The Kids Edition tablets have always been a pretty important part of Amazon's lineup, but that's getting turned up to 11 with today's announcements. Not only did Amazon announce some refreshed regular Fire tablets, but they revealed a Kindle Kids Edition and Fire HD 10 Kids Edition, and announced that FreeTime will be coming to Fire TV.
Refreshed tablets
The Kindle Kids Edition is probably the most interesting addition to the lineup, since it's literally just an old-school Kindle eReader with some colorful covers. It's a much healthier take on entertainment for children since it's focused exclusively on reading, and you even get a huge selection of books through FreeTime that are designed for kids.
Amazon is planning on adding functionality to the Kindle later on, too, like being able to listen to audiobooks through Bluetooth speakers or headphones. It also features built-in achievements for predefined goals, quick word definitions, and more.
The Fire HD 10 Kids Edition is a little more typical, but it takes the Kids Edition branding and brings it into a much larger screen. You're getting a 10.1 full HD display, 32GB of storage with a microSD card slot, USB-C charging, and an included kid-friendly case with a kickstand. If you've used the other Kids Edition tablets, you're probably already familiar with the curated content via FreeTime and the two-year guarantee for the device. You won't have to manually set things up for your children with these tablets, since FreeTime includes a ton of apps, games, and other content that are specifically designed for a younger audience while keeping them away from the rest of the internet.
FreeTime on Fire TV
Kids spend a lot of time on tablets and portable devices, but it's easy to forget that the TV can also be a pretty big source of entertainment. That's why Amazon is finally bringing their FreeTime program to the Fire TV platform, which should make streaming TV a little safer for kids, too.
This app gives parents the ability to block content, set up age restrictions, manage screen time, and grab tons of extra content with a FreeTime subscription with Amazon Prime.
This will be widely available, but there are some cutoffs. Anything newer than a Fire TV Stick 2nd generation is eligible to download the app, and Amazon says they're planning on bringing it to TVs with Fire TV built-in soon.
