MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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As title if we get a tablet for the house to use and want to be able to leave it in the hands of the kids without too much risk of them downloading malicious content AND for us to be blocking certain types of web site how do we do it?
With Microsoft / Windows I know you can use their child account / admin options to drive controls on the device but I have no idea if the same level of control is possible with Android.
I get that we can control app download from Play store through passwords etc., it's the other content control I'm clueless on with Android.
Is this a case of having one device for them that's locked down tighter than a duck's backside (if so how) and us having to have a grown ups' one separately with looser controls or can we do this all on one?
You can set up another user profile and you can control what apps are available on it. My old android tab has my account (control), one for my wife which has access to everything and another for my 7 yr old that basically has a bunch of games and nowt else. You just choose which user you want to sign in as form the standby lock screen.
I've heard the Amazon Fire tablets are very good for this too but never used one,
Same here as ^^. We have a Sony Xperia tablet running Android, My wife is the primary account holder, I have a second account which has essentially the same access rights, both require a keypad pattern from the lock screen (other security methods are available).
There's a third account for our son which has access to games only. From the main account it's simply a matter of going down the list of apps and tapping a little on/off slider switch next to each to say whether it's accessible from the child account. He doesn't have the permissions necessary to purchase anything, for those games where there are in-app purchase.
About the only thing we don't have control over is the ad content in some of the games, but I've never seen anything inappropriate (so far) and if I do there's a button you can select to say 'stop showing this ad' and select a reason e.g. inappropriate etc.
One of the reasons we went for hudl 2s (apart from the great spec) is that they have parental control stuff built-in. I have an account for me and an account for the child.
Only I have permission to download new apps or in-app purchases. Any new app has to be approved by me before it even appears on the child's home screen. Also there are controls to set hours of use and maximum screen time, as well as basic internet filtering/blocking.
That said, I have heard good things about http://ourpact.com/ which works on Android and iOS.
I just bought a couple of Amazon Fire's when they were £30/£35 in the sale. Replaced the Fire OS with stock Android and as above, created seperate profiles for the kids with hours use set. Only installed YouTube for Kids and some apps for them (oh and TubeMate to locally store cartoons etc for travel/holidays when there's no wifi connections).
I've got an Amazon/Kindle Fire that I picked up for £35 and although battery life isn't great (I think that games and Flash plugins hit it hard) its good enough for my son. As mentioned above the child controls are great, my logon is pin protected so he can't get into any settings and I have complete control over what apps are available. I've not given him internet yet so I don't know what the web-based parental controls but other controls include the ability to:
[list][*]only function during certain hours to avoid midnight gaming sessions[/*]
[*]set a limit of xx hours a day (then it shuts off and can only be restarted by an adult)[/*]
[*]Require xx mins of reading from a specified app/book prior to games and other content being available.[/*][/list]
Thanks all.