Amaze Kids

What is Amaze Kids app?

Kids want the freedom to choose which videos to watch. Parents want to make sure that kids only see child-friendly content. Kids want to watch videos for hours at a time. Parents want kids to spend their time in a more varied way. Amaze Kids is an app envisaged by a parent who saw these competing desires and wanted to make sure that parents remained in control.

As you'll see in this Amaze Kids app review, it succeeds in its aims.

What we love about Amaze Kids.

It is great to see that Amaze Kids solves the two key problems it identifies through simple-to-use tools that are not difficult for parents to set up or adjust. It does not complicate this simplicity by adding more functions than are necessary.

Amaze Kids' sizable selection of pre-approved videos is a really useful resource for teachers in school and parents who are homeschooling. Those using this app don't have to spend their time searching for relevant, safe, and good quality videos - Amaze Kids' curators have done that for them. Not only will there be no quality issues or unpleasant content surprises, but less time needs to be spent on lesson preparation.

When children want to go off and follow their interests, Amaze Kids gives reassurance to parents and teachers that kids will only see child-friendly resources. The app's extra controls also help to keep kids' screen time within reasonable limits too.

What skills does it improve?

Amaze Kids covers a broad range of video genres from mini-documentaries to cartoons, from book-based stories to sing-along music videos. Children will enjoy learning and being entertained in the curated content of Amaze Kids.

What age is it appropriate for?

When parents create a profile for children, they can set its age range to one of three groups: 2 to 5, 5 to 8, and 8 to 11 years old. Each of these will change the content that is presented to the child using it under that profile.

Is Amaze Kids easy to use?

Amaze Kid's interface is bold and clear. Options are chosen by tapping large buttons that have a relevant picture as well as the text-based description of what they lead to.  If parents or teachers identify a topic that they would like Amaze Kids to cover or extend, they are invited to contact the app's developers with their request.

How will students benefit?

Amaze Kids isn't just designed to keep young children safe from unsuitable online content but it makes it easier for them to browse for videos that interest them. Children can easily find videos to suit their mood such as music, stories, learning content and more.

It is very straightforward for children to mark their favourite videos so that they can easily return to them to watch them again and again.  

How will teachers benefit?

Class devices with this app can be used by children without close supervision and still be able to access videos. Whether they are fun rewards for work well done or relevant to a current lesson, the videos available won't worry the teacher.

Teachers who want to incorporate some of the educational content in the videos will find it very easy to set up a playlist of videos for their class to watch.

How will parents benefit?

Parents can rest easy knowing that if their children are using this app, they will only find content suitable for their age. This doesn't just mean avoiding content made for adults but also avoiding content that is aimed at children but for manipulative purposes like marketing.  There are no unboxing videos curated in Amaze Kids, for example.

Parents also know that by activating the app's timer, they can make sure that children do not spend hours watching videos. Profiles can be set for more than one user so each child in the household can have a personal profile set to their age.

One additional benefit for parents is that they will not have to sort out problems with settings. Sometimes, young children using general-audience apps tap the wrong settings and then have to rely on parents to put it right. The simplified controls of this app help make this much less of a problem.

How much does Amaze Kids cost?

The full version of Amaze Kids is available for free. There are no in-app purchases, subscriptions or ads. What you download for free is the full version with all features unlocked.

Is Amaze Kids safe to use?

There are two parts to the safety considerations for this app. 

The app

Amaze Kids curates YouTube content. The Amaze Kids app itself is free of advertisements, provides PIN-based protection for parental settings, and only allows videos that have been selected by the app's makers. The curated content is entirely appropriate for and relevant to children.

The videos

As the Amaze Kids developers say, they have no control over the YouTube ads that appear in the curated videos. However, as the Amaze Kids app is aimed at young children, it will be registered with YouTube as such and YouTube will ensure that advertisements are child friendly and do not use personal data to target advertisements at individual children.

What Amaze Kids can improve on?

Amaze Kids fulfils its purpose very well. Too many new features would add to its complexity and that would be a pity.

A little more information from the app in a user-help section, with tips about general device set up to keep children safe, would be helpful - after all having this app alongside an unrestricted, installed-by-default YouTube app would weaken its safeguarding role.  

More details on how the ads shown by YouTube comply with legislation designed to keep children safe might make parents feel more at ease with them. In addition, providing some research-based advice on recommended screen time would give parents some guidance on what is best for the timer.

Overall rating of the app

If an app that provides curated videos suitable for children and limits the time that can be spent watching those videos sounds like something you'd like, then Amaze Kids is the app for you. It is free and does exactly what it sets out to do. That makes Amaze Kids well worth the 5 stars it has been awarded in this review.

You can download Amaze Kids on your iOS or Android devices from the app stores. Download the Amaze Kids app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.