How to Use Samsung Galaxy’s Kids Mode to Protect Your Children

If you are a parent, you’ll understand how important it is to keep your children safe online. With the ability to create a more kid-friendly experience for your young ones through the Samsung Galaxy Kids mode app, you can ensure that they have an enjoyable time on anything from tablets to smartphones.

We’ll show you how to set up parental controls to protect your kids, and how you can personalize their experience with a variety of features and options.

What Is the Samsung Kids App?

The Samsung Kids app is an easy-to-use, fun, and interactive app that helps children access kid-safe content including games, videos, and educational apps within a supervised environment. It’s user-friendly and easy for parents to set up, and helps create a customized smartphone or tablet experience for children.

You can install it on your phone and activate it whenever you give the phone to your child, or you can use it as a way of supervising how they use their own devices. The app is integrated in most recent Galaxy phones and tablets, or you can install the updated Samsung Kids app from the Samsung Galaxy Store if you need it.

How to Set Up Samsung Kids on Your Device

The Samsung Kids app can put a world of fun and learning right at your child’s fingertips with a few taps. Let’s take you through some easy steps to get it installed and working in no time.

Step 1: Install and Set Up Samsung Kids

As more parents use technology to stay in touch, monitor, and manage their children’s experiences both in and outside their homes, Samsung Kids gives you a lot of options to do so with ease. Here’s how to set it up:

1. Samsung Kids is integrated on newer devices. You can directly access the Kids button in the Quick Settings panel by pulling down the notification shade on your device. You may need to swipe left and tap the + icon to make it visible first.
2. On the introduction screen, tick the checkbox to add the app to your screen, and click Next to proceed.
3. In the top-right corner, tap the menu (three-dot icon) and select Parental controls. Tap Allow to allow the necessary permissions.

Step 2: Create a User Profile for Your Child

Samsung Kids mode allows you to easily create a profile for your child, and store their favorite apps, games, and websites. Each of these profiles can have unique settings so that you can pick the level of engagement they’re comfortable with. You can add up to six profiles. Here’s how to create one:

1. If you have a smartphone lock enabled, ensure that you verify your pattern/biometrics to access the Parental controls settings during the initial set-up process.
2. Next, tap Set profile, and choose an icon for your child.
3. Enter your child’s details, and hit Save to create a new profile.
4. You can now manage the Allowed content section to add kid-friendly apps, music, imagery, video, and contacts.

Step 3: Set Up a User Lock for Your Kid’s Profile

You can create a PIN for your kid’s profile(s) so that they’re only able to see and access content that you approve. Here’s how to do this:

1. On your device, launch Samsung Kids and navigate to Menu > Settings > Lock type for Parental controls.
2. You can use the default screen lock pattern of your phone, or set up a separate Samsung Kids 4-digit PIN to access and use the app. Keep in mind that you will need to enter this PIN frequently to access the parental controls settings, and also to close the app.

How to Use Parental Control Settings

As we noted earlier, you can create a profile to monitor your child’s smartphone activity, approve apps and games, and manage other parental control settings. Let’s take a look at how you can apply these settings on your device.

Set Screen Time Restrictions

Setting a daily screen time limit gives you control over how much time your kids spend on the device. Here’s how to do this:

1. On your Samsung device, launch the Kids app and navigate to Home screen > Menu > Parental controls.
2. Enter the PIN and scroll down and tap on Screen time. Toggle on the slider button, and set a suggested or custom daily or weekly playtime limit.

Personalize Your Kid’s Experience With Age-Appropriate Content

With the Kids app, you can ensure that your kids are protected online by only allowing access to safe, relevant, and age-appropriate educational and entertaining content. You can manage the type of content you want them to have access to, via the Allowed content section as detailed below:

1. Navigate to the Kids mode home screen and select Menu > Parental controls > Allowed content.
2. To add audio files, tap Music and select the + icon to add music files as well as audiobooks and podcasts, from the files stored on your device.
3. To add images and video content, navigate to Allowed content > Media and tap on the + icon to bring up files from your local storage or gallery.
4. Select the files you need and click Add to confirm.

Allow Kids’ Access to Approved Apps Only

With new apps coming up every day, you also would need to restrict your child’s access to a selection of pre-approved apps suited to their age, interests, and learning levels. Here’s how to do this:

1. On your device, go to the Kids mode app and select Menu > Parental control > Allowed Content > Apps, and tap the + icon (upper right-hand corner) to add the required apps.
2. Click on Add at the bottom of the screen to confirm, and click Save. The selected app(s) will now appear on your Kids mode screen.
3. You can also view and add additional partner apps from the Samsung Galaxy Store. To do this, open the Kids app and navigate to Menu > Parental controls > Allowed content > Get more apps for Samsung… You can then select and download the apps of your choice.

Related: Top Android Apps for Young Kids to Use on Their Parent’s Smartphone

Add a List of Emergency Contacts

With the Kids app, you can give your child access to a restricted list of approved contacts, such as family members, in case of an emergency or otherwise.

1. On your device, navigate to the Samsung Kids home screen and select Menu > Parental controls > Allowed content > Contacts.
2. Tap the + icon to select the contact you wish to add and tap Done to save. You can add up to 30 contacts.

If you own a non-Samsung Android device, you can still set up parental controls to restrict and manage access to content including setting limits on time spent using your devices.

How to Use the Personalization Options in Samsung Kids Mode

Samsung has added a host of personalization features to the Kids app with the One UI 4.0 update. Let’s take a look at some ways you can make things more fun for kids.

Set Colorful Home Screen Wallpapers

Your Samsung Kids home screen can be set to a single theme or personalized for each child. There are several colorful and adorable themes to choose from. Here’s how to change the wallpaper for your child’s profile:

1. On your device, launch the app, go to the home screen, and select Menu > Edit, and enter the user PIN.
2. In the top-right corner, tap the Image icon, and you will get a list of options in the drop-down menu.
3. Select the desired wallpaper theme for your kid’s profile, and click Save on the bottom menu to save these changes.

Personalize Website Icons

You can customize website icons for your child to easily recognize their favorite sites. To add a website and change the icons, follow the steps listed below:

1. Launch the Kids app, and navigate to My Browser > New Website (the plus icon).
2. We’ll be using Google as an example. In the Add to Allowed websites field, type in “https://www.google.com” and click Save. The website now gets added to the My Browser screen.
3. To change the icon, tap on the Google website button to open up the default Google Home page.
4. On the bottom menu panel, click the Star icon, and select an icon or character of your kid’s choice.
5. Once done, tap the Back button to return to the My Browser section, and the new icon will appear on the screen.

Allow Kids to Create and Experience Immersive Content

The app is a great way for kids to discover the joy of learning via augmented reality-based apps for a more immersive experience. It allows kids to create their own content easily, from sketches to music and more.

With its creativity-enhancing apps and games, kids can fine-tune and develop skills—all in a safe, supervised environment.

Enrich Your Child’s Experience

It’s all a personal decision, but we think that you’ll find greater value in the Samsung Kids app, as a responsible parent. The app offers a variety of interactive features that can promote your child’s knowledge, creativity, and cognitive abilities. It is like a digital nurturing tool for your child, and lets you ease them into using technology in a way that is safe, educational, and fun.

Read Next

About The Author