The Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet is aimed at school age kids who want to access exciting content, but gives parents ultimate control over what their child can access.
We’ve previously owned the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet – so the non-pro version – and recently upgraded to a Pro for both kids.
Now that I know the differences and have had a chance to play around the the Kids Pro, I thought I would share what we think of this children’s tablet and whether it’s worth buying.
You can also check out my review of our old Amazon HD 8 Kids tablets.
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Quick verdict on Amazon HD 8 Kids Pro
The Amazon 8 Kids Pro is definitely worth buying if you want a big kid tablet aimed at school age children. It gives children access to a wide range of games, apps, books and videos through the Kids+ subscription while keeping ultimate control in the hands of parents.
The Parent Dashboard provides an overview of your child’s activity on the tablet, and lets you remove and block content you don’t want your children to see.
My kids love the cool design of the tablet – it’s certainly more visually appealing than the non-Pro Kids tablets. The quality of the display looks crisp and clear, and load time of this new 2022 Kids tablet seems much faster than the older tablet.
Parents also benefit from the one-year free subscription to Kids+ and a two-year worry-free guarantee in case of any accidents kids have with the tablet.
Check price of the Amazon 8 Kids Pro here
What is the Amazon HD 8 Kids Pro?
The Amazon Kids Pro tablet is a Fire tablet aimed specifically at kids with parental controls that make it safe and appropriate for children.
The Amazon HD 8 Kids Pro tablet comes with a one year free subscription to Kids+ which is a huge library of child appropriate content.
While it gives kids a lot more access to cool stuff, parents have ultimate control over what they do in the Parent Dashboard.
You give permission for what they can download from the store, can remove content, block websites, restrict internet access altogether and see what your child has been doing (and how long they’re using their tablet for).
The Amazon Kids tablet is like other Fire tablets, but it comes in a cool child-friendly case, with a child profile and Kids+ ready to go and two-year worry free guarantee.
Say the internet is a big lake and there are some safe, sunny, shallow spots and some super deep and dark murky spots too where you wouldn’t throw your child in for a swim. Kids+ is like the roped off section by a safe beach where you can see exactly where your kid is at all times and what they’re doing.
The Fire Kids tablet gives them a safer corner of the internet to play in.
What’s the difference between Pro and Non Pro Fire Kids tablets?
Quick answer: The Pro Kids comes with a slimmer, cooler case plus more extensive access to internet browsing and access to a Store to browse more apps. Parental control is still maintained via the Amazon Parent Dashboard. The word Pro basically means “for older kids”, rather than it being a higher spec.
If you’re in the market for a Amazon Kids tablet then you may wonder whether you should get the Pro or Non Pro.
Amazon says its Pro tablets are for school age kids, while the Kids non pro (available in 7, 8 and 10ins sizes) is for ages 3-7.
There are some similarities. The price is the same for the 8 Kids Pro and 8 Kids. The key specs are also the same.
You can also buy a 10 Kids Pro or 10 Kids – in this case the two aren’t priced the same, with the Pro coming in more expensive. Of course the 10 has a bigger screen than the 8, and better specs too.
There are two key differences between the Pro and non-Pro Kids tablets:
- The case.
- The user experience including what they can access and internet browsing.
First up, the look. The Pro version has a slimmer and cooler looking case that is likely to appeal to older kids. The tablet aimed at younger kids is a little more padded out and chunkier.
In this picture you can see our brand new Amazon 8 Kids Pro on the left, and the older version of the Kids 8 on the right. The newer non-Pro version case colours look slightly different, but the side-by-side comparison looks very similar.
The Pro Kids case comes in three different looks – a pink with sticker design on the back, teal and blue with a sunset design on the back.
Secondly, what you can actually do with the tablet. With the Pro children have a wider browsing experience – not just handpicked sites but filtered internet access that has some safeguards but gives them access to a search engine.
And they can browse the Amazon Store for age appropriate games and apps.
But it’s important to note that although they have more stuff they can check out with the Pro, it’s still filtered content.
And they have to put in a request to you whenever they want to download something from the store – this means if it’s a paid for app you have final sign off on payment and if it’s an app you don’t want them playing you can just decline.
Now, just one note on the Pro vs non Pro Kids differences. After buying the Pro and looking back at our bog standard Kids tablet from before, I noticed the browsing experience was suddenly exactly the same.
Amazon says with the Pro Kids has a wider browsing experience, with access to a store where they can browse apps appropriate for them and filtered website access, including a search engine.
But once we had the Pro all set up, I could then look back at our old bog standard 8 tablets and see there’s exactly the same homepage and features available for kids to use there.
I reached out to Amazon to point out my kids original tablets could do all the same stuff as the Pro since we purchased it, and they were stumped!
The customer service rep said they would pass it on to their tech team but I didn’t get an explanation for this. My theory? When you purchase a Pro your kids’ profiles get an upgrade.
So what should you do with this info? If you’re in the market for an Amazon tablet and your kid is 5+, go for the Amazon Kids Pro.
Looking for a first tablet for a pre-schooler? Go for the normal Kids tablet. If you want to upgrade in a few years to a Pro that gives your child that extra access to the app store and filtered websites, you can do so.
What internet access to kids get with an Amazon HD 8 Kids Pro?
With the Fire Kids there’s no wider internet access at all.
With the Pro you can choose between access to handpicked curated sites, or filtered access, or no access at all.
The filtered access is a fairly normal looking browsing experience, but Amazon says it has filtered out inappropriate content.
For example I tried to access Reddit and Twitter and was told this site was blocked. If there is a specific website you want blocked then you can go to restrict website under Web Browser settings in your Parent Dashboard and enter it there.
Why this tablet for kids?
I chose the Amazon Kids tablets over an iPad because of the price, the two-year worry-free guarantee, it’s much more robust and the parent dashboard.
The parental control over the Amazon Kids tablets is fantastic. Yes you can set limits on the iPad and iPhone but I just feel that the Amazon Kids is specifically geared up to give parents granular control over what their kids are consuming online.
The iPad has a LOT more content, but Kids+ also has some fantastic, varied content. And you can add extra apps where you want to via adult profiles.
Key features of Amazon HD 8 Kids Pro
- Kids+ access free for one year. Kids+ is Amazon’s kid-friendly content subscription. It’s got TV shows, movies, books, radio and games appropriate for kids. There are no ads and parents can see exactly what Kids+ content kids are accessing. It’s then £3.99 a month if you are a Prime customer.
- 2 year worry free guarantee – if it breaks Amazon replace it for free
- Quick set-up – order it from your Amazon account and it will be delivered ready to go. You just need to decide on the setting when getting it ready to give to your kids.
- Complete control in Parent Dashboard via web browser or in the Kids+ app. Restrict access to specific content and set time limits for screen usage, and the type of content, they can access.
- Set age range for content you want them to be able to seek out
- Kids have to ask you permission to download apps. You can then remove access if you decide it is inappropriate
- Once your Kids+ free subscription is ended you will automatically be billed for it. You can cancel it, but your child will only have access to Amazon Kids – you can share content with them from your library but they won’t have access to the wide range of curated content that Kids+ offers. You still have access to the parental controls and kid safe profiles on the tablet.
- You can add a MicroSD card to boost the memory
How does the Amazon Kids Parent Dashboard work?
Download the Amazon Kids+ app to your phone, or tablet, and sign in to your Amazon account.
From here you can view your children’s profiles, take a look at what apps they have been using and how long they have spent on those apps, and approve their content requests.
This is where you can also set limits on what your child can do on the Kids tablet.
You can also access the Parent Dashboard from an internet browser.
Can you add apps like Disney+ and Netflix to an Amazon Kids tablet?
Yes you can add Disney+ and Netflix to an Amazon Kids tablet, and it’s very easy to do so!
These apps cannot be found with a simple search in your child’s profile.
So switch to your adult profile on the tablet, then download the Disney app to the tablet.
Next go to the Parent Dashboard and head to the add content section of the dashboard settings.
Now you can toggle downloaded apps to give your child permission to use them.
Is the content safe?
The Amazon Kids+ content is safe. But note that once you add other apps such as Netflix and things like Roblox, you need to ensure your settings are adapted to make it safe for your child.
The age restriction you set only affects Amazon Kids+ content. If you add certain apps, YouTube for example, to the tablet then they will be able to see stuff you may deem inappropriate.
For Netflix, once you have the app on their tablet profile, they can then access all profiles in your Netflix account. So I managed to get Bridgerton playing on my daughter’s tablet – not the sort of thing you want them seeing just yet!
To get around this I went to my Netflix account settings (I went via my laptop browser to view the full settings) and put a lock on the profiles for me and my husband. So the kids ONLY have access to profiles with a PG age restriction on there.
Just a note that while I can see exactly what videos my kids are accessing within Kids+, I cannot see what they viewed in Netflix from the parent dashboard, just how long they spent on the app. BUT I can see what they viewed from my Netflix account profile (accessed via web browser).
I downloaded Roblox for one of my kids went into settings to ensure all chat functions were disabled.
To be doubly sure they aren’t accessing unsafe content, I will be having ongoing conversations with my kids about letting me know if they see anything worrying on their tablets and checking their usage regularly.
What about viewing content when offline?
If you want to use your child’s Fire tablet on a long car journey or somewhere without Wifi, you can download some games, books and videos within the Netflix app to your Fire.
Please note that some games do require a Wifi connection to work. It depends on the game. Always check before you head out from home so you know what will work without wifi, to save any tantrums when you’re out and about.
Can you play Roblox on a Amazon Kids tablet?
You can download and play Roblox on an Amazon Kids tablet. But my experience is the tablets cannot cope with the demands of the game, and it crashed frequently.
If you are buying an Amazon Kids tablet because your kids mainly want to play Roblox then stop right now and rethink your decision.
It’s easy to add Roblox to your children’s Amazon tablet, but the trouble is the game is clearly quite heavy going on the tablet’s processor.
Our experience is that whenever my kids play Roblox it works for a few minutes and then the game shuts down and the tablet resets. Not great.
My kids now borrow either my iPad or my husband’s Galaxy tablet to play the game. The tablets get very hot when the kids are playing, so you can tell it really puts a strain on the devices.
Can you play Minecraft on a Amazon Kids tablet?
Yes you can play Minecraft on an Amazon Kids Fire tablet. My two girls LOVE this game.
You will need to pay for the game – it’s not among the free games included with Amazon Kids. It cost us £4.99.
In order to install Minecraft on an Amazon Kids Pro tablet all you need to do is search for “Minecraft” under the search bar. Then your child requests purchase, as with any purchase, and you approve it and the game appears.
If you have an Amazon Kids non-Pro tablet you can still add Minecraft for your child to play!
To add Minecraft to the Amazon tablet when you cannot just search for it under Kids+ simply:
- Change to an adult profile and search for Minecraft then download Minecraft to the tablet.
- Head to your Amazon Parents Dashboard either via browser or the Kids+ app on your phone and scroll through the list of available apps to approve for your child to use under the “Grown-Ups” view and “Content”. Toggle Minecraft to approve it.
- Switch back to a child’s profile. Minecraft will be available!
Unlike with Roblox, we have had no issues with the tablets crashing when using Minecraft.
Should I get a Kids or Kids Pro Amazon Fire tablet?
Kids Pro is a great choice if your child is 5 or older. You can still restrict content, but your child has more access to different apps through the Store and wider web browsing access, if you want to permit that.
The simple Kids tablet is great if you are buying a first tablet for a toddler/preschooler.
Is the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet worth it?
The Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet is a brilliant tablet for school-aged kids that gives peace of mind to grown-ups with its parent dashboard.
Kids have access to a range of more exciting content without losing parental peace of mind.
Parents have ultimate control over what kids do via the parent dashboard and can restrict access if they do feel any apps are inappropriate.
While you won’t see the breadth of content you may see with an Apple device, are you kids going to miss something they aren’t aware of?
It’s possible to set content and browser limits on an ipad, but for me the detailed remote control I have over the Kids Pro, and knowing it is designed with kids in mind, makes it the winner for me.
The price and replacement policy – which means if your kid smashes it to pieces in the first two years Amazon will replace it – are also excellent reasons to buy one.
Once your child has grown out of Kids+ you can remove the kiddy friendly case and switch the adult profile so you can use it as a normal Fire tablet.
Want a screen-free toy for your child? Try the Amazon Echo Dot Kids!
