Amazon Offers Kindle Owners All-You-Can-Eat Kids’ Content

For its latest Kindle Fire tablets, Amazon included a new parental controls called FreeTime, a walled-off section of the tablet where parents can "whitelist" any content on the device as kid-friendly. That feature is getting a big upgrade, offering a wealth of pre-curated content -- for a monthly fee.

Amazon has inked deals with major providers of children's media -- including Disney, HIT Entertainment (Thomas the Tank Engine), Nickelodeon, Marvel and DC Comics -- to create FreeTime Unlimited, which makes "multiple thousands" of books, videos, games and apps available by subscription. Once you subscribe, the content shows up in FreeTime, and kids can download titles one by one just by tapping. (For a refresher on FreeTime, check out the video below.)

The content providers and Amazon have pre-selected titles that are appropriate for children between the ages three and eight. The idea is to eliminate the repeated scenario of a child asking for a book or video, the parent checking if it's OK and affordable and then approving it for the child's use. Anything that's available in FreeTime Unlimited will be clearly marked on Amazon, so subscribers will know if they already have the content for free.

"We're trying to solve the problem for parents that, there's so much content out there -- half of which I don't know if my kid is going to like or not like -- and quite frankly is very expensive," Peter Larsen, Amazon's vice president of Kindle products, told Mashable in an interview. "So for a very low price per month, you can get access to thousands of books, thousands of apps, thousands of games -- all the really big brands."

SEE ALSO: Amazon FreeTime Gives Parents More Control Over What Kids Watch

Interestingly, FreeTime Unlimited content is not included in the normal Amazon Prime subscription (which costs $79 a year). However, Prime users get a discount. If you're in Prime, it's just $2.99 a month, but if you're not it's $4.99. That's for one child's account -- if you want more accounts, you'll have to opt for the family plan, which supports up to six kids for $6.99 ($9.99 for non-Prime).

While many families will probably opt to pay for a single account and have all their kids share it, there are a couple of advantages to the family plan. First, the stream of content customizes itself based on what's being downloaded and viewed: An older kid who's into Spider-Man may not care to see his little brother's Dora the Explorer videos at the top of the queue.

"We made the decision -- and it was kind of a tough one -- to not take away content," says Larsen. "We thought if you're paying the subscription, you should get it all. And who knows? Your four-year-old kid might be reading at a seven-year level. But we filter it based on age and gender. If your kid is three, he shouldn't be seeing content that's appropriate an eight-year-old, which will be way down. Unless they use it."

The second reason is user preferences. Every user account will keep track of bookmarks and paused videos separate from the others -- helpful if two kids like the same videos but watch them at different times.

The option to subscribe to FreeTime Unlimited will roll out to owners of all Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD models in the coming weeks.

What do you think of FreeTime Unlimited? Is it something you'd subscribe to? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of Amazon

BONUS: Kindle Fire HD Review

1. 

2. Unboxing the Kindle Fire HD 8.9

   The back of the box

   

3. 

4. Kindle Fire HD 8.9 Edge

   Note the power button and volume rocker. To the left is one of the Dolby speakers. To the right is the 3.5 mm audio jack.

   

5. 

6. 

7. Kindle HD Drawing

   Yes, you can draw on this tablet as well as the iPad.

   

8. Kindle HD Asphalt 7

   Game play is smooth, but graphics are not when it comes to graphically-intensive actioners like Asphalt.

   

9. Kindle HD Carousel View

   While Amazon's carousel interface is simple and easy-to-use, the app and task icons are giant on this larger screen. They also highlight the tablet's occasional missteps. I can't remember what that blank icon represents.

   

10. Kindle HD Carousel and Quick Links

    If you hold the tablet in landscape mode, you can see the more detailed quick links below.

    

11. Kindle HD Andry Birds Star Wars

    Games like Angry Birds look fantastic on the HD screen and gameplay is ultra-smooth.

    

12. Kindle HD Game Access

    Kindles' App store has a wide selection of games, but the tablet has the odd habit of always asking, after you think you've downloaded the game, if you want to download the whole game (this is typically for storage space consideration).

    

13. Kindle HD Magazine App

    Many of the magazine publishers have apps that let you download and manage issues. This is Vanity Fair. I had some trouble downloading the latest issue--it just kept failing, but did manage to download and view and older one.

    

14. Kindle HD Magazine - Vanity Fair

    Vanity Fair is a stunner on the Kindle Fire HD. However, it does usually force you into portrait mode. At one point, it switched into landscape and then got stuck that way.

    

15. Kindle HD Mail Interface

    Setting up multiple e-mail accounts on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is easy and the mail interface is among the best in large-screen tablet space.

    

16. Kindle HD Music

    Amazon has a vast music library and smartly lets you store either locally or in your own personal cloud.

    

17. Kindle HD Settings and Notifications

    A sweep down from the top of the screen reveals settings and notifications.

    

18. Kindle HD Silk Browser New Tab

    Amazon's Silk browser looks sharp and generally works well. However, I did encounter some crashes and never noticed it retrieving pages faster than other browsers.

    

19. Kindle HD Skype App

    Is it just me or does this interface look a little over-matched by the large a screen.

    

20. Kindle HD Twitter or Silk Browser

    When you tweet, you have a choice.