Microsoft Windows Phone 8 has a great family friendly feature called Kid’s Corner. Having small children and living gadgets presents some challenges when it comes to technology at home in a way that allows the kids to experience the new technology and have the peace of mind as a parent knowing that I’ve done as much as possible to protect my kids from content that they shouldn’t be seeing as well as keeping my data safe from their curious tapping and swiping of touchscreens.

Just like how you set boundaries for your kids out in the real world you want to do the same thing in the internet connected world. One way you can do that on the Microsoft Windows Phone 8 is with Kid’s Corner. I won’t go into the details of how enable it. You find out how to enable Kid’s Corner anywhere on the web.

But once you enable Kid’s Corner, it is real easy to access. Swipe left from the Lock Screen then swipe up. All you have to do enable the feature, add the apps you want your kids to access, set up a lock screen password and you’re done. You can customize the lock screen with a picture and screen title for some customization. The kids can resize and reposition their tiles in Kid's Corner as well as choose a theme color. They won’t be able to get onto the web, your email, settings, etc - basically any area or app you don't want kids to access.

So whenever your kids want to play with your Windows Phone, swipe left then up and put them in the Kid’s corner. I can’t tell you how much this has made my life easier when the kids ask me for my phone to play games. I have two, the Nokia 925 and the HTC 8x, and both have the Kid’s corner enabled. My wife has the Nokia 1020 with Kid’s Corner enabled. 

You can't set up multiple profiles like you can on the Kindle Fire's Kindle Freetime which I blogged about earlier, but for me that's ok. At least my kids can still use the Windows Phone's in our house without my wife and eye having concern about them getting into or changing things in our corners.

Thanks Microsoft!

Hello there. John Gamboa here starting off my blog posts. For my first blog, I chose to talk about one of my favorite family tech toys. Our Kindle Fire HD which my beautiful wife got me last Christmas 2012. For this blog post though I want to focus on how the Kindle Freetime app, which is free on all Kindle Fires no matter the version, has eased my parenting life and lowered my stress in regards to having my kids use it.

I have five kids. Needless to say (but I’m saying it anyway) they really like playing with the electronic gadgets – laptops, tablets, smartphones. Even my 1 year old finds touchscreen computers and tablets fascinating - always needs to grab and swipe or tap the screen. 

I found that certain tech toys in my house are less worrisome than others to hand over to my kids without worrying about them getting into things they’re not supposed to. At home, on road trips, or wherever, I can hand them out without worry because of nifty features like my Kindle Fire HD’s Kindle Freetime app. I find it extremely comforting that I can hand the Kindle over to one of my younger kids and not worry about them getting into sensitive areas like my work email, the web, or messing around with my settings, or using or buying apps, or other stuff like that. It’s so easy for them to rack up crazy charges if you're not careful especially with 1-click enabled for some things like books. We've heard the stories about parents getting charged hundreds and thousands of dollars in app, music, or other charges.

So....

What is Kindle Freetime?

It’s a cool app that allows you to create a digital play area for each of your kids. In their play areas they only get to use the apps, games, and books that you want them to have. I have 4 kids who use my Kindle Fire HD. Each of them has their own profile which I set up with apps, books, and games that I am ok for them to use. My 11 year old has apps that my 3 year old doesn’t need and my 11 year doesn’t want toddler designed apps in his profile so I don’t add those to his. And all my kids’ profiles don’t have access to my email, books, or apps that they don’t need, use, or want.

Another thing it has which is pretty cool is screen time limits. It allows you to customize how much screen time each child can have on your Kindle Fire device. It goes much deeper with classifications - Video, Games, and Books. Each type can be set individually really making it easy to set it and forget it.

Internet and app purchases are automatically disabled in Kindle Freetime which for me, is important. It really allows me to be able to hand off the Kindle to any of my kids knowing that I’ve set it to parameters I feel are appropriate for the age and situation of each child.

I use the unlimited free version of the app which is really all I need. There are subscriptions you can get per kid or for a family which gives you access to Amazon's content for children. Check it out on Amazon.com.

If you’ve got kids and need to have a kid friendly tablet that can be shared among the kids as well as the adults in the house, then I highly suggest looking at a Kindle Fire and Kindle Freetime.