™Amazon's New Kids Tablets Get Google Play. Parents Approve Every App.
The 8.7-inch model starts at $229.99 with a free year of Kids+, which then costs Prime members $7.99 a month.
A kid on one of Amazon's new Kids Tablets can browse all of Google Play, but an app doesn't install until a parent taps approve.
Amazon announced the tablets Thursday in two sizes. The 8.7-inch model starts at $229.99. The 11-inch model starts at $329.99 and adds a 2.5K screen and stylus support. Preorders are open now, and Amazon says the tablets ship Oct. 14 in the U.S., with Best Buy and Target among the stores carrying them.
The store is the big change. Amazon's tablets used to run its own Fire OS software with Amazon's own app store, TechCrunch reported. An Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch the new lineup isn't renamed Fire tablets but new hardware on a new operating system. The kid models appear to match the smaller tablets in Amazon's new Android-based Alexa Tablet line, plus extra software, The Verge reported.
That extra software is mostly Parent Dashboard, the app that holds the approve button. It comes preinstalled and also runs as a free iOS and Android app, so a parent can manage the tablet from across the house or across town. Amazon says it sets screen-time limits, filters web browsing, shows what a child has been doing and can pause the tablet remotely. A "Learn First" setting puts reading and school apps ahead of games, and one account covers up to four kids.
The price is where the kid version gets interesting. TechCrunch reported that the adult Alexa Tablet 8 and Alexa Tablet 11 start at the same $229.99 and $329.99. For the same starting price, the kids' bundle adds a case and a year of Amazon Kids+, the ad-free subscription of books, shows, games and apps from Disney, Nickelodeon and Lego. Preschoolers 3 and up get a soft bumper case, and kids 6 and up get a slim hard case with a kickstand. Both come in Paw Patrol, Barbie and SpongeBob designs.
Amazon's announcement promises that the tablet a kid unboxes today is "still the right fit a year from now." A year from now is also when the included Kids+ runs out. Further down that same page, Amazon lists ongoing Kids+ plans starting at $7.99 a month for Prime members and $8.99 for everyone else. The warranty is one year, too.
Kids+ is also getting Storybuilder, an AI feature that turns a child's spoken ideas about characters, worlds and plot twists into picture books and comics. Amazon says it has guardrails to keep things age-appropriate, and parents can see what their kids make from the same dashboard.
The approve button lives in a free app. The Kids+ shelf that the whole bundle is built around is free for 12 months.
Source: The Verge, retrieved October 8, 2026. Other sources: aboutamazon.com, TechCrunch.
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