Kids Email Blog

Kindle Fire and Parental Controls

June 11, 2012

This past Christmas my son begged for a tablet of his own. I decided to purchase a Kindle Fire and was super excited when it arrived. Since we had never used one before, my husband and I decided to test it out before giving it to him. I was very surprised at the content that was available at his finger tips. As I searched through the books, I saw racy images and content that I didn’t want my 8 year old son viewing. After some discussion we decided that instead of giving him his own tablet, it was to become the “Family Kindle” and was to be used under watch and supervision. I have to say, at the time, I was really annoyed that the Amazon Kindle didn’t have any parental controls.

I obviously didn’t get the memo, but just recently noticed on my Kindle that Parental Controls have finally been added. I was super excited that I can now have my kids use the tablet without worrying so much. I was quick to figure out how the controls work and add some extra “control” to my Kindle.

Here are some things that I figured out:

You can restrict purchasing, content types, web browsing and access to other features. You can also password protect purchases and video playback.

I was also happy to see that you can block and unblock content types found on the device. Such as: Newsstand, Books, Music, Video, Docs and Apps.

You can  password restrict turning on Wi-Fi and block the Web Browser.

I’ve since added the parental control on my device. My tween was quick to notice that she can’t just surf the web as she pleases. And I’m quick to notice that I have more of an ease of mind letting them use it. I’m always happy when companies put filters or add parental type controls on their products. I think it’s super important to protect our kids and with these types of controls it makes things a little easier on us as parents.

Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: kindle fire, online safety, parental controls, tablet for kids.