Our smartphones are gateways to a world of limitless experiences. However, because there are no limits, parents should be careful about protecting their kids from content that could be harmful, and need to prevent them from accessing important files. These are just a few of the concerns that tend to prevent parents from allowing their kids to use smart devices.

If you’re a parent in need of a ‘fence’ that allows kids to access the limitless digital world in a safe manner, Samsung Kids could be just what you’ve been looking for. Samsung Kids is a home launcher made just for kids that prevents them from being exposed to external services and fills their smartphone with family-friendly apps that entertain and encourage them to learn. Read on to find out how Samsung Kids’ latest update with One UI 4 adds even more safety and variety to features that families rely on every day.

How Samsung Kids Evolved To Offer More Convenience and Fun

The platform we now know as Samsung Kids was originally introduced in 2014 as Kids Mode. Created to enable kids to use smartphones more safely, Kids Mode featured settings that made it easy for parents to ensure that their kids only had access to apps provided by the Kids Mode service, along with any others that parents had allowed. It also offered kids their first taste of the Galaxy ecosystem with the design that catered to their preferences and featured unique and friendly characters.

Since then, Kids Mode has continued to evolve. A diverse collection of content was added for each age group and category to ensure that kids would continue to have fun and learn with their smartphones.

When Kids Mode eventually became Samsung Kids, it became even more convenient and offered a greater variety of content. Now users can activate Samsung Kids with just a single tap in the Quick Panel – no download required. They can also instantly turn the feature on or off when unlocking their phone. There’s no need to set up a dedicated password, and the feature offers a detailed view of usage patterns. Samsung has also enriched the service with more types of content through collaboration with partner companies. You can learn more about these and other enhancements that offer kids a richer smartphone experience and take the stress out of choosing content for your child in the video below.

Key Update ①: Adjusting Background Colors and Apps Based on Age Groups

Samsung Kids is mainly intended to be used by kids between the ages of three and eight. Now, with the update, there are options to change the background’s color and the apps displayed on screen so that more age groups can utilize the service. To better cater to their child’s needs, parents can delete default apps and populate the home screen with the content from the Recommended Content page and apps that they have downloaded and allowed.

Useful default apps for younger kids include Bobby’s Canvas (a drawing app), My Magic Voice (a voice modifier) and Lisa’s Music Band (a musical app). Parents also have the option to hide certain apps and content if they wish.

Kids who are eight years old and older may benefit more from content that’s a little more challenging. Examples include apps like Crocro’s Adventure, which allows kids to practice logical thinking through block coding, My Browser, which features English news articles, and Pettson’s Inventions, which is listed under partner apps. Users also have the option to change the background color to suit their preferences. In addition, by early next year, kids who use the home launcher will be able to decorate their home screen with their own drawings.

Key Update ②: Stronger Parental Controls for Monitoring Activity and Setting Weekly Goals

Every parent wants to know which apps their kids use most and what kinds of apps they prefer. Samsung Kids’ updated parental control feature not only provides detailed insights on kids’ mobile activities for the day, but the last month as well. Apps are listed based on frequency of use, making it easier to monitor screen time for each one.

Healthy smartphone usage habits are created when goals are established and adhered to. Having a record of your child’s smartphone activities is helpful for setting up weekly usage goals. Depending on their circumstances, users can establish a same screen time goal to be followed every day, or they can also set up different goals for each day of the week.

Key Update ③: Recommended Content Page Now Includes AR Features and Partner Apps

Samsung Kids not only provides features for basic activities like taking photos and drawing, but also includes a wide range of content developed through collaboration with partners. If you swipe right on the home screen, you’ll find various new apps that cater to kids’ preferences, which can easily be dragged and added to the home screen.

Apps that make use of AR (augmented reality) are also introduced with the update. For example, My AR Theater and My Art Studio allow kids to craft their own special stories with Crocro and his friends in augmented reality. They can save their stories as videos, and can take pictures and decorate them with AR stickers made from their own drawings. These features empower kids to unleash their imagination and develop their creativity. Kids can also enjoy a wide variety of fun activities with partner apps like LEGO DUPLO World, Disney Coloring and Toca Boca’s newest apps.

Key Update ④: Promoting Healthy Mobile Habits by Offering Kids Insights Into Their Smartphone Use

Samsung Kids continues to evolve to make it easier for young users to enjoy more fun and educational content. Beginning with One UI 4, Crocro’s Little Friends will welcome kids on the Welcome Board, and their greetings and interactions will differ depending on the situation and as more character actions are added.¹ The newly added partners’ content app card, meanwhile, groups recommended apps together based on category, making it more convenient for users to find apps that they might like.

Cards designed to help users monitor their activity and screen time have also been added. This was done under the assumption that kids, like their parents, would also be curious about their smartphone activity. Now, kids can monitor their activities and screen time together with their parents, or set up their own smartphone usage plan to further develop their autonomy.

Key Update ⑤: Introducing New and Even Friendlier ‘Little Friends’

With the update, Crocro and his ‘Little Friends’ – Samsung Kids’ group of charming and unique characters – have become even friendlier, and now include characters from both the land and the sea. You can meet all six characters in the video below, including new additions like Leo the seal, who likes to collect things from the ocean, and Finn the intelligent dolphin.

With limited opportunities to enjoy the outdoors these days, kids have been using mobile devices more frequently. In light of this trend, it has become even more important for kids to develop good mobile habits and utilize fun and educational content. Going forward, Samsung plans to make Samsung Kids even more enjoyable, and a safer ‘fence’ for the digital world that considers both parents and kids.

“We want Samsung Kids to be a partner as well as a friend to both kids and their parents. We’ll devote more efforts to making sure that users see more of Crocro and his Little Friends, more often,” said Jong-in Lee, Samsung Kids service PO (Project Owner) in Samsung Electronics’ Mobile Communications Business.

¹ Welcome Board functions may differ depending on the version of the operating system

“We understand how busy modern life can be, as our work becomes more flexible and blends with our personal time. Consumers need a versatile device that can integrate seamlessly into their everyday lifestyle,” said Woncheol Chai, SVP and Head of Product Planning Team, Mobile Communication Business, Samsung Electronics. “The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite and the new S Pen are packed with the latest technology to help people stay organized, multitask and capture ideas effortlessly, allowing them to spend time on what matters most to them.”

Create More and Stress Less With the Redesigned S Pen

Whether you are using your tablet for work, study, or just during downtime at home, the updated S Pen is the perfect notetaking and multitasking assistant. The new S Pen has a refreshed design that makes it as practical and comfortable to use as a traditional pen. Weighing only 7.03g, the S Pen is light and easy-to-use, and its improved pen latency and 0.7mm pen tip deliver greater precision for notetaking and drawing. When you’re finished capturing your ideas, the S Pen snaps magnetically onto the right side of the tablet, or to the optional book cover case, making it easy to use without the concern of misplacing it. The S Pen on the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is also battery-free, so you never have to worry about losing charge when using your S Pen.

Using the S Pen and Samsung Notes, you can transform handwritten notes into typed text instantly.¹ Categorize and search your notes with ease through tags, highlight important passages and enlarge the content on the notes with the 300% zoom feature. All your notes can be easily exported as a PDF, JPEG image, text file or Microsoft Word document.

Inspired Design That Won’t Weigh You Down

With a 10.4-inch screen and narrow bezels, the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite benefits from a wide and immersive display. The lightweight and compact design makes it the ideal tablet for multitasking, notetaking and watching videos or movies. Equipped with the latest version of One UI, optimized for the larger tablet screen, Galaxy Tab S6 Lite has a more intuitive visual interface and simplified navigation tools, making switching between multiple applications smooth and effortless so that you can focus on the task at hand.

Available in three beautiful colors,² Oxford Gray, Angora Blue and Chiffon Pink, with a matching S Pen and optional book cover, the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is a stylish accessory as well as a powerful productivity device.

Enhanced Entertainment Features

The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is packed with clever, helpful and entertaining features that make listening to music, streaming content, shopping online or connecting with friends easier and more enjoyable. The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite includes dual speakers with sound by AKG and Dolby Atmos 3D surround sound for outstanding immersive audio, so whether you’re watching a YouTube video, streaming your favorite show or listening to a great playlist, you’ll experience premium quality sound.

Samsung has partnered with YouTube and Spotify so you can get even more out of your favorite apps on the Galaxy range. Galaxy Tab S6 Lite users can enjoy ad-free YouTube videos, the ability to download and watch videos offline and free access to YouTube Music and YouTube Kids with YouTube Premium for 4 months.³ Spotify seamlessly integrates into the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite’s user interface, so you can easily search for music and podcasts, or even set your favorite song as your alarm.⁴ The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite can also wirelessly connect to your home speaker⁵ setup, so you can play your favorite playlists from Spotify on another device or speaker around your home, all controlled by your tablet.

The Galaxy Experience at Home

Put the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite at the heart of your home to stay productive and organized. You can take calls and send and receive text messages⁶ through your Samsung account on your tablet, even when your smartphone is out of reach or in another room, or stay connected with friends and colleagues using Google Duo video calls on Galaxy Tab S6 Lite.⁷ Use the improved Daily Board display to control music, view your calendar, check the weather and write quick memos and reminders. The new Bixby features and capabilities such as Bixby Voice, Bixby Vision and Bixby Routines will also enhance your overall productivity and entertainment experiences.

The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is a device that can be used by the entire family. With Samsung Kids,⁸ you can set daily playtime allowances, restrict access to certain apps and introduce your kids to the digital world safely with a range of exciting, colorful learning apps and games.

For more information about the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, visit news.samsung.com and samsungmobilepress.com. 

Product Specifications

* All features may differ by market and mobile operator.

**All specifications and descriptions provided herein may be different from the actual specifications and descriptions of the product. Samsung reserves the right to make changes to this web page and the contents herein, including without limitation, functionality, features, specifications, GUI, images, videos, benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, capabilities, and any other product information, without notice. 

¹ Text export function supported on Samsung Notes app, feature availability may vary by language.

² Availability of colors may vary by market.

³ YouTube Premium is only available in select markets. Only new subscribers to YouTube Premium are eligible for this offer.

⁴ Devices should be registered with Spotify Connect at the first use.

⁵ The speakers need to support Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection.

⁶ Call and text on other devices availability varies by country and service provider.

⁷ Google Duo supports video calling with up to twelve other users.

⁸ The availability of Samsung Kids may vary by country, device, and features. Please refer to more information at the website, https://www.samsung.com/kids.

⁹ Screen measured diagonally as a full rectangle without accounting for the rounded corners.

¹⁰ Typical value tested under third-party laboratory condition. Typical value is the estimated average value considering the deviation in battery capacity among the battery samples tested under IEC 61960 standard. Rated (minimum) capacity is 7,040 mAh.

¹¹ These accessories are available to purchase separately.

The Kid’s User Experience

Samsung has taken a holistic approach to creating a child-friendly digital environment with Kids Mode, an entire interface designed for kids, available on their smartphones and tablets.

Kids Mode gives parents flexible control over the apps, videos, music and other content that a child can access. After downloading and installing the app, parents can set up a PIN and a profile for their child and select different controls and restrictions for each profile created. They can also limit how long a child spends on a device each day and monitor their daily activity by app.

With a simplified user interface in Kids Mode, kids can enjoy a color-rich environment, with large buttons and uncomplicated controls to heighten the fun. The exclusive native apps capture the spirit of play and are easily recognizable by their titles and icon buttons, each featuring one or more of the mode’s four cartoon characters: Crocro, Cooki, Bobby and Lisa. The apps are both a digital playground, and an opportunity for children to gain digital literacy. Crocro Adventure, for example, introduces children to basic concepts of coding, harnessing the power of storytelling to keep young minds engaged.

Exploring the Wonderful World of Apps

In addition to these native apps, Samsung has optimized Kids Mode for approximately 2,500 more child-friendly third-party apps for learning and play, available for download via Galaxy Apps for Kids. Partnerships with some of the world’s most popular content providers, such as LEGO®^*, are sure to amuse, while other local partners such as ABC Mouse (US) and Kakao Kids (KR) have also joined them.

Galaxy Apps for Kids organizes apps by age group or category, for easy browsing of appropriate content. What’s more, to prevent little hands from making unintentional purchases, downloads are protected and must be authorized with the parent PIN code.

TV Support for Child-Friendly Media Platforms

As TVs become smarter and access to web-based content and streaming services becomes even more convenient, parents are eager to discover age-appropriate content that can be streamed on the TV screen. Since 2013, Samsung Smart TVs that can access the Samsung App Store have offered support for the YouTube Kids app^**, a platform that lets kids browse easily, with bigger buttons, simpler scrolling and content divided into four categories: Shows, Music, Learning and Explore. Support for LEGO® TV^** is also provided, allowing kids to stream their favorite LEGO® episodes on a TV, with convenient navigation organized by themes, stories and ages.

By developing smart, kid-friendly features and devices, such as Kids Mode, Galaxy Apps for Kids, Samsung Kids and support for age-appropriate TV apps, Samsung will continue its efforts to create a fun, educational and safe environment for kids.

* Availability may vary by location.

** Language and availability may vary by location.

That’s why we invited young people – from first-graders all the way to college age – to join us last week at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2017 in San Francisco. We wanted to showcase some of the educational opportunities that can help children gain true digital literacy, and demonstrate Samsung’s passion for giving young people the future-proof skills they need – not just for the jobs market, but also to express themselves, solve the problems of tomorrow, and “do what you can’t”. Judging by their response, we believe we also inspired many of the developers at SDC 2017 to pass on their own enthusiasm for all things tech, from generation to generation.

Children enjoy a safe and educationally rich digital experience with Kids Mode and Samsung Kids on Galaxy tablets at SDC 2017

For parents, however, there is one must: the first digital experience of their children must happen in a safe but also educationally rich environment, and that’s why we set up the Samsung Kids Experience at SDC. In our interactive zone, we showed off Kids Mode, your children’s first digital – and safe – playground that makes learning easy. Within Kids Mode there are thousands of age-appropriate games, available to help children learn in a fun and interactive way. Kids Mode comes pre-loaded on Galaxy tablets launched from 2016 and available to download for free across 185 countries.  Consistent with the focus on learning in a safe digital environment, at SDC this year we also demonstrated the huge value of a complementary service, Samsung Kids, a US-focused membership program that teaches skills like math, languages, coding and more.

We also gave a flavor of Code Jam, which introduces children aged 5 to 10 to the magic of learning code. And the young kids visiting SDC 2017 just loved Crocro Adventure, a clever education app that teaches children coding through a game that makes them hunt for tasty treats for their Kids Mode characters. Using basic coding concepts to solve problems, Crocro Adventure has been popular ever since it was released with the Galaxy Tab A 2017; the app is now coming to more and more Galaxy devices.

Kids get hands on with Handy Code in a demonstration by staff at SDC 2017

As kids get older, there are plenty of programs that teach them how to code, but most are still stuck in a 20^th century technology environment: the PC. Fact is, the majority of children now live exclusively in a world of mobile computing; they rarely go near a PC. That’s why, at SDC we developed and presented a program called Handy Code: a coding environment for the mobile generation. With Handy Code, kids can learn coding using the tool they’re most familiar with: a smartphone or tablet, and using just their fingers. The feedback from students was clear: with Handy Code, learning to code is much easier – and faster – than they thought it would be.

The Solve for Tomorrow competition at SDC 2017 invited students to showcase solutions and applications they have developed

Teaching 21^st century skills also means to inspire the next generation to learn the STEAM skills – in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics – that modern economies so urgently need. In the US, we run Solve for Tomorrow for children in 6^th to 12th grade, where students learn that technology has a purpose and can tackle very immediate problems. We invited the winners of this year’s Solve for Tomorrow competition to share their achievements with all the developers at SDC 2017, and their exhibition was awesome. Among their innovative solutions was an app developed by students in New York that matched children from poor families that might go hungry with food from restaurants that was still fresh but would otherwise go to waste. A team from Nebraska developed software that helps farmers to use drones for highly targeted delivery of pesticides, which helps to protect both drinking water and the environment; and in Arizona, students developed a system that will save lives by using a clever sensor system that warns drivers when wildlife is near a road, to reduce the number of fatal collisions.

Young attendees at SDC 2017 take part in various workshops and experience Samsung’s latest devices firsthand

Boosting digital literacy has to go all the way to young adulthood and beyond, and that’s why we also invited 50 students from local high schools along with teachers and parents to join our Youth Track at SDC 2017. They had an opportunity to hear the keynotes and participate in a Gear 360 workshop, because it’s with Youth Track that we really hope to inspire young people for a rewarding career as developers and creators.

At SDC 2017, we showed young people that they can do something big with their digital skills, and even join Team Samsung in the future. Showing them the full range of internships and careers that Samsung can offer, we hope to have encouraged them to build their digital skills. Who knows: maybe one of the kids playing Crocro Adventure today may well deliver the breakthrough innovation of tomorrow.