kids

The LEGO brick set you're about to behold looks like and acts like a pop-up book. This set drops in on two classic fairy tales in a way dissimilar to every single LEGO set in the history of LEGO. This set, for lack of a better word, is completely bonkers. It not only features some awesome new LEGO mechanics, but a set of new minifigures (and a microfigure too!) This set is a LEGO Ideas set, the first one to appear at the 10-year anniversary of the LEGO Ideas program.

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In an age of smartphones, tablets, and the Internet, there's almost a presumption that toys need to be smart in order to keep up with more tech-savvy kids. Kids, however, need more than just smart learning toys. They also need to have emotional and tangible ones. Last year, two designers from Disney, Pixar, and Apple teamed up to bring Animoodles to life through Kickstarter. Now they're back, on Kickstarter again no less, to bring a second batch of magnetic, safe, and imaginative plushies for kids to enjoy.

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YouTube is tackling its inappropriate content issue by enabling parents to limit their kids to only pre-approved videos and channels. The new feature has launched in YouTube Kids, fulfilling a promise the company made back in April. As well, YouTube Kids now offers a new option created specifically for older kids, one that features a "less restrictive" experience than the version presented to younger users.

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Earlier this year, Amazon introduced Prime Book Box, a box of curated books targeted at young children. The new offering was only available through an invitation at the time, but the company has officially opened it up to all Prime customers located in the United States. Buyers can choose to receive a box every month or only a few times a year, depending on their needs.

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The Vivofit Jr. 2 is a fitness tracker that Garmin has offered for about a year now, and along the way we've seen it team up with Disney to offer devices themed around Marvel superheros and Star Wars. Today, the two companies announced a new version of the Vivofit Jr. 2, this time featuring Disney Princesses. As with previous entries in the Vivofit Jr. 2 line, the idea is to get kids excited about meeting exercise and activity goals by turning it all into something of a game.

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A few days ago, French lawmakers passed legislation that was written to protect children from growing up like zombies enslaved to their smartphones and tablets. Such mobile devices will be banned in schools for children up to 15 years of age, both inside and outside classes. While it’s definitely easy to see this as a victory against the smartphone addiction that is plaguing society, it could actually end up doing more harm than good when these kids become ill-prepared to face the realities of modern life.

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Android tablets may be dead for Google but they are not for Huawei or Samsung, and definitely not for Amazon. The company’s line of Fire tablets is still one of the best ways to enjoy everything Amazon has to offer, from shopping to music to video to, yes, Alexa. They also happen to be one of the most affordable tablets for kids around. And to show that it is committed to catering to kids of all sizes and ages, it is launching the new Fire HD 10 Kids Edition, it biggest tablet built for kids with bigger needs.

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One of the cited reasons for the failure of Wear OS by Google (formerly Android Wear) smartwatches is that they are all running on a two-year old chipset. Considering the Snapdragon Wear 2100 is based on the Snapdragon 400, its technology goes way back to 2013. As promised, Qualcomm is delivering a much-needed and long-overdue update to its wearable platform. But funnily enough, it is marketing the Snapdragon Wear 2500 squarely at the kids’ wearable market, practically making a bet on that market instead of the grownups’ wearable industry.

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Back in December, Facebook released a new kids-focused chat app, prompting widespread criticism from child health advocates, including calls to pull the service altogether. Despite this controversy, Facebook has continued to make Messenger Kids available on iOS and Android, and has now announced the app's rollout to Canada and Peru.

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Microsoft has announced a new product and updates to existing products that ultimately benefit kids and families. Chief among the new offerings is MSN Kids, a news website based on the existing MSN site, but one created specifically for children. As well, Microsoft has updated its Launcher app with new parental controls, added site blocking to Edge for Android, and more.

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It seems that our eagerness or carelessness in surrendering our data so easily to companies and services is finally coming back to haunt us. From massive customer database hacking to the recent Facebook scandal, the data we've sowed on company servers are now being reaped by others, often by criminals. This latest incident is both unfortunate and probably also inevitable. TeenSafe, an app that's supposed to keep kids safe by letting their parents monitor them, has now practically achieved the opposite by leaking parents' and children's data to almost anyone who has been able to grab hold of its database.

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Amazon is facing both questions and criticism following the launch of its new Echo Dot for Kids, a colorful version of its Echo Dot product marketed specifically for children. The device is identical to the regular Dot device, the only exception being its colorful skin; it does, however, bring FreeTime Unlimited out-of-the-box alongside a slew of privacy concerns.

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