The Echo Dot Kids Edition: Meet Alexa Junior

Amazon Introduces an Echo Dot Designed Specifically for Youngsters;
Meet Alexa Junior, the Kid-Friendly Echo Device

Includes Kid-Friendly Skills, Curated Entertainment,  and Parental Controls

Little kids seem to love Alexa and her family of voice controlled devices.  Parents and grandparents often use Alexa to help keep children entertained.  But as Alexa was initially designed for adults, she is not always child-friendly, right out of the box.  Often, users have enabled adult-oriented skills that they do not necessarily want tots to access.

I know a woman who is both a metalhead and a Grandma.  Her Amazon music library is full of songs with explicit lyrics she'd never intentionally play around young, developing ears.  Once, she was in the kitchen fixing a snack for the children, when she was interrupted by the sounds of Staind emanating from Alexa.  She ran out of the kitchen and yanked out the plug. Something her grandkids had said prompted Alexa to start playing the song "Please," which is riddled with the F Word.  

My friend loves her Echo, and so do her grandkids. But the "Staind Incident" has prompted her to put her Echos away when the grandchildren visit, so they are not inadvertently exposed to adult lyrics or adult jokes.  The Echo Dot Kids Edition is here to address issues like hers.  

What is the Echo Dot, Kids Edition?

The Echo Dot, Kids Edition, is a Standard Echo Dot, put into a brightly colored, kid-friendly case, with parental controls and curated content geared toward young children.  The case is made of rubber, making it more resistant to spills and drops.  It comes in bright primary colors: red, blue, or green.  It also comes with a curated selection of games, apps, and music, again geared towards the younger crowd.  This curated content screens out anything explicit or adult oriented.

Additionally, Alexa Junior, as I like to call it, eliminates access to many services parents don't want kids to access. It blocks voice shopping, as well as anything that requires third-party app integration. (This includes third-party music services, such as Pandora and Spotify, as well as Uber, Dominos, etc.)

The Echo Dot, Kids Edition comes with a "2-year worry-free guarantee," vs. the 90-day warranty for a standard Dot.  According to Amazon: "if they break it, return it and we’ll replace it for free."

Specifically, the Echo Dot Kids Edition includes:

•  Ad-free radio stations and playlists for kids from Radio Disney, Nick Radio, and more 
•  Premium kids skills from Disney, Nickelodeon, and others 
•  Special alarms featuring characters kids love 
•  Kid-friendly protective case 
• FreeTime parental controls
• Automatically filter explicit songs with Amazon Music 
• Voice shopping turned off
•  1 year of FreeTime Unlimited 

The Echo Dot Kids Edition costs $79.99, or about $30 more than a standard Dot.  For the extra $30, you get an extended product replacement warranty, a colorful case to help protect the Dot, and a year of Free Time Unlimited, which costs more than the Dot if purchased on its own.

What is Free Time Unlimited?

Free Time Unlimited is what drives the Echo Dot Kids Edition.  Basically, Free Time Unlimited is an add-on service that includes thousands of kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games, as well as ad-free radio stations full of children's music and curated playlists. Free Time Unlimited also offers  Audible books for kids and a growing list of premium kid’s skills. This content comes from trusted sources like PBS, Disney, Sesame Street, and Nickelodeon. Furthermore, there is specialized content for each of three age ranges: three to five, six to eight, and nine to twelve.

Free Time Unlimited blocks a lot of things you don't want kids to see. This includes things like ads, options for in-app purchases, links to websites, and links to social media.

The heart of this service is the Parent Dashboard. The Parent Dashboard contains all the parental controls needed to limit how and when a child uses Alexa Junior.  Parents can customize time limits, set bedtimes, monitor activity, and more.   They can view reports related to what their kids have been doing with Alexa, as well as set limits around what can or cannot be done, and when it can be done.

The Parent Dashboard includes activity reports and offers insight into how their child has been using their device.  It includes data on what books are read, what videos are watched, what apps and games have been used, and what websites have been visited, as well as the time spent doing each.  Parents can customize screen time limits, set educational goals, filter age-appropriate content, and manage web browsing and content.   They can control what apps are installed and uninstalled, as well as what features are enabled or disabled. This dashboard is available at https://parents.amazon.com/. 

Free Time Unlimited is not exclusive to the Echo Dot Kids Edition.  Prime Members can purchase it as an add-on for $2.99 per child per month or $83 annually, for up to 4 children. Non-Prime Members can purchase it for $119 per year.   Again, ONE YEAR of Free Time Unlimited comes with the Echo Dot Kids Edition.   For a Prime Member, a year of Free Time Unlimited and an Echo Dot Kids Edition cost about the same. If you were thinking of trying the service, you're basically getting a free Dot thrown in for prepaying the year.

What Happens After the Free Year Ends?

When the free year of Free Time Unlimited is up, a user can pay to continue their subscription, or convert to the Free Plan. (NOTE: You must "downgrade" your plan through the Parent Dashboard, or you will be billed monthly for Free Time Unlimited.)   The Free Plan basically includes Parental Controls and the Parent Dashboard, but eliminates the curated content.  If you eliminate the Premium Plan, you lose access to the kid-friendly radio stations, the character-based kids alarms, audio books, and curated skills. You maintain access to Parental Controls and the Parent Dashboard, kid-specific questions and answers, explicit lyrics filters, and time-limit settings.

The Free Time Unlimited Plan can be used across compatible devices,  meaning it is not limited to the Dot. If your child has a tablet, a smartphone, or a Fire TV, they can use the subscription on those devices as well.  After a year, you will probably have a feel for whether this subscription is a good value for your child.  Or, you may be able to pick up a refurbished Echo Dot Kids Edition for less than the cost of the Free Time Unlimited Subscription, and you may find just picking up an additional Dot is a better value.  Just keep in mind all of the "add-ons" will cost money after the first year.  But the monthly cost is about equivalent to renting a movie, so you may find it well worth the monthly (or annual) fee.

What Other Kid Friendly Features Does Alexa Junior Have, versus a Standard Echo Dot?

Amazon optimized the Dot to be more kid-friendly in a few ways. First, it tweaked the voice recognition algorithm to better recognize the idiosyncrasies of kid's voices. Kids often speak in higher pitches and with less clear enunciation.  The Echo Dot for Kids is trained to recognize mispronunciations such as "Awexa" right out of the box.

Alexa Junior is often more verbose when she answers.  She might provide additional context when she answers a question. She may also throw in a little silliness. For example, if you ask Alexa how far away the moon is, she'll answer with the number of miles.  If you ask Alexa Junior, she'll answer in miles and kilometers AND add a quip about how far that cow had to jump.    If I ask Alexa if I look fat, she'll say she's not sure how to respond. But if you ask Alexa Junior the same question, she'll respond with how everyone's body is different, and that's okay.  Amazon claims to have programmed an entire set of specific answers for the more "difficult" questions children may ask, many of which will urge the asker to speak to a parent or trusted adult about the issue.

The Echo Dot for Kids scraps most of Alexa's calling features but maintains intercom capabilities. That means the child can still use the Dot for Echo to Echo communications, but NOT for outside calling.  So a child can still call Mom on the kitchen Echo to ask when dinner will be ready, but s/he cannot call Johnny who lives down the street on his Dot for Kids.  

Alexa Junior also offers a "Magic Word" feature, which reinforces kids for using good manners.  Basically, if a child uses "please" or "thank you" in conjunction with an Alexa request, she will append  “By the way, thanks for asking so nicely” to her response.

And of course, the Echo Dot Kids Subscription includes Free Time Unlimited, curated content for kids in a variety of genres and categories.  Again, this includes audiobooks, music, jokes, kid-friendly skills, questions and answers, educational resources, and more.

I Already Own an Echo; Can I Just Make it Kid-Friendly?

The heart of the Echo Dot Kids Edition lies in its Free Time software and its curated content.  You can purchase Free Time Unlimited on its own, then activate it on an existing Echo Device.  But from a cost standpoint, this really doesn't make any sense unless you are a part-time parent (or grandparent.)    If all you want to do is block your grandchild from accessing your Motley Crue library when he visits, you probably can get by with a free Free Time plan.  If your grandchild is coming to stay for a week or two, you can purchase a monthly plan for the duration of the visit, and de-activate all Parental Controls once the tot departs.  

If you are a part-time parent, you may especially appreciate the curated content.  You will not need to worry about having story books, child-friendly music, or other entertainment you normally do not require.  If your child lives with you or visits frequently, again the price of the Echo Dot Kids Edition is less than the cost of purchasing a Free Time Unlimited subscription on its own, and it gives you an additional Echo Device for your household.  Buying Alexa Junior is a great way to give your children a wealth of educational and informational resources, as well as a way to access them, all for a very reasonable cost.  If you have a child who will benefit from the curated content, buying it for less bundled with a durable Dot is really a no-brainer.  

So yes, you can add everything on to an existing Echo Device to make it just as friendly as the Dot Kids Edition, but it's cheaper and easier to just buy the bundle.

How Much Can a Parent Really Control Alexa Junior?

Your child may be driving the train, but the parent lies the track that dictates where that train can go.  Free Time and Free Time Unlimited allow the parent to basically control everything the Dot can do. You can limit the hours in which Alexa can accept commands, as well as the duration she is available to do so.  You can add and remove content, while preventing your child from being able to do so. With Free Time Unlimited, you can control the scope of what your child can access, or you can block or allow access to specific items.  You can allow Alexa a little flexibility, or you can choose to rigidly lock down what she can and cannot access.  You can even create goals with rewards, like having your child listen to an audiobook for 39 minutes before s/he is allowed to play a game.  

How Can I Buy an Echo Dot Kids Edition?

Amazon is currently taking pre-orders for the Echo Dot Kids Edition.  It will be released on May 9th.  Once it is released, the usual third-party retailers (Best Buy, Target, etc.) will most likely start carrying Alexa Junior.  The advantage to buying direct from Amazon is that the device will come pre-registered to your account (unless you specify it is a "gift order.")  It will be easy to add your child to an existing Amazon Account, especially if you have already set up an Amazon Household.  If you have existing Echo Devices, having it come pre-registered makes it A LOT easier to add the Dot Kids Edition to your Alexa app, and to set up controls through it.  Having it come pre-registered also eases things should you need to access that two-year replacement guarantee. (And if you click through one of the links in this article, Techlaurels will receive a few pennies from the sale, which we greatly appreciate.)

Summary

Today, we reviewed the Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition, or what I affectionately like to refer to as "Alexa Junior."   The Echo Dot Kids Edition is a standard Echo Dot, wrapped with a kid-resistant case to better protect it, as well as specialized software to make it more kid-friendly and kid-responsive. At the heart of Alexa Junior is the Free Time Unlimited Service, which provides a child with curated, age-appropriate content in a variety of areas, and includes Parental Controls so the parent dictates where, when, and how Alexa Junior may be used.  The Echo Dot Kids Edition comes in a choice of primary colors: red, blue, or green.

What really makes Alexa Junior special is her kid-friendly, specialized software. Amazon has engineered the Echo Dot Kids Edition to be more responsive to the quirks associated with the way children speak.  They have engineered the software and the curated content to grow along with the child, so it is age-appropriate and friendly from tot to teen.  Access to third-party paid services, like Uber or Dominos, is blocked, as is voice shopping. Alexa Junior is a great way to give kids all the pluses of a voice assistant without worrying about what types of adult content they can potentially access.  

Grandparents or folks who only have children around sporadically can purchase the software that makes an Echo kid-friendly on a month-to-month basis. However, it costs more to buy a year of this service on its own than it does to buy the Alexa Junior, so it makes sense to just go ahead and buy the Echo Dot Kids Edition if you have children living with you.  

Will you buy this device? Do you think the Echo Dot Kids Edition is a good thing, or just another case of unnecessary specialization? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the Comment Section. And as always, thanks for reading!