Children’s smartwatches are a step forward or an alternative to the first mobile phone at an early school age. Besides their primary function, they can also serve for communication and safety, education and entertainment, and lead to greater responsibility.
The difference between a smartwatch for children and a smartphone is a hundred percent parental control. It eliminates cyberbullying and other pitfalls of the digital space, distractions during lessons, and prevents addiction to online content.
Tracking Location
After downloading the application and running it on the paired device, the parent can track the exact location of the child through several types of platforms (GPS, LBS, GSM, Glonass, Beidou, Wi-Fi), both in real-time and retrospectively. To achieve the most precise results based on the surroundings, it is important to use the correct configuration. For example, if you set up a search exclusively based on GPS, there might be a deviation in a densely built-up area.
SOS Emergency Button
An additional benefit is the safe zone feature (geofencing). When the safe zone is left, you will receive a notification. However, the primary safety feature is the so-called SOS Emergency Button. Most children’s smartwatches also can stimulate discussions about the tolerable level of intrusion into privacy. It is discreet eavesdropping or creating an on-demand image recording and sending it to the administrator’s gadget without the watch wearer’s knowledge (yes, they have an integrated camera and camcorder).
Contacts under Control
Supervision over the range of permissible contacts for calls and text, voice, and video messages is highly acceptable. Besides the parents, they are usually other relatives, possibly the closest friends. The adult “admin” can completely control the watch. They can switch it to school mode when the child is at school. The school mode reduces disturbing undesirable stimuli.
Intuitive Operation
A pedometer, stopwatch, heart rate counter, calories counter, and sleep duration counter encourage less active children to a healthier lifestyle. Older people will appreciate a calendar with a schedule, reminders and notes, alarm clock, calculator, flashlight, weather forecast, mathematical and language tasks, preinstalled games, and music. And the eternal benefit is that the kids will practice telling the time. Attention: Not all devices offer an analog data form and more graphic desktop versions. Before buying, you should check whether the watch displays information and instructions in the desired language and has intuitive controls and icons.
Fun in the Pool
In addition to the software, when choosing a children’s smartwatch, you should pay attention to the battery life and durability. Manufacturers take into account that the users might not be so careful when using the smartwatch. Therefore, you should consider features such as the material and display, including the film, the replaceability of the strap, and, above all, water resistance. The IP68 value should also be enough for fun in the pool. At the same time, for the IP67, the diapason narrows down to rain, hand washing, or showering.
Robust but Lightweight
Do not be surprised: the almost inevitable robustness of children’s smart watches may look optically disproportional. It’s because kids’ fingers would be unable to move smoothly on a small display. From an operational point of view, it is rather important to focus on the comfort weight of the device. The standard is 50 – 60 grams, and 100 grams may be too much.
Text: Miki Kočan jr., photo: Pixabay, Carneo
