North East Connected

Introducing Echo Dot Kids — An All-New Alexa Experience Purposefully Built for UK Kids

Dave Stopher

LUXEMBOURG—June 30, 2021— Amazon today announced an all-new Alexa experience for families. Parents can choose any combination of the following options for their kids:

These new offerings bring Alexa-specific features and content to Amazon’s popular Amazon Kids and Amazon Kids+ all-in-one subscription service. Over the last three years, more than 20 million kids and their parents globally have enjoyed access to thousands of kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, Audible books, and games on Amazon’s award-winning Amazon Kids and Amazon Kids+ subscription across Fire TV, Fire tablets, Kindle, iOS, Chromebook, Android devices and now Alexa.

“We’re excited to bring Echo Dot Kids to the UK for kids to have fun and learn with Alexa,” said Eric Saarnio, Vice President, Amazon Devices EU. “More than 20 million kids and parents around the world already enjoy Amazon Kids.  With Echo Dot Kids, Amazon Kids and Amazon Kids+ on Alexa, parents can have peace of mind knowing their children are getting family-focused age-appropriate content such as listening to Audible books, asking questions, using premium Alexa skills, enjoying the Magic Word feature, and more — all in a child-safe and secure environment.”

Amazon Kids on Alexa—Parental Controls and Family-Focused Features –  At no additional cost
Designed just for parents and kids, Amazon Kids on Alexa brings all-new Alexa features and parental controls to Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Plus, including:

Amazon Kids+ on Alexa
Amazon Kids+ on Alexa takes the best of Amazon’s existing all-in-one Amazon Kids+ subscription and adds Alexa-specific content such as Audible books, kid-friendly premium Alexa skills such as Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place Kids, Bing Time, Gruffalo Move, and more. With Amazon Kids+ on Alexa, parents get all of the parental controls and features mentioned above, plus unlimited access to kid-friendly content including:

Customers who already subscribe to Amazon Kids+ on their Fire Kids Tablets, Fire Kids Pro, Fire TV and iOS and Android devices, can now get the subscription content, features, and parental controls on Alexa at no additional cost. Those who are new to Amazon Kids+ can sign up for as low as £1.99 per month for Prime members, and £3.99 per month for customers who are not yet Prime members. Learn more here.

Echo Dot Kids—Combines All of Amazon’s Best Kids Experiences—Just £59.99
Echo Dot Kids is the simplest way to get started with the Alexa Kids experience. It comes with all the kid specific content from Numberblocks, Alphablocks, Disney, Harry Potter and more, parental controls, one year family-plan subscription to Amazon Kids+, a kid-friendly Panda or Tiger design, and a 2-year worry-free guarantee, if anything happens, return it and we’ll replace it for free, no questions asked.

Amazon has a longstanding commitment to preserve and build trust with customers and their families. As with all Amazon Alexa-enabled devices, Echo Dot Kids is designed with privacy and security in mind. Strict measures are in place for Echo Dot Kids and Amazon Kids+ that protect children and provide parents with transparency and control over the experience. This includes the Amazon Parent Dashboard where parents can choose which services and skills kids can use, review activity and more. Voice purchasing is also disabled, as standard. Parents can also turn the Echo Dot Kids’ microphone off on the device with one press of a button, and will always know when Alexa is sending a request to Amazon’s secure cloud because a blue light indicator will appear on the device.

Echo Dot Kids has the Climate Pledge Friendly badge and is built with 100% post-consumer recycled fabric, 100% recycled die-cast aluminium, and post-consumer recycled plastic. Plus, all wood fibre-based materials used in Echo Dot Kids device packaging is made entirely from responsibly managed forests or recycled sources. In addition to using sustainable materials, Echo Dot Kids also has a Low Power Mode* to intelligently conserve energy during periods of inactivity and deliver energy savings over the lifetime of the device.

Availability

Amazon Kids and Amazon Kids+ on Alexa will be available to enable via the Alexa app, to new and existing Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Plus devices, through an over-the-air software update from July 21st.  Learn more about Amazon Kids and Amazon Kids+ here.

Echo Dot Kids is priced at £59.99 and begins shipping on July 21st. Pre-order Echo Dot Kids starting today at www.amazon.co.uk/echo-dot-kids. Echo Dot Kids will also be available online from Currys PC World, John Lewis and Very.co.uk.

Here’s what partners and industry experts are saying:

“As the global publisher of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts stories in digital formats, Pottermore Publishing’s audio team works with some of the best narrators in the world, including Stephen Fry, Noma Dumezweni and Jude Law alongside many others.” says Jennie McCann, Publishing Director. “Voice isn’t just a strategic initiative for us, it’s part of the fabric of what we do and how we think, which makes Alexa a natural fit for our content. We’re seeing the adoption of voice technology change the way children and families access and engage with audio content like ours and it’s hugely exciting to work with Amazon Kids+ to engage with our audiences in ways they love.”

“I’m delighted to be able to bring Happy Place Kids to children on Amazon Kids+ and Echo Dot Kids, which can help children relax and unwind at any time of the day”, said Happy Place creator Fearne Cotton.

Claire Brossard, Director of Digital Product said: “We are excited to launch our brand new Alexa skill – Bing Time – as an exclusive preview on Amazon’s Kids+. Voice apps are quickly becoming a key part of families’ daily routine and “Bing Time” has been carefully crafted to enable our young audience to engage with Bing through songs, audio-stories and games. It is a wonderful example of our commitment to world-class, audience-centred digital content.”

“Fun Kids is the biggest provider of kids audio in the UK with our national radio station” says Matt Deegan, Station Manager of Fun Kids. “We’re over the moon to have created ten brand new, ad-free, radio stations perfectly suited for little ears, now available on the new Echo Dot Kids.”

Paul Hutson, primary school teacher and the educational director at interactive lesson tool Night Zookeeper, said: “As a teacher, I’ve seen first-hand the benefits of voice experiences on children’s literacy skills and how they can foster positive attitudes towards learning and provide an entertaining, educative experience. I’m excited Night Zookeeper Write & Draw will now be available on Amazon Kids+ and Echo Dot Kids.”

Joshua Davidson, children’s author and managing director of Night Zookeeper added, “The Night Zookeeper Skill really encourages children to use their imagination. The personalised experience encourages them to draw and write about magical animals that have never been seen before. I know that children who already use Night Zookeeper at home or in school will be inspired by it and hopefully it will introduce many new children to the fun of being a Night Zookeeper!”

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalised recommendations, Prime, Fulfilment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.co.uk/about and follow @AmazonNewsUK.

*Low Power Mode depends on user configurations

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