Episode 67: Amazon Kids: Safe shopping with your approval

The Be THAT Mom Movement Podcast: Protecting kids in a digital world

Anything and everything can be bought on Amazon. Use this feature of Amazon to make sure your kid is accessing & purchasing only the things you approve!

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Full Transcription:

Speaker 1 (00:00):

As if your mind, isn't already like overwhelmed with navigating all the digital things today, I'm going to share something with you that you may have not thought about, but I think you need to know about that enough information to do the intro. I think so. Okay. Stay tuned.

Speaker 2 (00:17):

Welcome to your source for tips, tools, and support to help you be that mom that is tuned in and proactive for yourself, your family, and for the wild ride of raising kids in this digital age, inspired by a mother's love with a relatable real life. Proud to be that mom flair. This is the bead that mom movement with your host, Dolly Denson.

Speaker 3 (00:42):

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Speaker 1 (01:09):

Okay. So, you know, my podcast is just all about giving you a heads up, right? Giving you a heads up and giving you a few pointers to help you along this wonderful world of raising kids in the digital age. Right. That's what we're here for. So today I just want to talk about, and kind of open your mind to a couple of possibilities in give you some specific places to start. So was that not vague or was that not vague? I know that was vague. So what I'm talking about is do you use Amazon to buy things? And if you do say your kids need something, do they have their own account or do they use your account? I initially let my kids have their own account. I put my credit card on their account and it was like, okay, just let me know when you need something and we'll order it.

Speaker 1 (01:55):

I don't know why I did that. It was years ago now, but I found a feature just probably in the last year that I was like, oh yeah, this is another thing that I could have used back then. And like I've said before, my whole parenting days in the earlier years of the internet and all of that is like, whew, Guinea pig, Guinea pig. Like we have done all the mistakes. So if you have kids that are younger, be so very thankful that we have blazed the path for you and made some of these mistakes. So you can learn from them. Not that you won't make your own. I'm sure that there's always something because everything is always changing when it comes to the digital things. But here's one pointer that hopefully you can learn from my mistake on. Okay. So on Amazon, they now have a feature that's Amazon kids and there's different features to it.

Speaker 1 (02:46):

And I don't use all of it because some of it is like helps you to find educational things. But the way I have used it is I've set it up to where, when purchases are made on their accounts, I have credit card on there, but I get a text anytime they want to purchase something and I have to click to approve it in order for the order to go through. This could also be something to look into on other things where you have to put your credit card, that they didn't use to have things in place. Like we had kind of a horror story when it came to the early days of iTunes where one of the kids purchased like a ton of songs and thought that they were all included like in our, like monthly auto, not audible, but our monthly iTunes membership, but they weren't.

Speaker 1 (03:31):

And so we ended up with like a $700 bill and it was all like songs downloaded and you know, so, so I've heard. And I think we had this happen with one of the kids buying stuff through game where they thought it was just buying like the fake money of the game. And it turns out that it was actually buying things with our credit card that we had used one time to purchase something. So anytime you're putting your credit card in on anything that they're purchasing, look for those controls, but I wanted to just specifically highlight this about Amazon, that they have this in place now. And to just kind of expand your thinking a little bit, think of, you know, if you give free reign of that credit card, say they have themselves, or a friend wants to get something and they know that your kid has that account and your credit card is on there, like anything and everything is available on Amazon.

Speaker 1 (04:27):

Right? So think in terms of like the kids these days, some of them in, depending on where you live and what school they go to, and all of that experiments like experimenting with drugs and different things is such a very, very prevalent thing now. And it's so very dangerous, but I don't think that it's necessarily a new thing. I think there's always been experimentation in the teenage years, but it's just more accessible now, which makes it more dangerous. Well, think about some of the things that they may want to get hold of in order to experiment things like cold medicine, things like Benadryl, there are these things available on Amazon. So even if you think your kid's going to be responsible and would never purchase anything without talking to you first, it's still just a good idea to set up these parental controls on their account.

Speaker 1 (05:17):

And don't give them free reign. Even if it's not them, it could be a peer saying, Hey, order it, order this and I'll have it shipped to this address. So they'll never know whatever. I mean, you know, if your credit card, then you'd probably notice that there's been these purchases on there, but there's all kinds of ways that they may try to get around this. So I'm just speaking from the experience of having put my card on different things. And specifically with Amazon, it just kind of blows my mind to think of the possibilities. If they have free reign of buying things and don't have to have your approval first. There's just so many things that are available on Amazon. And it's not always like, you know, it's not a PG or it's not like a, what do I want to say? Like there are things on there that we would not want our kids to see or have access to.

Speaker 1 (06:04):

Right? And then there's the things like experimentation. That could be a concern. So just wanting to give you a heads up and let you know that there is this Amazon kids option, just go to your account. And then I think it's like your profile or something like that. And you can set it up to where your kid is underneath you and has an Amazon kids account. Then it texts you when they want to make a purchase. And then they can go ahead and make the purchase if you allow that much independence online. So, and then this could also be a place of education, no matter what their age is in terms of like budgeting and learning how to navigate different things while not having complete free reign of things. And I believe it also, when you set it up as the kids' account, it limits their browsing ability, which we know is not going to be foolproof.

Speaker 1 (06:55):

And we need to still kind of have a keen eye to the possibilities. But the fact that it's set up to provide more safeguards for that, both for yourself and for them. I think it's a pretty cool thing, a pretty awesome thing to have. And as always just, you know, keeping an ever expanding mind to the possibilities and never put it past a child or adolescent to push the boundaries of whatever we are setting in place with their natural childlike curiosity, you know, in discovery and all that. So this just is another way to help us navigate that. All right. So hope you found this helpful. I hope you will share this with other moms that may need these type of tips too. Don't forget to take that extra time for yourself and take care of yourself as well, so that you can be present for your kiddos. Like I've mentioned in the last couple episodes. Okay. I'll chat with you next time.

Speaker 2 (07:50):

Thanks for tuning in being that mom isn't easy, but together we can be that mom's strong. Don't forget to leave a review, connect on social and join Dolly's free community till next time either before you

Speaker 3 (08:05):

Go, I want to just give you a heads up on something. When things have been hardest in my role as a mom, the thing that was so very helpful for me was having a routine to take care of myself each day. I know that this whole thing around raising kids in a digital world is so very overwhelming. But if you have a place where you are taking care of yourself every single day with a simple routine that works despite where you are or what your schedule is, you will be able to be more present for your family and handle all of the ups and downs of this most amazing role that we could ever play in this world. So connect with me and let's get you connected to fitness and nutrition tools made by experts that will help you simplify this and then connect you with my fit club community that will support you, guide you and give you momentum and motivation to show up every day, take care of yourself first so that you could be better present for our digital native kids.