The speaker itself is physically the same as the Echo Dot 4, with a 1.6in front-firing driver, but has child-friendly animal print designs on the fabric. There are hardware safety features such as a hard-wired mute button, which along with the main light shows red when the microphone is off.
Kids on Alexa is available at no extra cost, bringing things like the ‘Magic word’ which will reward kids who say ‘please’ when talking to Alexa. That’s just the start, with age-appropriate content at the ready, lyric blocking for anything explicit, controls such as time limits, and a dashboard with settings for things like available skills.
Parents can also review activity and manage voice recordings in the Alexa app. Kids+ on Alexa – starting at £1.99pm for Prime members – adds content like over 170 audiobooks, 10 ad-free radio stations from Fun Kids and Premium Alexa Kid Skills from brands like Harry Potter and Disney.
Kids and Kids+ on Alexa will be available on Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus devices. That means, for now, the Echo Show smart displays are not included.
Tech Advisor’s Reviews Editor, Chris has been reviewing all kinds of tech for over 10 years and specialises in audio. He also covers a range of topics including home entertainment, phones, laptops, tablets and more.
