tablets are built around three ideas: 1) kids break things, 2) kids want real tablets, not a toy, and 3) parents don’t want to worry about the bill. Each full-featured tablet comes with a kid-friendly case, and a 2-year worry free guarantee—if they break it, we’ll replace it, no questions asked. The device also comes with a year subscription to Fire for Kids Unlimited for unlimited access to thousands of kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games, and best-in-class parental controls to manage usage limits, content access and help set educational goals.”

Testers, please answer the questions below:

• What does your child think about of the Fire Kids Edition tablet? Did they enjoy using it?
• What did you think about the protection package that is included with the device (i.e. the kid-friendly case and 2-year worry free guarantee)?
• How easy did you find the parental controls to use? If so, what were your favourite features?
• Was your child happy with the content available through the 1 year Fire for Kids Unlimited subscription? Did you/they feel anything was missing?
• What did you think about the Parent Dashboard?

Non-testers, what parental control features would be most important to you in a child’s tablet?

All non-testers who post below will be entered into a prize draw and one person will win a £300 voucher.

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

My daughter would have loved this!
I would like to have control with what websites children can visit. Ideally I could choose what she likes and block the rest. A controlled search engine.

Non-tester

The ability to control which websites are accessible.

Easy to view summary history browsing/activity.

I’ve got a question for those that have the tablet, is it possible to lock it until a certain time in the morning?

Trying to think of ways to keep my eldest in bed for longer but hate the thought of putting our iPad in with her as I’d have no idea of what time she woke.

If I could set this to not work until say 6.30 that would be fantastic.

Non Tester- the biggest thing I've learned is how important it is to control what my children are accessing online, they have ended up viewing inappropriate content by accident in the past and I am keen to avoid it happening again in the future.

Non-Tester

I have two 6 year olds who have had their kids kindles for a year.

The parental settings and limited access for them is great. I do check now and again, but so far they have had no access to anything inappropriate for them thanks to the settings and Amazon's own YouTube filters.

Both my children have special needs and struggle with anything that's not designed for a toddler, but they learnt to use their tablets easily and can navigate between games, books and videos.

A year in, I'm happy paying the subscription and the tablets are still in one piece

Non tester here, I got the pink and a blue for my children 2 and 4 for a Christmas present. My 4 year old struggled with tablets we had in the house and was deleting apps or ending up on calculators or settings and getting frustrated. I have to say we are really impressed and love the features and accessibility of them for children. The games are age appropriate and great choice too

What does your child think about of the Fire Kids Edition tablet? Did they enjoy using it?

Absolutely love them, my 2 year old struggles to open it but we do it for her and then she is off

• What did you think about the protection package that is included with the device (i.e. the kid-friendly case and 2-year worry free guarantee)?

That's why we brought it, excellent piece of mind and reassuring

• How easy did you find the parental controls to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

Very easy fully accessible to use

• Was your child happy with the content available through the 1 year Fire for Kids Unlimited subscription? Did you/they feel anything was missing?

Not really they can watch programs and play games, glad we got 12 months included and actually I think we are happy to pay because they get so much from it once the 12 months is up

• What did you think about the Parent Dashboard?

Fine although I don't really use it

Non-testers, what parental control features would be most important to you in a child’s tablet?

That they only access age appropriate content and I would like to have a screen time automatic limit perhaps?

Non-testers, what parental control features would be most important to you in a child’s tablet?

Most important is making sure they don't access things that are not appropriate for their age.

We're still working out how to use ours to some extent, but so far, the levels for their age seem very good.

My two are autistic, so I'm hesitant to try the one where it shuts it down after a time limit,as they need a specific countdown (for transition purposes) prior to stopping screen time (10min left, 5min left, 2 min left, then done for example).

Non-tester

I like the sound of the time limit and being able to control what content they can see. I'm thinking of getting one for my son's birthday in a few weeks.

Non tester
I love the lock down feature to only allow access to specific websites, but have found at some educational websites break this because part of the url changes. But the ability to overwrite this within the child app by using the adult pin would be great. Instead I have to switch profiles, copy the link, log out and in and try again. I gave up in the end which was quite disappointing.

Non-tester - key things would be (a) what material they can access on the internet (with scope for different settings depending on age - very young can access only specific websites while older children can access non-specified websites (for the purposes of searching for homework, for example) but with inappropriate content blocked; and (b) limits on who they can chat to/send messages to.

NON TESTER.

I've been thinking of purchasing a couple of these to stop the kids using my expensive iPads. Great to read the comments from fellow mumsnetters! Great!

Non tester: I want to be able to only have access to age appropriate material. Also a block on any purchases and a notification to me of any free apps downloaded.

Non tester.
Proper controls over YouTube. My 2.5 yr old watches videos of trains (supervised) which autoplay. Inappropriate adverts pop up in between and some of the suggestions which follow on are too scary. I wouldn't be able to leave him unattended with them which is annoying when I want to do a bit of cooking as it would be perfect.

My DS has one of these for Christmas last year. One of the things I really like about it is that as a parent, it was so easy to set up the parental controls. With other devices I always feel like I'm doing it wrong somehow, but with this it was a doddle. So for me, the most important thing is ease of use and the confidence and reassurance that brings.

Non-tester
The most important parental feature for me would be limiting the access to games, tv shows/movies, websites that are not age appropriate .

Non tester, but the main thing I would like is for some control on the time the tablet worked, for example so it wouldn’t work after 9.00 or before 6.30 - stop any late night sneaky electronics use, plus the usual internet controls.

non tester -

1. the case is important but Griffin and Otterbox sell durable cases for other tablets.
2. flexibility to restrict websites is hugely important - but I think this can be done on other standard tablets so I am reluctant to pay a premium for this
3. common platform with the rest of the family - if you use Apple, the Fire wouldn't allow access to shared photo albums etc.
4. different profiles for different children is good.

Non-tester.

The most important thing for me would be to control purchases. I'd also like to be able to block inappropriate websites, but that's also available through our ISP already.

Non tester. The parental control I appreciate the most, even more than control of apps that can be downloaded, is a lock to stop them all for being deleted, again, in a fit of boredom because oh, the whinging.

Non-tester

My child not being able to click on links that eventually lead them to inappropriate content and - along the same lines - something that prompts them to stop and ask an adult rather than click regardless.

Non-testers, what parental control features would be most important to you in a child’s tablet?

Time limits with a warning and a countdown timer!
I'd also want to control exactly what they can / cannot view online.

Non-tester - complete control over what a child can access - almost like positively choosing what they can see rather than blocking certain things. I do worry about what they will be able to see just by pressing buttons. It's bad enough they can work the i player on the tv to get topsy and tim on repeat...

Tester:

What does your child think of the Fire Kids Edition tablet? Did they enjoy using it?

Pickle is 5 and absolutely loves it. He loves the games and watches some of his favourite shows on it. We have the 7" and it is the perfect size for him.

What did you think about the protection package that is included with the device?

I love it and it has eased the worry I had of him using my tablet prior to having his Fire Kindle Edition. I was afraid he would damage it or break it somehow. The bumper is genius - it really protects the tablet but access to all the buttons is easy.

How easy did you find the parental controls to use? If so, what were your favourite features?

The parental controls are easy to navigate and use. They have given me complete peace of mind in Pickle using his Kindle Fire for Kids, knowing he cannot access anything he shouldn't.

Was your child happy with the content available through the 1 year Fire for Kids Unlimited subscription? Did you/they feel anything was missing?

I honestly think all the content is perfect for Pickle - he loves the choice and I love that there is so much educational content too. He loves reading, and having the books read to him in the apps are helping his spelling too.

What did you think about the Parent Dashboard?

The Dashboard is great - being able to limit the time is a brilliant feature.

Non tester.

The time limit feature sounds very reassuring, as it makes it seem like it’s the tablet telling them time’s up, rather than us! Maybe that would mean less argument...

Non tester- (I have 2 kids and 2 fire tablets which the children both use in the child mode) I recently started using the parent control app but it won’t register that I have 2 devices with separate child profiles on. I can only monitor one. Would be good if amazon could add more than one device and child.