What Is Amazon Kids in 2022? A Guide to Kid-Friendly Kindle Content & Tools
Kindles are great educational alternatives to traditional tablets for a child. In fact, Amazon has a whole service just for this purpose. Keep reading to answer the question "what is Amazon Kids" — and learn whether it’s right for you.
— Last Updated: 2022-03-07T19:23:17+00:00 Facts checked by Elisabeth Ivey
If you’re looking for a way to provide your child with some sort of device for educational purposes, whether that’s a tablet or an e-reader, chances are you’ll want to limit what they do with it. That’s where Amazon Kids comes in. What is Amazon Kids, though? Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about the service.
Key Takeaways:
- Amazon Kids gives parents greater control over their children’s devices, including the ability to set educational goals.
- Amazon Kids+ is a subscription service that provides ad-free radio stations and over 20,000 age-appropriate books, audiobooks, movies, TV shows, apps and games tailored to kids ages 3 to 12.
- The Kindle for Kids and the Kindle Paperwhite for Kids e-reader models come with a free one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+.
Amazon Kids, which used to be known as Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, offers an accompanying subscription service called Amazon Kids+. It lets parents exercise a greater degree of control over their children’s devices and content, and provides access to a vast library of age-appropriate books, audiobooks and more.
Amazon FreeTime is the old name for Amazon Kids Plus. The former has been phased out, but Amazon Kids Plus still contains all the features that Amazon FreeTime used to.
The base Amazon Kids is free, but unlimited access to the selection of child-friendly and educational content on Amazon Kids+ costs $4.99 per month, or $2.99 per month for Prime members. Kindle Kids e-reader models come with one year of Amazon Kids+ free.
You can access Amazon Kids by downloading the app to a supported device.
What Is Amazon Kids?
Amazon Kids is a piece of software that’s compatible with Amazon devices — such as a Fire tablet (read our Amazon tablet comparison for more) or Kindle, as well as Amazon Fire TV Stick and Amazon Echo — as well as devices running Android, iOS and Chrome OS. It allows parents to tailor and control the user experience so that it’s more appropriate for children.
Parents can set educational goals, such as a certain number of pages to read in a given time period, as well as daily limits for how long the device can be used. By linking your child’s Amazon Kids account to your own, you can to share content with them from your Amazon library.
Amazon Kids can also be used to make remote announcements on supported Echo devices and to make video calls to you or other parent-approved contacts.
Parental Controls
Aside from these settings, there’s a multitude of other parental controls you can enable from the Amazon Kids parent dashboard. These include web browser filtering, blocking specific web pages, disabling app purchases, and reducing ad interactivity.
What Is Amazon Kids+?
Amazon Kids+ is a monthly subscription service that gives you access to additional child-friendly features and content. If you purchase one of the Kindle models aimed at children, such as the Kindle Paperwhite for Kids or the regular Kindle for Kids, the device comes bundled with one free year of Amazon Kids+.
| Monthly | Monthly (Prime) | Yearly | Yearly (Prime) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single Child Plan | $4.99 | $2.99 | NA | NA |
| Family Plan | $9.99 | $6.99 | $99 | $69 |
If you purchase a regular Kindle or use another type of device, the service costs $4.99 per month for a single child, after a one-month free trial. However, Amazon Prime members get a discount, which brings the cost down to $2.99 per month.
If you want to enroll more than one child, the Family plan offers unlimited access to the app for up to four children. This plan is a bit more expensive, at $9.99 per month or $99 per year, but Prime members get a reduced monthly rate of $6.99 (or $69 per year).
E-books, TV Shows and Educational Apps
In essence, Amazon Kids Plus provides a child-friendly environment with various types of content such as books, audiobooks, movies and TV shows as well as educational apps and games. There are more than 20,000 titles within these categories, all tailored to children between the ages of 3 and 12.
These thousands of kid-friendly books, movies and videos include favorites like PBS Kids, Disney, Nickelodeon, Sesame Street and more.
Final Thoughts
That brings us to the end of our guide to Amazon Kids. All in all, the service is a great way to expand kids’ access to educational content with the peace of mind afforded by parental controls.
If you’re considering getting an Amazon device for your child, make sure to check out our Kindle model comparison to find out which version is the best fit. You can also head over to our Fire tablet vs Kindle comparison to see if you’d rather get a fully fledged tablet over an e-reader.
What did you think of our guide? Do you agree that it’s a worthwhile service for parents who want to provide educational content for their kids? Do you think there’s anything we missed? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading.
