At Amazon, we try to make families’ lives easier every day—whether that’s by delivering diapers and groceries in a pinch, helping find that perfect Halloween costume, or creating family-friendly experiences on Amazon devices. Our kid-friendly products—like Fire Kids Edition tablets, Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, and more—are built from the ground up for kids with content that’s hand-selected by our teams to be age appropriate and fun.
Today, we’re giving families more ways to learn and have fun together with the all-new Echo Dot Kids Edition and new FreeTime on Alexa features.
Echo Dot Kids Edition
Echo Dot is the easiest way to add Alexa to any room, and the newest edition has rich, full sound that is 70% louder than the previous generation. We’re thrilled to bring that experience to kids and families alike with the all-new Echo Dot Kids Edition. It comes in fun new colors, including Rainbow and Frost Blue, and will sound great when your kids want to dance or listen to their favorite songs. Plus, parents will get peace of mind knowing their kids are interacting with age-appropriate content that is fun, engaging and educational.
Echo Dot Kids Edition offers an Alexa experience designed specifically for kids with kid-friendly responses to questions, educational Q&A, kid-focused podcasts, and more. Simply ask Alexa to play music, answer questions, help with math facts, control supported lights, or tell jokes. And with a FreeTime Unlimited subscription, kids can enjoy Alexa skills like Disney Dance Floor by Disney Publishing,Baby Shark Adventures by Pinkfong, Ghostbusters by Sony, and Adventure Island by Intellijoy; plus kid-friendly stories through Audible, and podcasts like Wow in the World by NPR,Story Pirates by Gimlet Media, and But Why by Vermont Public Radio.
Echo Dot Kids Edition is $69.99 and is available for pre-order today at www.amazon.com/echodotkidsedition. In addition to everything customers love about the Echo Dot, Echo Dot Kids Edition includes a year of FreeTime Unlimited, access to more than 1,000 Audible titles, premium Alexa skills from brands like Sony and Disney Publishing, kid-friendly podcasts, and so much more. Plus, Echo Dot Kids Edition has a 2-year, worry-free guarantee—if it breaks, send it back and we’ll replace it. It will start shipping to customers in the U.S. later this month.
After the first year of FreeTime Unlimited, customers can continue their subscription starting at $2.99 per month for Prime members and $4.99 per month for customers who are not yet Prime members. The same FreeTime Unlimited subscription can be used across any compatible device to access even more kid-friendly content. This includes age-appropriate books, Audible books, videos, educational apps, and games, available on Fire tablets and compatible iOS and Android devices. The FreeTime Unlimited experience will vary based on device.
Flash Briefing and Alexa Skill Blueprints
Parents tell us that their kids love FreeTime on Alexa—whether it’s to ask her for a funny joke, play a game, or read a story. Today, we’re excited to offer even more ways for kids to use Alexa to learn about the world around them. Now, kids can access daily updates and news from National Geographic and News-O-Matic by asking, “Alexa, what’s the news?” You can also choose to share other Flash Briefing skills—like Word of the Day—with your kids through the Parent Dashboard (parents.amazon.com).
And now, parents and kids can co-create personalized Alexa Skill Blueprints for FreeTime-enabled devices in just minutes with more than 10 easy-to-use templates. Create an interactive adventure story with your kid as the lead character or ask Alexa to tell your fortune. Blueprint skills that parents and kids create will only be available on the devices registered to the parent’s Amazon account and can be managed through the Parent Dashboard.
Peace of mind for parents
Since the launch of FreeTime seven years ago and FreeTime on Alexa last year, parents of over 10 million kids have trusted FreeTime to give them the control they need to provide a safe place for their children to enjoy technology. Maintaining the privacy and trust of our customers and their families is the most important measure of our success.
We worked with the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) and other leading groups to build the Alexa on FreeTime experience from the ground up, and we adhere to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). To access FreeTime on Alexa, verifiable parental consent is required. None of the Alexa skills included within FreeTime Unlimited have access to or collect personal information from children, and there are multiple ways to delete a child’s profile or voice recordings. Parents can review and delete recordings through the Alexa app or the Alexa Privacy Hub, and contact Customer Service to request deletion of their child’s profile.
Parental controls
FreeTime on Alexa also includes parental controls that help parents manage how their kids interact with technology, including:
- Time limits: Set bedtime time limits so kids can’t talk with Alexa late into the night, or simply pause Echo devices for dinner or homework time.
- Content you want: Use the Parent Dashboard and Alexa app to choose which services and skills kids can use, add additional skills and features, and more.
- Block explicit songs: Both in the Alexa experience and FreeTime on Alexa experience, parents with Amazon Music, Apple Music, or Spotify can filter playback of songs with explicit lyrics.
- Activity review: Parent Dashboard allows parents to see their kid’s FreeTime on Alexa activity, plus review their voice recordings in the Alexa app.
