5 Tablet Settings To Change Before Handing It To Your Kids

These days, there are plenty of affordable kids' tablets on the market you can choose for your little ones. They're usually designed with a drop-proof case and kid-friendly software to make it easier to create an age-appropriate environment, all with minimal setup needed. But what if you already have a perfectly good tablet at home? Well, that can actually work as a kids' device, too. 

If that old tablet still has a functional speaker and screen and can still connect to the internet and update apps, then it can readily serve as a shared tablet for the household. But of course, it needs a bit of tweaking to be as safe and suitable as possible for your kids. The setup can be more involved than what you'd get with a new kids' tablet, though, as you'll have to dive a little deeper into the device settings. To give you an idea about where to start, here are the five key changes to make before handing that tablet over to your kids. 

Sharing a tablet with your kids means risking your apps and data getting accidentally edited or deleted. Thankfully, there's one tablet setting you can change to avoid that: Multiple Users. Just like how you can have multiple profiles on your computer, the Multiple Users feature lets you create separate accounts for you and your kids. This means separate workspaces, too, where the kids can't access your app data.

While Multiple Users is available on Amazon Fire and most Android tablets, iPads currently don't come with multi-user support. To turn this feature on your Android tablet, here's what you need to do:

1. Launch Settings.
2. Tap on System.
3. Choose Multiple users.
4. Toggle on Allow multiple users.
5. Under Users, select Add user.
6. Type a name for the user.
7. Hit OK.
8. Select Switch to [user name].

When prompted, tap Set up now to set up the new user's space. You can then choose whether an adult or a child will be using the device. For a child user, you need to log in or create a Google Account for your kid. This then allows you to configure parental controls, choose which apps will appear in the new workspace, and even control content settings on YouTube Kids.

For Amazon Fire tablets, the process looks different:

1. In the Settings app, go to Profiles & Family Library.
2. Tap Add a Child Profile.
3. Add a PIN or password if your adult profile doesn't already have one.
4. On the Child Profile page, enter your child's first name and birthdate.
5. Hit Agree & Add Profile.

From here, you can switch to the child profile you just created. Simply head over to the Quick Settings panel and press the person icon in the bottom-left corner. Then tap on the kid profile.

If your kids spend all day on the tablet, it's a good idea to set a time limit for various apps. Screen time management apps are great for this, but there are also built-in features you can use to achieve the same effect. On Android tablets, head over to Digital Wellbeing & parental controls (or simply Digital Wellbeing) in the Settings and select App timers. From there, set your preferred time limit for the individual apps. This can range from five minutes to 23 hours and 55 minutes.

Keep in mind that the time you set for the app is good for the entire day. Once your child uses up their daily time allowance on a certain app, the tablet automatically closes it and grays it out on the device. When anyone tries to launch it again, a pop-up will appear, saying that the app is paused and will be available for use tomorrow.

On iPads, time limits work differently, as the system assigns a limit per app category rather than by individual app. To configure daily app timers on your iPad, here's what you need to do:

1. In your iPad Settings, choose Screen Time.
2. Open Time Allowances.
3. Tap Manage Categories.
4. Add a new category.
5. Select one of the preset categories or create your own with a custom list of apps.
6. Choose whether or not the apps in that category can be accessed any time of day.
7. Set the time limit.
8. Hit Done.
9. Go back to Time Allowances.
10. Adjust the Shared Time Allowance to your preferred limit.

Once that's set up, make sure to create a passcode, too, so your kids can't bypass the time allowance. You can find this in the Settings app under Manage Screen Time in the Screen Time option.

Kids have a habit of clicking on stuff without a care in the world. While that might be harmless most of the time, it can become costly when those clicks lead to in-app purchases. To prevent unwanted charges on your credit card while your kids are using the tablet, you can enable authentication for purchases. This tablet setting is very quick and easy to set up. On Android devices, you just need to hop on the Play Store and follow this guide:

1. Press your profile picture in the top-right.
2. Open Payments & subscriptions.
3. Select Purchase verification.
4. Turn on Biometric verification.
5. Tap on Verification frequency.
6. Set the frequency to Always.

If you have an iPad, the setting to enable authentication for purchases is in the Settings app instead of the App Store. In Settings, just tap your name at the top and go to Media & Purchases. When prompted, enter your Apple Account password. Then, select Password Settings and set Purchases to Always Require. If you prefer to use your Face ID for purchases, select Face ID & Passcode in the main Settings page and toggle on iTunes & App Store.

For Fire tablets, you can outright disable in-app purchases. Go into the Amazon Appstore and navigate to Account, then Settings, then In-app Purchasing. Uncheck the box for Allow In-App Purchases and input your Amazon password when prompted.

Kids always like to turn the volume of the tablet all the way up, especially when they're enjoying a game or video, but that can damage their hearing. Fortunately, iPads, Fire tablets, and some Android models let you set a maximum volume limit for the tablet's built-in speaker, connected headphones, or both.

On Samsung tablets, you can only control a volume limit for headphones and Bluetooth speakers. To do so, click on Sounds and vibration in the Settings app. Then, select Volume and navigate to the three dots in the upper right. Here, you can find the Media volume limit. Tap on it and toggle it on. Set the slider to the lowest setting, which is 85 decibels. Anything above this level may be too loud for your kids.

For iPad users, there are two audio-related Apple features you can tweak:

1. In the Settings app, choose Sounds.
2. Enable Reduce Loud Sounds to soften loud sound effects played through the speaker.
3. Under Built-In Speaker, tap on Volume Limit.
4. Toggle on Limit Maximum Volume.
5. Adjust the slider to 70% or lower.
6. Go back to the Sounds page.
7. Select Headphone Safety.
8. Turn on Reduce Loud Audio.
9. Drag the slider all the way down to 75 decibels.

On Fire tablets, it's also as simple as going into Settings. While your child is logged in to the device, tap on the profile icon in the upper right corner. Then head over to Settings and input your PIN as usual. From there, select Device Settings and press Set Max Volume. Turn the option on and drag the slider to your preferred level — sweet spot is usually 50% and below.

The internet isn't exactly the safest place for kids to explore. Unfortunately, you can't always prevent them from using the tablet's browser, especially if they also go online for educational purposes, like researching school projects or accessing learning platforms. You can, however, change a tablet's DNS (or Domain Name System) setting to make online browsing safer for your kids.

Changing a tablet's DNS setting means replacing the default with a different DNS service. This default DNS resolver isn't necessarily configured to block or filter content, which means your kids can be exposed to adult and malicious content. You can help protect them by switching to a filtering DNS service like Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 for Families. This app lets you block either malware only or both adult content and malware. Once configured, the block generally works system-wide. Adult and malicious websites will no longer load, whether your kid is on Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser.

To set a custom DNS service on your Android tablet, use this guide:

1. Go to the Settings app.
2. Search for Private DNS.
3. Tap on the top result.
4. Change it from Off or Auto to Private DNS provider hostname.
5. Type family.cloudflare-dns.com (or another similar service) to block both malware and adult content.

For iPads, follow these steps:

1. In Settings, select Wi-Fi.
2. Tap the info icon next to your home Wi-Fi.
3. Go to Configure DNS at the bottom of the page.
4. Set it to Manual.
5. Choose Add Server.
6. Input 1.1.1.3 for blocking malware and adult content.
7. Hit Save.