Amazon Launches New Alexa Experiences For Parents, Kids

Amazon announced Wednesday (April 25) all new Alexa experiences for kids and parents dubbed Amazon FreeTime on Alexa, Amazon FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa, and Echo Dot Kids Edition.

In a press release the Seattle, Amazon said the new offerings bring Alexa-specific features and content to Amazon’s FreeTime and FreeTime Unlimited services. Amazon said that during the last five years over 10 million kids and their parents have used Amazon FreeTime. What’s more, Amazon said Fire Kids Edition tablets are the number one best-selling kids tablet in the US.

“Tens of millions of households already use Alexa, and today we’re excited to introduce an entirely new way for kids to have fun and learn with Alexa,” said Dave Limp, Senior Vice President, Amazon Devices, and Services. “With Echo Dot Kids Edition and FreeTime on Alexa, parents can have peace of mind knowing their kids are getting age-appropriate content, while they listen to music, ask questions, enjoy Audible books, use Alexa skills, and more.”

With Amazon FreeTime on Alexa, parental controls and family-focused features come to Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Plus for free. Users add FreeTime to an existing or new Echo device and can get started. With Amazon FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa, Amazon’s content subscription service for parents and kids, users get a selection of Alexa-specific content such as kid-friendly premium skills and Audible books at no additional cost for existing FreeTime Unlimited members or starting at $2.99 per month for Prime members. Some of the new features include time limits in which parents can set bedtime time limits so kids don’t talk to Alexa all night, parental controls that enable parents to choose which services and skills kids can use and block explicit songs, which enables parents to filter playback of songs that have explicit lyrics. Parents can also review the activity on the devices, enable magic word which offers positive reinforcement when kids use the word please when asking Alexa questions and education Q&A in which Alexa will answer kids questions about science, math, spelling, definitions or any other topic.