What Is FreeTime?
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Unlike other parental controls, such as those available on the iPad, FreeTime isn’t just about locking a kid into one app, locking them out of other apps, or keeping them from accessing the device’s control panel. FreeTime outright reskins the device and turns it into a completely self-contained and kid-friendly tablet with an easy-to-use interface, a totally separate app list just for the child, and individual profiles so each child in your household can have their own age-appropriate dashboard: the toddler can have toddler friendly games and read-aloud apps and the middle-schooler can have more advanced games and their own media library, for example.
How to Set Up FreeTime on a Non-Fire Android Device
You’ll need to first grant a bunch of permissions, starting with restricting in-app purchases in Google Play. Fortunately, the FreeTime app will walk you through the entire setup process. Tap the “Open Google Play Store” button, then follow the instructions on the following page.
Finally, select “OK” on the Smart Filters page.
How to Get Started with FreeTime Profiles (on Fire and Android Tablets)
While FreeTime used to be an app that ran on Fire Tablets, it’s now an integral part of the system itself—built into the Profiles & Family Library settings. To find it on a Fire Tablet, jump into the Settings menu by pulling down the notification shade, then tapping the cog icon. From there, tap on the Profiles & Family Library option.
On other Android devices, just launch the FreeTime app.
If you’ve previously set up different profiles (as I have in the below screenshot), they’ll show up here. If not, let’s get started by adding a new one.
Next, create a profile for each child by tapping the “Add a child’ button. Enter the child’s name a birthday, then choose a “theme,” which is defined by the child’s age. Tap the “Add Profile” button when you’re done.
On Android devices, the first time you launch your new FreeTime Profile, you’ll have to do a bit of additional set up. Again, just follow the on-screen prompts here.
You’ll start with allowing usage tracking for the FreeTime application, setting it as the default launcher, and setting your parental PIN. Tap the “OK, let’s do it” button to get started with this portion of the setup process.
Finally, set your FreeTime passcode. Once that’s done, you’ll be take into the child profile immediately.
From this point forward, the setup process is identical on Fire Tablets and other Android devices.
This will throw you back to the Profiles page. This is the default view you will always see when launching FreeTime on Android or the Profiles option in Settings on Fire Tablets. To modify settings for a particular child, tap on their name (or, on Android, tap the cog icon).
There are a slew of options here, including Daily Goals and Time Limits, Content Management, FreeTime Unlimited settings (more on that below) and profile editing functions. These options will vary slightly depending on what type of device you’re using—Android device or Fire Tablet, phone or tablet, etc.—but for the most part the meat and potatoes of what FreeTime offers is the same.
How to Customize FreeTime Profiles
We’re going to start with the most important tools found in FreeTime: Daily Goals & Time Limits. Go ahead and tap the “Set Daily Goals & Time Limits” option, then hit the toggle to enable these features.
Alright! Here you have a few options. You’ll start with setting the child’s bedtime, which will basically disable use of the tablet after that time. You can also set specific educational-based goals with set amounts of required times for educations books, videos, and apps. If little Eduardo is going to spend all damn day on his tablet, he might as well learn something, right?
There’s also an option to set the total amount of screen time allowed, which may or may not be something you’re into. You can set it from one to six hours, but there’s also an “unlimited” option. If you’re not into just blanket-allowing screen time, there’s also an option to allow specific time by activity. That way you can let them read as many books as they want, but only watch videos or play games for a limited time. I love how granular that is.
Once you’re finished setting up times, just press the back button.
There are a few other tweaks you can make here, like add/remove content options where you’ll add or remove new books, apps, and videos; a web browser toggle; and Smart Filters, which basically help create a curated experience for FreeTime Unlimited profiles.
Inside the FreeTime Profile
Once you launch FreeTime and select your child’s profile, the tablet doesn’t just superficially become their tablet—it actually completely locks itself down. The lockdown process is so thorough, in fact, we were surprised at what a complete job it does. FreeTime even unmounts the local storage so that even if you have a particularly clever child that plugs the tablet into a computer, they won’t be able to open the folders containing pictures taken by mom and dad, music, movies, or other content on the device.
If you tap on the shortcuts at the top, you’ll see a list of just that particular category (books, videos, apps) on the device, as well as all the content available via FreeTime Unlimited (if you’ve activated the subscription).
The last navigation screen, and one we think is particularly clever, is the Characters screen. As any parent can tell you, kids attach themselves to characters. Be it The Cat in the Hat, Dora the Explorer, or just a general love of dinosaurs, kids develop specific tastes.
In the Characters menu, they can easily find content they’re looking for by selecting a character (like the Cat in the Hat) or a general topic (like dinosaurs) they’re really into. Clicking on a specific character icon will show all the available media related to that character:
The entire user experience is completely siloed, and at no point can the child get out of the FreeTime garden and into the rest of the device. Pressing the home button always takes them back to the original kid-friendly media carousel. Searching using the quick-find feature only searches the available kid-friendly content. If they swipe down the top-screen navigation bar like so:
The only setting they can adjust is the screen brightness. Everything else: Settings, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Storage, and exiting FreeTime, requires a parental password.
As of right now, and for the foreseeable future, FreeTime is the most comprehensive parental controls option available in the tablet market. It locks the tablet down tight, it customizes the interface, and with the addition of FreeTime Unlimited, it delivers thousands upon thousands of kid-friendly books, movies, television shows, and apps, all organized in an easy to search and navigate system. If you’re curious about FreeTime Unlimited, there’s an option within FreeTime to give it a try for one month before having to cough up a few bucks a month.
