Introducing Discussion Cards and Parent Dashboard—New Ways for Families to Discover, Share, and Connect Through Amazon FreeTime

Discussion Cards let parents share in their kids’ digital experience
through short summaries of the books, videos, educational apps and games
their kids are using in Amazon FreeTime, and connect with their kids
through suggested questions and family activities designed to encourage
dinner table conversation

Parent Dashboard helps parents discover and learn about the books,
videos, educational apps, games, and websites their kids view in
FreeTime—leading to more informed family conversations about digital
content, including managing time limits and setting educational goals

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(NASDAQ:AMZN)—Amazon today announced Discussion Cards, a new feature for
its popular Amazon FreeTime service and a whole new way for parents and
kids to connect over digital content. With Discussion Cards, parents can
easily familiarize themselves with the FreeTime content their kids are
viewing, such as books, videos, educational apps, and games, to
encourage discussion and engagement with their kids. Discussion Cards
are found within the new Parent Dashboard, a mobile optimized website
that also provides daily activity reports to help parents review the
digital content their kids are using in FreeTime and determine how to
manage time limits and educational goals. Parent Dashboard is available
starting today at http://parents.amazon.com.

Discussion Cards allow parents to tap into a specific Amazon FreeTime
book, video, educational app or game title to get more detail, including
a summary and sample questions they can ask their child. For example,
when clicking on “National Geographic Readers: Cats vs. Dogs,” parents
will see questions like, “what’s the difference between a canine and a
feline?” or “which pet would you like and why?” This helps parents
quickly become familiar and engage with their kids around the content
they are viewing. Discussion Cards also provide ideas for real-world
experiences for families—the National Geographic title suggests
“volunteer at the local animal shelter to help homeless dogs and cats.”
If a parent finds that their child has a real interest in what they read
or viewed, they can suggest doing something together as a family to help
deepen their experience and build on their interest.

“As kids learn and play more independently with their tablets, we want
to provide parents with more ways to join in that digital discovery,”
said Kurt Beidler, Director of Kids & Family, Amazon. “Discussion Cards
equip parents with information about an Amazon FreeTime book, video,
educational app, or game their child is enjoying, and provide open-ended
questions that parents can ask kids to spark conversations—and avoid the
dreaded one-word response. Discussion Cards also offer ideas for
real-world activities families can do together, like participating in
community service or working on an art project—all inspired by what kids
are doing in FreeTime.”

Discussion Cards are written by Amazon Content Editors and are available
for videos, books, educational apps, and games within Amazon FreeTime,
as well as many titles that are added into FreeTime by parents.
Discussion Cards are already available for thousands of the most popular
titles, with more cards being added every day.

Parents can find Discussion Cards within the new Parent Dashboard, which
provides access to a daily activity report of their child’s device usage
while in their Amazon FreeTime profile. Reports include information like
videos watched, books read, apps or games played, and websites visited,
including how many minutes were spent on a particular title and how that
usage may have changed over the week. This provides parents with more
information to determine how to manage screen time, time limits, and
daily education goals within the FreeTime child profile.

Over 10 million kids (and their parents) enjoy the award-winning Amazon
FreeTime service, which provides the perfect balance between giving kids
the freedom of choice and unlimited access to the content they love,
while providing parents peace of mind that what their kids are viewing
on their devices is age-appropriate. Parents have the ability to
hand-select content, set educational goals and set screen time limits by
content type, and the FreeTime web browser lets kids have access to over
40,000 age-appropriate YouTube videos and websites that have been
hand-curated by the FreeTime team. Additionally, while in FreeTime, kids
do not have access to social media and can’t make in-app purchases.
FreeTime is available as a free app or as a paid subscription option,
Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, which offers unlimited access to popular
content from Disney, Nickelodeon, PBS Kids, HarperCollins, Simon &
Schuster, and more.

Parents can learn more about Discussion Cards and Parent Dashboard at http://parents.amazon.com.
Parents can learn more about Amazon FreeTime and Amazon FreeTime
Unlimited, which is available exclusively on Fire tablets, including
Fire Kids Edition, as well as on Kindle E-readers and Amazon Fire TV at www.amazon.com/freetime.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than
competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational
excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping,
personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle
Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa
are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more
information, visit www.amazon.com/about.

Contacts

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