Friday, April 26, 2013

Kindle Shopping and Kids

Kindles are funny things to me.  When you go shopping for a regular, basic Kindle, there are two options.  The first option is $69 which supposedly includes special coupons and deals.  The second option is $89 without these "special" deals.  At first, I thought, why pay the extra $20?

Well, now I know why.  Our kids have started using our Kindle to read a lot of classic books that you can purchase for free on Amazon like The Treasure Seekers and The Wouldbegoods by Edith Nesbit.  The discounted Kindle's screen saver is always an advertisement for a different book.  These books are adult, not kid reading.  They have often have covers that I don't want my kids to see or to be staring at.  My children are easily scared and quite impressionable.  I know they see all sorts of magazine coverss at the grocery store each time we go (which I've talked about this with them).  But, we don't watch cable tv with them, adult themed television shows, or adult themed movies.  I pretty floored recently to see how many un"commercials" PBS even runs between shows now when we were in a car dealership waiting room.  My biggest concern, honestly, is realizing that I don't have control over what's going to come up on our Kindle's screensaver.  It's interesting that there are Parental Controls that will restrict a child's access to the Kindle Store--but nowhere is it mentioned about the non-kid oriented screensavers.  

So, we decided to purchase another Kindle--one without the "special deals" and pay a little more.  My husband and I really think it's worth it.  I'm glad we have a basic Kindle.  I like it, but I'm also looking forward to having ad-free one that I'm comfortable with my kids using!

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