Kids Place - Not Perfect but Very Useful

[jsh1120]

Here's the story. Three people in the household: Me, my spouse, and our seven year old daughter. Have an iPad purchased originally as a "family" device we could all share. I was sorely disappointed to find that the iPad is severely lacking in this respect. No way to configure individual "accounts" as one can on a family computer. No way to provide a "home page" for our daughter with her apps. No way even to place the same app on different screens so it could be accessed by different family members without providing virtually unlimited access to the iPad.

As everyone knows, there was much consternation when the KF was introduced about the absence of parental controls. And as most of the folks on this forum undoubtedly know, there was much more heat than light in those criticisms. Yes, you can turn off "1 click" ordering from Amazon, for example. Still, when I purchased a KF to relieve the demand on the family iPad I didn't expect to find that it was clearly superior the iPad in terms of parental controls.

How so? The Amazon App Store includes a great little app called "Kids Place." It enables one to create a password protected app screen for a kid with the apps a parent wants to enable. Once in Kids Place, exiting to the KF's main UI requires the device password. I've added games for my daughter that she can access without worrying about either her safety or the possibility that we'll have an unexpected delivery of a refrigerator from Amazon at our door.

It's not perfect. One cannot, for example, include just children's books or magazines in Kids Place. And it is a bit of a PITA to require a password to access both the KF from sleep mode and to exit Kids Place. (The app uses the device password.) Still, I didn't expect to see much of what is missing in terms of parental control on the iPad available on the KF.

Bottom line. If your KF is shared with a young member of the household whose access you wish to control, Kids Place is an excellent app.

[alphawave7]

This is handy info....thanks for sharing!

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