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

Non tester. Fir me, it's being able to control access to content. My DD would quite happily do searches and click any old links.

Non-tester. Strict controls (like fingerprint recognition rather than just a passcode) in order to buy anything. Ability to completely block apps e.g. Youtube. A report with stats that can be sent directly to a parent's phone or tablet would be great - e.g. how much time spent on each app etc.

Non tester

The ability to control in app purchases by fingerprint/password. Would love to try a fire for dd as I love my kindle!

Also to control who they connect with/talk to online x

Non-tester. I like the idea of being able to set time limits as to how long the dc are on there. It somehow creates less conflict than if I'm simply telling them.

Non tester - I’d like control of videos they can access as a few clicks on YouTube and you can be on a totally different/ inappropriate topic.

Mine are currently too young for webpages but as they get older control over this would be important.

Iam Non tester. I want feature to control what can be seen and download by our kids.

Non tester - ability to find it if it is lost is the main feature we need! My kids put things in the least logical place and with apple you can ping it to find it and track with find my iphone. Never used a kindlefire so don't know if they have that feature. I've been tempted a few tome by tge rock bottom prices on the kindlefire though...

Non tester. Being able to control what they have access to. My son's Fire also allows us to see his history. He listens to stories and plays games on it and we have set it so he can only do this at set times.

My kids have kindle fires (non-tester here) & they have been fantastic. We had a Tesco Hudl before & it only lasted a year or so. I didn't see the need for the rubber cases so just got a standard 16gb product; next time it comes to replace I think we'll go for the 32gb. I recommend them to friends & family; they are great devices.

non-tester

the parental controls I most value are being able to set a time period to be used, no way of buying apps etc, and no access to an internet browser until they're older.

Non-tester.

My children have these tablets and they absolutely love them. They like that they can choose their own content and we like that the content is age restricted.

My favourite features are the time limits I can set and that it locks once the limit is reached at its teaching them to self-moderate their screen time - my 8yo tends to use his all of in one burst whereas my 6yo spaces hers out over the day. I also like that I can set conditions on their use, such as they have to complete a certain amount of reading or educational content before they can access their apps and videos.

We've had cause to use the product protection when my daughter's kindle stopped working and it was exactly as described in the information pack. No questions, no quibbles. I explained to the advisor that it wasn't switching on and she arranged for a new one to be sent out on next day delivery, she emailed me a shipping label for the broken one, and it didn't even cost me anything for the phone call as they did an instant call back once I said what my query was.

Non Tester
Being able to stop my 3 boys aged 10, 7 and 6 from watching videos on youtube that show animated videos of popular characters like Paw Patrol being run over, being drowned etc, even with parental control on some of these videos still come up because they look like a lovely homemade cartoon till near the end when something bad happens to the characters.

My son will soon be 6. A lot of his friends have their own tablets, and naturally he is keen to have the same. He hasn't had much play time on devices so far, and I'm conscious that I don't want him to become reliant on them for entertainment, but by the same token I don't want to 'get left behind' - technology wise! I know that he would love one of these..

Non tester- my daughter has an amazon fire and started a 'free trial' for amazon music unlimited or something, didn't think to mention it to me and I was charged £9.99 when it ended. So definitely passwords for all downloads, or not making users have a card registered on the account to download games

Non-tester.

I'd like to be able to control things down to a very granular level. For example, in my experience a lot of Amazon videos are unrated, including things that are perfectly suitable for children (for example, most of Mythbusters) and I want to let my children watch those but I'd also like to have more control over those pointless user-submitted YouTube-like videos.

Speaking of YouTube, I'd love to be able to take more control over what can be watched on it. YouTube Kids is a very crude tool.

Non-Tester
I would like to have control as a parent to see what they kids are watching and which games they are downloading and playing. And switch it off if I want to!!

Non-tester here:

I would like to have-

1. time limitations

2. content controls

3. able to limit the bad back lighting

Oh- and not being able to buy anything without my fingerprint!

Non tester-
Interesting to read the feedback as mtg 3 year old has one of our old kindle fires and I'm wondering whether to get her the kids edition. Parent dashboard sounds great!

non-tester who would want to limit screentime

Oops, didn't answer the non-testers part properly

The features I would like most are: timer controls, screen passcode, also passcodes for in-app/app purchases.

Non tester - time limit which is easy to set, the ability to lock the screen just on youtube or an app so they can't get to anything else without putting in a passcode.
The ability to buy anything double passcoded or finger printed.

Non tester:
Most important parental lock feature for me would be being able to lock/keep my daughter on what I've set up for her.
For example, if I've set up Bing for her to watch I want to be able to lock it so she can't go on something else instead

Non-tester.
I'd want to be able to restrict access to the internet so they could only view appropriate content as the main thing.
I'd also want to be able to block in-app purchases.