A parent's guide to Amazon Parent Dashboard

As a parent, you're always on the lookout to make sure the online content your kids see is safe, educational, and fun. That's when you need the Amazon™ Parent Dashboard, a tool crafted to ease your concerns by giving you oversight over your child's digital interactions. It's not merely about imposing limits—it's about making educated decisions that cultivate healthy digital habits for your little ones. 

At Asurion, our experts understand parents' concerns about safeguarding their children online—because they have children of their own. Here's their guide to the Amazon Parent Dashboard.

How to use the Amazon Parent Dashboard

Getting started is simple: 

1. Log in to the Parent Dashboard through the website or mobile app. If you still need to activate parental controls, you'll see a prompt upon logging in. 
2. Once activated, the Parent Dashboard allows you to apply parental controls across various devices linked to your account, including compatible Amazon Fire®, Android™, iOS®, and Amazon Echo® devices.

The dashboard provides a unified view of your child's recent activities, screen time usage, and remaining daily allowances. It also shows any requests from your child to modify limits or gain access to new apps, games, or skills.

Set screen time limits

A highlight of the Amazon Parent Dashboard is its capability to enforce screen time limits for your child's device, promoting balanced tech habits and curbing excessive screen usage.

To update this setting, go to Settings > Set Daily Time Limits.

Assign a total maximum daily screen time for your child's device. Once this limit is reached, the device locks for the day. Remember, starting with an age-appropriate limit and adjusting as needed is key. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests limiting screen time to 1–2 hours daily for children aged 2–5.

Establish a bedtime

Implement a bedtime lock to automatically shut off the device each night, preventing late-night usage that could disrupt sleep. Set a curfew based on your child's bedtime routine and sleep requirements.

Restrict time by activity and app

For more nuanced control, set time restrictions for individual apps and activities. You can limit entertainment apps to 30–60 minutes daily to encourage educational usage. Prioritize apps focused on reading, creativity, and learning by allocating them more time or exempting them from restrictions.

Use content rating filters

Amazon Kids employs a content rating system to categorize content by age appropriateness, such as Pre-K, Early Reader, 9+, etc. Parents can set a maximum content rating in the Parent Dashboard, filtering out material unsuitable for their child's age.

Block individual apps, videos, and other media

Beyond general rating filters, you can block specific apps, videos, and books, ensuring tight control over the content your child encounters. Just search for the content and turn the Block switch on. This is useful for blocking anything that may have slipped past the rating filters.

Set educational goals

One of the benefits of Amazon Kids is the ability to set reading goals. Within the Parent Dashboard, parents can specify a daily reading goal measured in minutes. This helps encourage reading habits and literacy skills.

Parents can also turn on Learn First mode to prioritize educational content and apps over entertainment. When turned on, kids will see learning programs, like ABCmouse®, Khan Academy®, PBS Kids® Video, and more at the top of their homepage. Games and cartoons will be tucked away until educational goals are met.

To turn on Learn First:

1. Open the Parent Dashboard, and select your child's profile.
2. Scroll down, and turn on Learn First.
3. Choose the learning apps you want featured—you can select up to 10.
4. Set a daily learning goal in minutes. This quota must be fulfilled before entertainment content is unlocked.

How smart is your home?

Calculate your smart devices, bust common myths, and explore tips from your neighborhood tech experts.

Learn more

Control web browsing

The Parent Dashboard grants parents granular control over web browsing, including allowing web access, allowing educational sites, and blocking inappropriate content for a safer online experience.

Go to Settings > Modify Web Browser. You have three options, listed from most to least restrictive:

• Enable Web Access. Turn the setting OFF. (The slider will appear gray when access is off.)
• Hand-Selected Websites & Videos. An Amazon Kids+® subscription gives children access to thousands of websites and web videos prescreened by the Amazon Kids team.
• Filtered Websites & Videos. It provides a more open but filtered browsing experience that is more appropriate for older children or young teens. You can block specific websites.

Add content

Parents can handpick apps, games, and books for their child, creating a personalized content library tailored to their child's interests and educational needs.

To add content:

1. Open the Parent Dashboard, and select your child's profile.
2. Go to the Content tab. 
3. Browse or search for apps, games, videos, and books. When you find something appropriate, select Allow. This will add it to your child's content library.

Manage app purchases

To avoid unexpected expenses, you can disable in-app purchases or require approval for every purchase, maintaining control over app-related spending. By default, app purchasing is allowed on kids' devices.

To disable purchasing:

1. Go to Manage Purchasing under Parental Controls.

2. Turn off Allow Child to Make In-App Purchases.

This will prevent any purchases from being made without your approval.

To require approval on every purchase:

1. Under Parental Controls, go to Manage Purchasing.

2. Turn on Require Password For All Purchases.

Review activity

Under the Review tab, you can access detailed reports that provide insight into how your child is using their device.

Usage Alerts

Usage alerts allow parents to get notifications if certain limits are reached. For example, you can set an alert to receive a notification if your child has 30 minutes left of screen time for the day, helping you  on their usage.To set up usage alerts:

1. Go to the Notifications tab.
2. Click Add new > Select the type of alert you want, such as Time limit approaching or Spent over time limit. 
3. Choose the specific limit you wish to receive notifications about and how soon you want to get them before the limit.