Tech News, Magazine & Review WordPress Theme 2017
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
    Why MEL Science is Worth a Try for Hands-On Science Education

    Why MEL Science is Worth a Try for Hands-On Science Education

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Norton Internet Security Review

    Norton Internet Security Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

  • Gaming
    Best Gaming Laptops of 2022

    Best Gaming Laptops of 2022

    Most Popular Online Games in 2022

    Most Popular Online Games in 2022

    Best Gaming Consoles You Can Buy in 2022

    Best Gaming Consoles You Can Buy in 2022

    The Analogue Nt Mini NES Console Review: Play Your Favorite NES Games On The Big Screen

    The Analogue Nt Mini NES Console Review: Play Your Favorite NES Games On The Big Screen

  • Gear
    • All
    • Camera
    • Drones
    • Hardware
    • Laptop
    • Smartphone
    The Next Big Things: A Sneak Peek at the Most Popular New Smartphones in 2023

    The Next Big Things: A Sneak Peek at the Most Popular New Smartphones in 2023

    Cheapest 4K Graphics Cards for Gaming PC

    Cheapest 4K Graphics Cards for Gaming PC

    Best Power Supplies For Gaming in 2022

    Best Power Supplies For Gaming in 2022

    Best CPU Coolers for Ryzen 7 5800X

    Best CPU Coolers for Ryzen 7 5800X

    15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

    15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    Trending Tags

    • Best iPhone 7 deals
    • Apple Watch 2
    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • iOS 10
    • iPhone 7
    • Sillicon Valley
  • Computers
    Top 10 PC Keyboards in 2022

    Top 10 PC Keyboards in 2022

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

  • Security
    NordVPN: Ensuring Online Security and Privacy

    NordVPN: Ensuring Online Security and Privacy

    Cybersecurity & PR: How The Human Element Can Cause Breaches

    Cybersecurity & PR: How The Human Element Can Cause Breaches

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    How To Protect Yourself While Using Public WiFi

    How To Protect Yourself While Using Public WiFi

    Norton Internet Security Review

    Norton Internet Security Review

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
    Why MEL Science is Worth a Try for Hands-On Science Education

    Why MEL Science is Worth a Try for Hands-On Science Education

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Norton Internet Security Review

    Norton Internet Security Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

  • Gaming
    Best Gaming Laptops of 2022

    Best Gaming Laptops of 2022

    Most Popular Online Games in 2022

    Most Popular Online Games in 2022

    Best Gaming Consoles You Can Buy in 2022

    Best Gaming Consoles You Can Buy in 2022

    The Analogue Nt Mini NES Console Review: Play Your Favorite NES Games On The Big Screen

    The Analogue Nt Mini NES Console Review: Play Your Favorite NES Games On The Big Screen

  • Gear
    • All
    • Camera
    • Drones
    • Hardware
    • Laptop
    • Smartphone
    The Next Big Things: A Sneak Peek at the Most Popular New Smartphones in 2023

    The Next Big Things: A Sneak Peek at the Most Popular New Smartphones in 2023

    Cheapest 4K Graphics Cards for Gaming PC

    Cheapest 4K Graphics Cards for Gaming PC

    Best Power Supplies For Gaming in 2022

    Best Power Supplies For Gaming in 2022

    Best CPU Coolers for Ryzen 7 5800X

    Best CPU Coolers for Ryzen 7 5800X

    15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

    15 Best Smartwatches With Built-in GPS in 2022

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    Trending Tags

    • Best iPhone 7 deals
    • Apple Watch 2
    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • iOS 10
    • iPhone 7
    • Sillicon Valley
  • Computers
    Top 10 PC Keyboards in 2022

    Top 10 PC Keyboards in 2022

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    MSI GS65 Stealth Thin 15 Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    ASUS Zephyrus M15 GU502LW Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Alienware Area-51m R2 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

    Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-51 Review

  • Security
    NordVPN: Ensuring Online Security and Privacy

    NordVPN: Ensuring Online Security and Privacy

    Cybersecurity & PR: How The Human Element Can Cause Breaches

    Cybersecurity & PR: How The Human Element Can Cause Breaches

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Eset Smart Security Review

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    Avast Premium Security Review: The Best Anti-Malware & Cybercrime Software?

    How To Protect Yourself While Using Public WiFi

    How To Protect Yourself While Using Public WiFi

    Norton Internet Security Review

    Norton Internet Security Review

No Result
View All Result
ITRsearch.com
No Result
View All Result

Magid: Amazon is coming for your kids, and that’s OK

April 26, 2018
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
Home News
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Magid: Amazon is coming for your kids, and that’s OK

Amazon is going after the little-kids market, and I think that’s just fine. The company has long offered a children’s version of its popular Fire Tablet and now  offers Alexa content aimed at young users.

Amazon recently beefed up its parental controls for its FreeTime children’s content service giving parents access to activity reports on the content their kids are accessing. It also allows parents to set time limits and educational goals and shares tips on how to talk to their children about the content they access.

On Wednesday, Amazon announced that it’s bringing its FreeTime service to Alexa and will soon start selling an Echo Dot Kids Edition, which combines an Echo Dot voice activated speaker, FreeTime features and a year’s subscription to FreeTime Unlimited.  The Unlimited service offers premium content from Disney, Nickelodeon, Sesame Street, PBS Kids and Cartoon Network.

Amazon calls Alexa “a kid-friendly DJ, comedian, and storyteller.” I know several parents whose kids love Alexa not only for her ability to play music but to tell jokes (often pretty bad ones) and stories and turn lights and devices on and off. Someday kids may think of light switches the way today’s young adults think about rotary phones.

A few weeks ago Amazon loaned me a $99 Fire 7 Kids Edition Tablet so I could try out the FreeTime parental controls. I don’t have a young child, so I made one up called “Junior Magid.”

I set up the types of controls a parent might want to enforce on a young user, such as what content Junior could access, daily time limits and even rules. I also arranged to have two Fire Kids tablets sent to Kerry Gallagher, a digital learning specialist at St. John’s Prep in Danvers, Massachusetts, and director of K-12 Education at ConnectSafely.org, the nonprofit internet safety organization that I run.

Gallagher set up the devices for her 6- and 9-year-old daughters with rules that allowed them to view videos or play games only after they had spent at least a half hour reading. Gallagher said she liked the content information and suggested questions on the parent dashboard because “they will help parents get a better sense of what types of games, books, and videos their children prefer to engage with and spark important conversations about how that media is making their children think.”

As with any tech-based parental controls, these are supplements to actual parenting and not a replacement for sitting with your kids, talking about appropriate tech use and discussing what they’re doing with their technology. Good tech parenting also requires being a good role model; how parents use their own tech influences children.

In February, ConnectSafely sponsored a family night in Austin, Texas, during Safer Internet Day. The biggest complaint from the elementary school-age children was that their parents were spending too much time with their devices. It made me wonder who is more mature — the kids or the parents? For more of my thoughts about parental controls, visit connectsafely.org/parental-controls.

Speaking of parental controls, Google just announced that it’s allowing parents of kids who use the YouTube Kids app, aimed at children under 13, to limit their child’s videos to those whose channels have been reviewed by humans rather than algorithms. The YouTube Kids app has been criticized for allowing content that’s not suited for young viewers. By having human reviewers, it’s a lot less likely for an inappropriate video to slip through the cracks.

Starting May 9, Amazon will offer both a free and paid version of its FreeTime service specifically for Alexa. The free version will bring “parental controls and family-focused features” to any of Amazon’s Echo devices. The Amazon FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa service will offer kid-friendly content and skills and audio books at no additional charge for FreeTime Unlimited members or starting at $2.99 a month or free for Amazon Prime members who don’t subscribe to the Unlimited service.

Like the controls on Amazon’s tablets, the new Alexa for kids will allow parents to set time limits and bedtime curfews. Parents will also be able to control services and “skills.” A skill is like an app, which can come from third parties.

Amazon is using the same design strategy on its new Echo Dot Kids Edition as it does with its Fire Kids Edition tablets. The hardware is essentially the same as the adult edition but with a rubberized case in a choice of colors that “ruggedizes” the device while making it more visually appealing. Like the tablet, the children’s Echo Dot is more expensive than the adult model ($79.99 vs. $49.99), but it’s a good deal when you consider the bundled content.

I started out by saying “Amazon is going after the little-kids market,” which I’m sure raises some concern among adults. To me, the issue — whether it’s Amazon, Google, Facebook, Disney or any other company — is whether parents are truly in control and whether the company is doing a good job making sure the content is age-appropriate. There are some who object to any products aimed at kids, but the fact is that kids love to use technology, love story-telling and media and benefit from learning tools. To me, the question isn’t whether products such as Alexa for Kids should exist, but whether they are carefully crafted to serve the needs of families without taking unfair advantage of children.

Larry Magid is a tech journalist and internet safety activist.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Published at Thu, 26 Apr 2018 01:17:28 +0000

Previous Post

Facebook’s Oculus woos virtual reality game makers with millions

Next Post

Prom dresses breaking the bank? Bay Area teens have an app for that

Related Posts

News

NameCheap: Your Gateway to Online Presence

September 26, 2023
Lenovo Legion Y740 Review
Computers

Lenovo Legion Y740 Review

May 12, 2022
Quantum Computers: The Future Of Computer Technology
News

Quantum Computers: The Future Of Computer Technology

September 26, 2023
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
News

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

May 10, 2022
Robotic Process Automation (RPA): What It Is and Why Your Business Needs It
News

Robotic Process Automation (RPA): What It Is and Why Your Business Needs It

May 10, 2022
Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Deep Learning: An Overview
News

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Deep Learning: An Overview

May 10, 2022
Next Post
Prom dresses breaking the bank? Bay Area teens have an app for that

Prom dresses breaking the bank? Bay Area teens have an app for that

Recommended.

Magid: Video games do require some caution

Magid: Video games do require some caution

August 8, 2019
FD Financial and FH1-40 Company Are Marketing Worldwide the Only One of Its Kind L140, a Hearing Test for the Infant In Utero

FD Financial and FH1-40 Company Are Marketing Worldwide the Only One of Its Kind L140, a Hearing Test for the Infant In Utero

May 31, 2019

Trending.

Siemplify Releases Free Community Edition of Industry-Leading Security…

Siemplify Releases Free Community Edition of Industry-Leading Security…

March 31, 2020
Victoria Kustov Earns NAR Designation in Senior Real Estate

Victoria Kustov Earns NAR Designation in Senior Real Estate

August 11, 2020
Microsoft Adds Touch Bar Support To Office For MacBook Pro

Microsoft Adds Touch Bar Support To Office For MacBook Pro

May 10, 2022
DaVinci Resolve System Requirements

DaVinci Resolve System Requirements

June 6, 2022
Quantum Computers: The Future Of Computer Technology

Quantum Computers: The Future Of Computer Technology

September 26, 2023
ITRsearch.com

ITRsearch.com: time for you to read up on the latest IT industry news — and view the best tech recommendations to try. We cover numerous topics from computers, security, internet & more.

Categories

  • Apple
  • Applications
  • Apps
  • Camera
  • Computers
  • Drones
  • Gaming
  • Gear
  • Hardware
  • Laptop
  • Microsoft
  • News
  • Review
  • Security
  • Smartphone
  • Social Media
  • Software
  • Tech
  • Wireless

Tags

Camera Dji Facebook Fujifilm Google GoPro Instagram iPhone Macbook Pro Microsoft MSI Pinterest Shopify

Recent News

NameCheap: Your Gateway to Online Presence

September 26, 2023
NordVPN: Ensuring Online Security and Privacy

NordVPN: Ensuring Online Security and Privacy

September 26, 2023
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • FTC Compliance
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

© 1997-2022 ITrsearch.com, All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Apple
  • Computers
  • Gaming
  • Gear
    • Audio
    • Camera
    • Gear
    • Laptop
    • Smartphone
  • Microsoft
  • Security
  • Contact Us

© 1997-2022 ITrsearch.com, All Rights Reserved.