The best bit of kids technology that we have, and this has been true from say age three to now six, is the Amazon Fire HD Kids. The operating system on it is fine. It loads up decently quickly. It’s locked down to only kids stuff. It’s not upselling stuff for the most part, there are tons of free shows, books, and games. The battery life is good, and it’s got a modern USB-C charger like everything else. The case that it comes is super tough — you could throw that thing down the stairs.
I’d consider having a kids iPad, but iPads suck for kids. There is no kid-specific version of the OS, no good account switching, and the apps for kids on iOS suck. A lot of the decent ones want outrageous subscription fees and there are tons of games that are just gross ads and upsells.
I’m as shocked as anyone here, but my kid loves the thing, has for years, and is likely to for years to come. Amazon is crushing Apple on the kid tablet thing.
Age 3 to 6?
Seriously dude, give them a book. Some Lego. A patch of garden. Some toy cars.
Or: boredom.
Or: talk to them. Actually try being present, and allow them to be present too.
lol. Thanks for the assumptions and parenting advice Internet Rando Mike! Do you have any advice on how I might lose weight as well?
Can offer weight loss advice too, if you like ;-)
But – seriously – there’s an ethical / parenting / life consideration here which outweighs whether a gadget is robust, isn’t there?
There’s the whole attention / play piece – but also the Fire / Amazon model is all about pumping ad / algorithm content into young brains. All of this would worry me greatly, especially with little kids.
This may simply not be the forum to have that discussion – but I’m not sure how relevant it is to be talking about this sort of form factor without these considerations being top of the pile? Maybe you feel differently.
Mostly I feel like you are casting judgement on me and my family very little context. Do you know what our rules are? How and when we use it? Do you know what our needs are? Health issues we might face? Life circumstances? Financial situation? Our goals for ourselves and our family? I would think not. I just said “I like this thing.” I do get where you’re coming from and there is space in the world to talk about those things. It just doesn’t feel good on a personal blog when I didn’t choose to bring those things up. It’s like if someone said “I like shoes.” and the response was DIDN’T YOU KNOW SOME SHOES ARE MADE IN SWEATSHOPS. SERIOUSLY DUDE. WEAR HEMP WOVEN SANDALS. TRY CARING ABOUT THE WORLD.
Chris – maybe we started off on the wrong foot, and my apologies, my initial post was too brief, too judge’y, so sorry about that.
So with a clean slate – I’d be interested in hearing more about how you think about very small kids, kids in general, and in fact adults too and what it means to be immersed in a world of digital all the time. Do you worry about it (I know I have and continue to even though my children are now entering adulthood), what do you think about balancing play and screen time, etc. What about mental health and the evidence we’re seeing emerging, particularly around very young kids and their use of screens and social? How about balance, health, making sense of polarised society?
So no, I don’t know anything about you and your family and your rules – but tell me. I just saw “screens for 3 year olds” and made what is probably an erroneous assumption. I’d like to hear more about what you’re doing, how you think about it, etc.
I guess the long and short is I’m not that interested in form factor and more interested in societal and personal impact. But as I say, maybe this isn’t the forum for that kind of conversation, in which case tell me and I’ll go away.