If you have kids and they love to read, Amazon Kids+ makes economic sense. It offers access to a dizzying array of books, as well as movies, apps, music, games, and more, all for a relatively low monthly price. If you try to buy the same number of books without Amazon Kids+, you’re going to go broke.
But Amazon’s definition of what’s age appropriate may not agree with yours. In any case, every child is different, and that is a decision only you as a parent can make. But even the most relaxed parent might want to have some control over what their child sees on their Amazon device.
That means you need to be an active part of your child’s Amazon Kids+ experience. To help you, we explain here how to filter content and track what your kids are doing on the platform. And be sure to check out our other guides for parents, including Best Kids’ Podcasts, Best Subscription Boxes for Kids, and Best STEM Toys for Kids.
Updated May 2023: We’ve rewritten some instructions to reflect changes to the Amazon Parental Dashboard, added instructions for controlling voice and video calling, and a new section on How to transfer content purchases outside of Kids+ to your child’s device.
Create a Profile
To get started, you need to create a child profile.
- Open the Amazon Kids+ App.
- If this is your first time using it, the Add Child Profile screen will pop up. If not, choose Add a Child on the homepage to add another profile.
- Enter your child’s name and date of birth. Amazon uses the date of birth to control what content your child can see. You don’t have to use your child’s actual birthday; just choose something close, so that the first content is what Amazon considers appropriate for that age.
Here you will also enter a PIN number that you will need to remember. This PIN is required to sign out of Amazon Kids+ on the device. If you don’t want your child to log out of Kids+ alone, keep the PIN secret.
Once you’ve created a child profile, it can be used to sign in on any Amazon device. Your kids can read their Kindle books or use the Kindle app on other devices, as well as watch movies, play games, and access the web on other devices, like a Fire tablet or Kids Echo Dot.
Content Management
Once your child’s profile is set up, go to Parent Dashboard to control the content your child can see. Most of the controls can be accessed through the app, but it’s easier to set up and control Amazon Kids+ through the web interface.
The bad news is that your controls are limited. In Amazon’s words, there are “thousands of age-appropriate books, movies, and TV shows for kids ages 3 to 12.” That’s a lot of content, and there’s no way anyone is going through all of it. Amazon assured WIRED that all content is created by hand. While algorithms may recommend relevant content, the pool is all reviewed by humans.
