I and A Mag Oct19

Tech For Tweens
Kid-friendly technology that keeps you in control
Child-friendly tablets
With Amazon’s Kindle Fire, you can activate parental controls to
limit how much screen time your child has, when they can use
their tablet and what they can do on it. It’s also worth adding
the YouTube Kids app, which filters out unsuitable content and
allows you to cherry-pick the channels you’re happy for your
child to watch.
Have an accident-prone child or just want extra peace of mind?
It might be worth paying extra for the Amazon Fire Kids Edition
tablet. It’s priced around £100 to £200 depending on the screen
size and memory, but comes with a robust case and a two year
quibble-free warranty. You also get a year’s subscription to Fire
for Kids Unlimited (normally £3.99 a month), which gives your
child access to thousands of age-appropriate apps, game, videos
and books – see www.amazon.co.uk.
Smart watches
Most children’s smart watches allow kids to take photos and play
games. The Moochies watch also allows children to text and call
people, but only those who’ve been approved by the parent.
So, your child can call you to ask if they can go to a friend’s
house after school, send a text message to their cousin and video
call their granny, but they can’t call or text anyone you haven’t
approved.
The Moochies watch is ideal for children who are old enough for
a bit more independence, but not quite old enough for their own
phone. (It’s proven an absolute hit with my seven and ten year
old.)
The watch itself costs £69.99 and you’ll need to choose a rolling
network plan, which costs from £10 a month. You can also
customise the watch with different straps, which cost £7.50 each.
See www.moochies.com.
Pocket money apps
If your child is old enough to go shopping on their own, you might
want to look at getting them a prepaid debit card. There are
several pocket money apps and cards on the market, including
Go Henry, which allows you to transfer money to the card, decide
how much your child can spend, and keep an eye on what they’re
spending their money on.
You can also set them chores to earn extra money. So, for
instance, you might set them the task of hoovering once a week
to earn £2. Once they complete the task, you mark it as done on
the parent app and the money is transferred from your account
to theirs. You can also set up savings goals and kids can choose
to give a percentage of their pocket money to charity.
Go Henry costs £2.99 per child, per month at www.gohenry.com/
uk. Similar schemes include Nimbl (£2.49 a month) and Osper
(£2.50 a month).
by Kate Duggan
26