I’ve been saying for a while that our kids need tablets. The missus seems to think I meant electronic devices…

I know that Hudl (and Hudl 2) were once the go-to choice. That’s what my mate’s kids have and they seem decent but… Tesco stopped making them in 2015.

So what electronic babysitter do folk deploy these days?

I’m looking for the predictable features such as:

• extensive parental control (obviously).
• enough onboard storage for games and a few movies. (ideally SD card)
• decent enough spec to play games
• robust build!
• headphone socket
• decent battery life

Kids are 3 and 6 if that helps. Both tech-savvy and happy playing on my iPad.

They do a kids version of the Kindl HDX I think. I seem to remember it being pitched at “hard to break” but it comes with a no quibble replacement guarantee. Seems child one will be getting one this Christmas.

Kindle Fire £50 job. Very good parent/kid ecosystem, and the Fire unlimited for kids is good. We have two linked to the same account so it’s still £2/mo

No contest, for kid stuff and at that price too. Kids don’t need HD video.

Didn’t go for the big rubbery kid specific version, just a normal one – they are plenty tough and our kids are well trained *touch wood*

What’s the monthly cost get you mol? Is it a subscription only thing?

I think it’s for prime subscribers.

You get all you can books, apps and videos from the list. To be fair many of the books seem to be self-published tosh (but many aren’t) but there are loads of decent apps. Your kids can just click and play, until they fill up your memory card. Which if your kids are like mine won’t actually take that long when you can click on every game that you fancy.

The apps are far better quality than the cheap trap you into in-game purchases free ones in the play store. Loads of Toca Boca ones that are paid in the play store AFAIK.

Good at locking down for kids, not so good because it’s too locked down and you can’t get around that even if you want to. Still by far the best value, especially if you can get them when they’re on sale – £35 each for ours. Ours are in normal basic cases and that seems sufficient to protect them even when my kids aren’t so well trained!

No Amazon Prime here, so the Kids Unlimited is a bit more expensive than that and I’m too cheap. Lots of full games for free in the normal Amazon store though – games which you need to pay to unlock stuff if you get them on Play Store.

With Kids Unlimited can the kids install apps themselves then? As standard I have to install them from the adult account and enable them for the kids which is one of the things which is a bit of a pain. Also some things which aren’t available on Amazon store – for example they wanted Clash of Clans and the only way to get that was to sideload it.

not so good because it’s too locked down and you can’t get around that even if you want to

But as you say doesn’t matter for kids use, at least not little kids. And there seems to be loads of stuff on the Amazon store – the main stuff is there – iPlayer for example and Minecraft was on their for the normal price.

With Kids Unlimited can the kids install apps themselves then?

Yes, they just tap them and they get installed.

You don’t seem to be able to enable videos downloaded via amazon prime for the kids – only bought videos, which is a bit of a pain.

Can’t put library books on the kids accounts (like I do on my own Kindle, and is possible on the adult accounts on theirs) either. At least I haven’t managed it yet – having done some sideloading since I last tried I’ll have another go at hacking it, but that shouldn’t be necessary, on a normal Kindle I simply email them. Also some irritating restriction on the browser which you can’t remove and some other things, but I can’t remember what exactly now.

Probably works fine if you’re happy sticking with the Amazon infrastructure – I have seen it described as a sales device, and I suspect at £35 they haven’t made any money out of me – the only thing I’ve bought on there is Minecraft (which we’ve now paid for 3 times, also on iOS and Xbox!) I suppose one of the irritating things is that having sideloaded Play Store on the adult account, the apps I install from that I can’t enable for the child account, but then I guess that’s not something Amazon is really interested in enabling (to get CoC on for example you have to sideload it when you’re in the child account).

I think it’s probably now 6 months since I last had another adult account on, so I’ll put one on for them and lock that down as much as possible to get round some of these issues. The restrictions on adding adult accounts is also a complete PITA.

What restrictions?

We’re both on there no trouble.

You can’t add more than 2 adult accounts – which also applies for 6 months even if you remove one of them, and also applies even if the account you want to add is one which was previously on there. Maybe not a problem for most people, but if you have 2 of them, you create specific adult accounts for use with each of them as I did (so it wasn’t possible to spend real money even on the adult account) and then later want to buy something for use on both so add your normal Amazon account it gets all awkward. When I last tried I still couldn’t add a second adult account because of the 6 month window.

So get a Kindl but don’t get the kids version as its too restrictive?

There’s no ‘kid’s version’ really. The one they sell as kids just has a protective rubber bumper on the outside and free subscription to Fire for Kids Unlimited. But you can get that anyway.

@aracer well I guess we were just lucky – me and the Mrs both have accounts on the tablets but rarely if ever use them. They were purchased purely to allow us to do a big American road trip this summer without the kids going mental crossing the boring bits and allowing us to get where we wanted to be and still have time left to do stuff. They also get used when they have to hang around the shop where my wife works after school. For that price and that use, I still think they are spot on – and much better than the Hudl we had previously (and still have).

I have normal ones – as molgrips said they’re effectively the same and the kids account thing is available on both. I’d suggest that if you want your kids to have stuff outside the Amazon infrastructure then give them an adult account, not a kids account. It is nice to have everything locked down (and you can limit time and stuff like that), but an adult account just means you need to supervise them a little more if you’re worried about that. Which is where we come to the problem of adding more than 2 adult accounts, as I can’t give them separate adult accounts and still have my account on there (which needs to be on there if they want to have Minecraft!)

For those of us who don’t do Amazon, are there any alternative recommendations? My kids are 5 & 3.

Nvidia Shield K1 (is what I’m getting at Christmas).

^ thanks.

ransos: is your objection to Amazon about the content for kids, or more about the company behaviour, tax etc?

(Not judging either way but if it’s the former it may impact my decision)

Kindle Fire’s are £30 at the mo..

I’ve just ordered a kindle fire (£39, slightly larger app storage).
However, I may send it back..

I’ve a hudl2 just sat on teh side not doing much – if you wanted it, I could wipe it and you could have it for postage and a couple of pints? I thought the battery on the hudle was terrible TBH.

The kids keep going back to our ipads – even with a cracked screen and slow processing, the ipad is just ‘too good’…

I’ll see what the fire 7 feels like..hmm..

DrP

http://www.tesco.com/direct/hudl2-8-wi-fi-tablet/454-7907.prd?skuId=628-6020&pageLevel=sku&icid=spiffy_hudl2_628-6020_hudl2

DrP, I’d be interested in that Hudl2. I think you can get Marshmallow on it…? Or Lollipop – I think I can use either for work.

Just picked up this Kurio tablet for the 6.5yr old lad for Christmas.
Spent last night setting it up and so far I’m fairly impressed.
It’s a kids skinned software but you can log in as an adult to a normal Android tablet behind it to manage all the apps and access etc..
They can get anything of normal Play store (with adult approval) and their own kids approved store.
Also, the blue bumper comes off it so when they’re a bit older it looks and acts like a normal tablet.
The only weakness so far seems that the screen isn’t brilliant and the camera was poo in low light, but both things a 6yo won’t be bothered by.

update

We decided that the ongoing costs for the Amazon Kids Unlimited package made it too pricey (£8 a month for two kids!). Plus it just didn’t seem as good as a hudl (crapper camera, crapper screen, limits on apps)

So we ended up buying two hudl 2 off eBay for about £80 each.

So… anyone got any advice about setting up hudl’s for kids?

Obviously latest firmware update then Child Safety accounts set up.

Main account in my name, tied to my Google account, but all payment options password protected!

Anything else? Recommended apps?