Real-Life Road-Test: Foxtel Kids App

Monday, February 6, 2017 - 05:18

The new Foxtel Kids app, has been designed just for kids, so, who better to help me to review it than my 5 year old son? The conversation to convince him to help out went something like this…

“Do you want to help mama with her work today?”

“No”

“You get to watch Paw Patrol”

“Yes, yes, yes yes!!!”

Ahh, child-labour, how sweet it is!

Mr 5 and I took the new Foxtel Kids app for a real-life road-test and this is what we thought.

What’s it about? The new Foxtel Kids App has been designed especially for kids. It contains content from Nick Jr, Nickelodeon, CBeebies, Discovery Kids, Disney (plus XD and Junior), Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

It’s available to watch both online and offline – the offline works as long as you have pre-downloaded the shows.

Getting Started: Download the app from Google Play Store or the App Store and just get going. You initially set a pin to ensure that only you can set the functionality of the app – like what shows your kids can see, what age your kids are, and whether you’re allowing only G shows to be watched or G and PG.

The Good Bits: This app has been designed for kids to use and they’ve really nailed it. Navigation is ridiculously simple – just a horizontal line of large images of each show – perfect for pudgy little fingers to easily find their way. Mr 5 had no problem with the navigation – he got to his beloved Paw Patrol in approximately 1.78 seconds.

Plus, we loved that no matter what crazy angle your kid is holding your device at, the app automatically locks to a landscape format. There’s no, “Mum, why is it moving around funny?”

For parents, the genius function is the ability to set a timer – you can program the app to lock after certain amount of minutes. This could definitely help you avoid the whole technology-tug-o-war-tantrum.

Another genius function is the ability to register 5 devices to Foxtel Kids, plus you can have two devices running at the same time! No more sibling fights about what to watch!

The Not So Good Bits: Just be mindful that the default setting for downloads is ‘on’. So, if your kid happens to get a hold of your device they could end up downloading a whole stack of content without your knowledge, which could potentially impact your data limits. You can easily get around this downside by clicking the ‘Require PIN to download’ in the Filters section.

Safety: The app has a whole range of functionality to ensure that your kid is never going to see anything you don’t want them to.

From the get-go, when you open the app for the first time, you program in the age of your child, so it will automatically select channels based on age suitability. For example, choosing 5 and under, limits access to content solely from Nick Jr, Disney Junior and CBeebies.

You can even set whether you want to allow only G-rated shows to be seen on the app, no matter what age you’ve said your kid is.

There is no external access to anywhere else and there are no ads.

Most Suitable Age Range: All ages - the app is deigned for the very young up to older kids.