Amazon launches new subscription service for children

PanARMENIAN.Net - Amazon's launched a new subscription service for children, offering an all-you-can-eat menu of books, games, apps, movies and TV programming, TG Daily reports.

FreeTime Unlimited costs $2.99 a month, or $6.99 per family, for Prime members; $4.99 per child or $9.99 per family for those that aren't.

It's aimed at children between three and eight years old, and will be available on the Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9" as part of a free, over-the-air software update that will be pushed out automatically over the next few weeks.

"FreeTime Unlimited gives kids the freedom to explore age-appropriate content on their own and pick for themselves what they want to watch, play or read next," says Amazon vice president Peter Larsen.

"For as little as $2.99 a month, your child will have unlimited access to thousands of popular books, games, educational apps, movies and TV shows from Disney, Nickelodeon, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, PBS, Sesame Workshop and more."

The service has one big advantage for parents, in that all in-app payments, advertisements and social media are removed, and content is unlimited, meaning no squabbles about bills. The content is all screened for age-appropriateness, says Amazon.

"As a parent it’s hard to predict what my daughter is going to enjoy, or which movie she’s going to watch 50 times in a row — so I buy a range of content and hope for the best — but I get it wrong frequently," says Larsen.

"FreeTime Unlimited gives kids the freedom to explore age-appropriate content on their own and pick for themselves what they want to watch, play or read next."