6 ms·

Apple Watch for Your Kids

48 points by antfarm 3mo ago

heroicmailman 3mo ago
Honestly—I think this is a great marketing angle for Apple. (And if they didn't want to risk cannibalizing iPhone sales they could also spin it as an anti-phone addiction measure for adults as well!) More and more I'm starting to feel comfortable leaving my phone at home and using just my cellular Watch + AirPods when I'm out and about.
pstuart 3mo ago
I don't know what kind of games you could fit on a watch (Tamagotchi type things?), but getting kids to actually use things requires them seeing some sort of direct reward. We bought cheapo dumb phones for our kids and they'd never remember to take them with them, but once we were forced to get them smart phones suddenly that was never a problem. And by forced I mean the endless wearing down of the whining and crying and petulance because all their friends had smartphones. Ugh, one of many occasions where I failed as a parent.
xyzzy123 3mo ago
Feels like an interesting trend where a "solution" for parent anxiety (and to be fair, vastly increased societal expectations around what "care" looks like) is proposed to be electronic surveillance. It's a kid tracker / ankle bracelet in an attractive form factor. I was a kid in the 80s, city fringe, single parent who worked until 5:30. Honestly nobody had any idea where me & my friends were a lot of the time. Totally acceptable in that era. The main worry I have about tech like this is, at what saturation of deployment does the norm shift such that it's irresponsible NOT to electronically track your kids whenever they leave the house?
- mox1 3mo ago
  Or its a phone alternative for younger kids that keeps an actual phone out of their hands, allows for worry free communication while they roam the streets and is backed by arguably the most privacy focused of the big tech companies… (disclosure: my 8 and 10 year old have them, works great for everyone involved)
- johncole 3mo ago
  This is a fantastic option when the only other viable option is to get them a phone. They can text parents, they can be tracked, but they can’t watch stupid YouTube or TikTok videos, and they can’t participate in 95% of the stuff that harms kids at that age. What’s become the “irresponsible norm” is to not give your kids a phone, which is crazy, because it’s just giving tech companies the ability to manipulate kids.
- plandis 3mo ago
  I’m not saying your conclusion is incorrect but the anecdote provided is survivorship bias. My childhood was much the same in the 90s. There was a case recently where parents were charged with felony involuntary manslaughter, and felony child neglect because they let their 10 and 7 year cross the street unsupervised and a car hit them and the 7 year old died. As a parent if that’s the reality I definitely hesitate to allow my son out unsupervised when he’s a bit older. I can’t imagine losing your son in an accident and then have the state come down on you while you’re still grieving. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/children-traffic-death-parents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.o1A.jldX.8MEt-qM0P7i_&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/children-traffic-...
  - kridsdale1 3mo ago
    That happened because they were Black. (The state force, I mean).
    - bibimsz 3mo ago
      they were White as much as black
      - trumpdong 3mo ago
        Blacker than the amount of blackness the state can tolerate.
  - jkestner 3mo ago
    I'm thankful I live in one of the several states with "free range" laws to protect parents from this. https://letgrow.org/states/ https://letgrow.org/states/
  - pjmlp 3mo ago
    I rather have the boomer / genx childhood from me and my parents, really don't get this helicopter parent attitude. Yes, accidents do happen, kinds can't be surveilled 24/7 anyway.
- lubujackson 3mo ago
  We used to have payphones. You could ask a gas station attendant for directions, or someone on the street. Those sort of options have disappeared or become much less common. If my 11 year old starts asking a random person on the street how to get somewhere there is now a chance I will hear from DHS. It is a different world now. Not everyone cares about the tracking, though it is nice to have for younger kids who may go on a field trip or with a group of friends and get separated or any number of normal situations.
Teever 3mo ago
I'd like to see regulators deal with the bundling requirements for devices. It would serve the greater good by preventing a company the size of Apple from obligating that someone must buy an iPhone to use an Apple Watch.
agnishom 3mo ago
The response to "Where's Erica?" should not be to put a tracking wristband on Erica. Perhaps you won't know where Erica is. Perhaps she is doing something dangerous. The oblivion and ambiguity are part of what constitutes acknowledging Erica's personhood.
- rexpop 3mo ago
  A parent as enlightened as you should have no trouble asking at dinner—without judgement or advice—"and how was your smoke sesh out back of the 7-11?"
- jmorenoamor 3mo ago
  This is crucial, and at the same time difficult now that I am a parent. Part of my childhood was stretching limits, going past that street because there was a cool shop or place I wanted to see, returning home one or two hours later that I should have because I was having fun. Now I try to avoid the temptation of control, I have the tools and the skills to easily do it, and it's a daily struggle to say "let them go"
  - tw04 3mo ago
    That has nothing to do with tracking though. Just because I can see my kid went out of the neighborhood without permission doesn't mean I need to punish them for it or even tell them I noticed. Furthermore, my parents couldn’t track me, but I guarantee if I came home 2 hours later than I said I would I was getting grounded unless I had a REALLY good excuse.
- lurking_swe 3mo ago
  nitpick: the “where is erica?” is a catchy title for the feature being showcased - which is actually a notification that your child made it to school safely. Look at the screenshot closely (i don’t think you did). That’s a genuinely useful feature. Anyway I agree with you in general! But don’t forget that everyone has a different relationship with their kids and each kid is different. Believe it or not, not every teenager goes through a rebellious phase. some kids might actually appreciate a watch like this because mom and dad will pester them less and be less anxious in general. Of course the main issue is the person purchasing the watch is the parent, and some parents don’t really respect their children’s feelings. It can definitely be a problem so I hear what you’re saying. It can be used in a way that takes away their freedom. That’s not cool. another consideration: this device can be a bridge from a dumb phone to a smart-ish device, a device that’s not an actual smart phone.
avanai 3mo ago
I got one for my grade schooler and it's mostly great. She can text or call me or her mom or her grandparents (but no one else), we can know where she is, and there not too much she can play on it. It gives her a bit more freedom because she can get in touch with us to make plans or wander off out of sight but still be in touch. I'm kind of annoyed with "schooltime" on the phone, it has a fixed (boring) watch face, it doesn't actually stop a kid from exiting schooltime, they just have to press a button and we can see if she did it in the app. It's also either on on a weekly schedule or totally off, so she has to whine at me to turn off schooltime on holidays and then it's easy to forget to turn it back on. There's also no provision for multiple family members to manage kid watches. I set up her watch so my wife can't also manage it. Also, there's no way for me to install apps. I'd really like to install Home Assistant on her watch so she can unlock doors, but...I can't. Can't be done. Overall I'd say they built out a nice system for a while and then...stopped. I bet there's a PM at Apple that had the rest of the features all ready to go and then got moved off onto the Vision Pro or something. Every now and then they're talking to their old teammate and they sigh about what it could have been. I'll buy them a beer sometime.
m2f2 3mo ago
250 bucks. For an 8 yo. Meh. I see, either everything one here goes to preppy schools, in a perfect Montessori world, vs others working three jobs to pay mortgage and 2 cars. And the solution is apple watch.
abujazar 3mo ago
Workouts for kids? Surveillance sold as «independence»? This is dystopian stuff, a few years ago I wouldn't think of Apple to sink this deep.
hnthrow10282910 3mo ago
Let the kids live.. Without trackers you psychopaths
- qsera 3mo ago
  What? You don't want your kids be familar with parental tracking so that they can graduate seamlessly into government tracking?
branon 3mo ago
I'd be concerned a kid would lose this. Sure it's got Find My but that only tells you where it's at, doesn't guarantee retrieveability. Also do you need an iPhone to manage the kid's Apple Watch or can you do this with a PC (web UI somewhere? apple.com?) or Android device etc? This is very important, if they're billing it as a safety device for kids, interacting with/reading data from the safety device should NOT require a _specific model_ of separate device. I should be able to do it from anywhere.
- _AzMoo 3mo ago
  You'll need an iPhone to manage it. It's the same with managing an iPad's Family Sharing settings. Need another Apple device to manage it properly.
etempleton 3mo ago
I think some people are missing the point here. There is an age where it makes sense to get your kid some kind of connectivity device, but you don’t want to get them a smart phone so you either get them an over priced dumb phone or kids phone or you could get them the Apple Watch. It allows them to call you for pickup and maybe text a few friends, but is inconvenient enough they won’t sit and stare at it all day.
GuestFAUniverse 3mo ago
$275 for a kids watch. Even considering the extras it provides: no. And we have an iPad Air for educational work, which get used daily. It's not about the money per se. Additionally Apple isn't very good in proper parental controls compared to family link on Android. Abysmal at best. So, why would I buy another Apple product with probably the same bad UX for me as a parent? Not gonna happen.
jcoder 3mo ago
My child has an SE, and the only downside we’ve seen is that without a connected iPhone or WiFi network, the battery life is unimaginably bad. That little LTE radio works hard in the school.
- thebruce87m 3mo ago
  How bad is bad? My son has an Xplora and it doesn’t even make it to 5pm after less than a year.
deleted 3mo ago
[deleted]
snigacookie 3mo ago
[dead]
danielmarkbruce 3mo ago
i have this for both my young kids and it's great. It results in me letting them do all manner of things I wouldn't otherwise let them do because in an instant they can call me if things go sideways. It ends up being less "tracker" and more "if they really really need me they can get me". It's win win - they get to do more, and I get to feel better.
ricardobeat 3mo ago
I wanted this about six years ago… had to find a donation iPhone just to set up a child’s apple watch.
onesingleblast 3mo ago
[dead]

48 points by antfarm 3mo ago

Honestly—I think this is a great marketing angle for Apple. (And if they didn't want to risk cannibalizing iPhone sales they could also spin it as an anti-phone addiction measure for adults as well!) More and more I'm starting to feel comfortable leaving my phone at home and using just my cellular Watch + AirPods when I'm out and about.

pstuart 3mo ago

I don't know what kind of games you could fit on a watch (Tamagotchi type things?), but getting kids to actually use things requires them seeing some sort of direct reward. We bought cheapo dumb phones for our kids and they'd never remember to take them with them, but once we were forced to get them smart phones suddenly that was never a problem. And by forced I mean the endless wearing down of the whining and crying and petulance because all their friends had smartphones. Ugh, one of many occasions where I failed as a parent.

xyzzy123 3mo ago

Feels like an interesting trend where a "solution" for parent anxiety (and to be fair, vastly increased societal expectations around what "care" looks like) is proposed to be electronic surveillance. It's a kid tracker / ankle bracelet in an attractive form factor. I was a kid in the 80s, city fringe, single parent who worked until 5:30. Honestly nobody had any idea where me & my friends were a lot of the time. Totally acceptable in that era. The main worry I have about tech like this is, at what saturation of deployment does the norm shift such that it's irresponsible NOT to electronically track your kids whenever they leave the house?

mox1 3mo ago
Or its a phone alternative for younger kids that keeps an actual phone out of their hands, allows for worry free communication while they roam the streets and is backed by arguably the most privacy focused of the big tech companies… (disclosure: my 8 and 10 year old have them, works great for everyone involved)
johncole 3mo ago
This is a fantastic option when the only other viable option is to get them a phone. They can text parents, they can be tracked, but they can’t watch stupid YouTube or TikTok videos, and they can’t participate in 95% of the stuff that harms kids at that age. What’s become the “irresponsible norm” is to not give your kids a phone, which is crazy, because it’s just giving tech companies the ability to manipulate kids.
plandis 3mo ago
I’m not saying your conclusion is incorrect but the anecdote provided is survivorship bias. My childhood was much the same in the 90s. There was a case recently where parents were charged with felony involuntary manslaughter, and felony child neglect because they let their 10 and 7 year cross the street unsupervised and a car hit them and the 7 year old died. As a parent if that’s the reality I definitely hesitate to allow my son out unsupervised when he’s a bit older. I can’t imagine losing your son in an accident and then have the state come down on you while you’re still grieving. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/children-traffic-death-parents.html?unlocked_article_code=1.o1A.jldX.8MEt-qM0P7i_&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/children-traffic-...
- kridsdale1 3mo ago
  That happened because they were Black. (The state force, I mean).
  - bibimsz 3mo ago
    they were White as much as black
    - trumpdong 3mo ago
      Blacker than the amount of blackness the state can tolerate.
- jkestner 3mo ago
  I'm thankful I live in one of the several states with "free range" laws to protect parents from this. https://letgrow.org/states/ https://letgrow.org/states/
- pjmlp 3mo ago
  I rather have the boomer / genx childhood from me and my parents, really don't get this helicopter parent attitude. Yes, accidents do happen, kinds can't be surveilled 24/7 anyway.
lubujackson 3mo ago
We used to have payphones. You could ask a gas station attendant for directions, or someone on the street. Those sort of options have disappeared or become much less common. If my 11 year old starts asking a random person on the street how to get somewhere there is now a chance I will hear from DHS. It is a different world now. Not everyone cares about the tracking, though it is nice to have for younger kids who may go on a field trip or with a group of friends and get separated or any number of normal situations.

Teever 3mo ago

I'd like to see regulators deal with the bundling requirements for devices. It would serve the greater good by preventing a company the size of Apple from obligating that someone must buy an iPhone to use an Apple Watch.

agnishom 3mo ago

The response to "Where's Erica?" should not be to put a tracking wristband on Erica. Perhaps you won't know where Erica is. Perhaps she is doing something dangerous. The oblivion and ambiguity are part of what constitutes acknowledging Erica's personhood.

rexpop 3mo ago
A parent as enlightened as you should have no trouble asking at dinner—without judgement or advice—"and how was your smoke sesh out back of the 7-11?"
jmorenoamor 3mo ago
This is crucial, and at the same time difficult now that I am a parent. Part of my childhood was stretching limits, going past that street because there was a cool shop or place I wanted to see, returning home one or two hours later that I should have because I was having fun. Now I try to avoid the temptation of control, I have the tools and the skills to easily do it, and it's a daily struggle to say "let them go"
- tw04 3mo ago
  That has nothing to do with tracking though. Just because I can see my kid went out of the neighborhood without permission doesn't mean I need to punish them for it or even tell them I noticed. Furthermore, my parents couldn’t track me, but I guarantee if I came home 2 hours later than I said I would I was getting grounded unless I had a REALLY good excuse.
lurking_swe 3mo ago
nitpick: the “where is erica?” is a catchy title for the feature being showcased - which is actually a notification that your child made it to school safely. Look at the screenshot closely (i don’t think you did). That’s a genuinely useful feature. Anyway I agree with you in general! But don’t forget that everyone has a different relationship with their kids and each kid is different. Believe it or not, not every teenager goes through a rebellious phase. some kids might actually appreciate a watch like this because mom and dad will pester them less and be less anxious in general. Of course the main issue is the person purchasing the watch is the parent, and some parents don’t really respect their children’s feelings. It can definitely be a problem so I hear what you’re saying. It can be used in a way that takes away their freedom. That’s not cool. another consideration: this device can be a bridge from a dumb phone to a smart-ish device, a device that’s not an actual smart phone.

avanai 3mo ago

I got one for my grade schooler and it's mostly great. She can text or call me or her mom or her grandparents (but no one else), we can know where she is, and there not too much she can play on it. It gives her a bit more freedom because she can get in touch with us to make plans or wander off out of sight but still be in touch. I'm kind of annoyed with "schooltime" on the phone, it has a fixed (boring) watch face, it doesn't actually stop a kid from exiting schooltime, they just have to press a button and we can see if she did it in the app. It's also either on on a weekly schedule or totally off, so she has to whine at me to turn off schooltime on holidays and then it's easy to forget to turn it back on. There's also no provision for multiple family members to manage kid watches. I set up her watch so my wife can't also manage it. Also, there's no way for me to install apps. I'd really like to install Home Assistant on her watch so she can unlock doors, but...I can't. Can't be done. Overall I'd say they built out a nice system for a while and then...stopped. I bet there's a PM at Apple that had the rest of the features all ready to go and then got moved off onto the Vision Pro or something. Every now and then they're talking to their old teammate and they sigh about what it could have been. I'll buy them a beer sometime.

m2f2 3mo ago

250 bucks. For an 8 yo. Meh. I see, either everything one here goes to preppy schools, in a perfect Montessori world, vs others working three jobs to pay mortgage and 2 cars. And the solution is apple watch.

abujazar 3mo ago

Workouts for kids? Surveillance sold as «independence»? This is dystopian stuff, a few years ago I wouldn't think of Apple to sink this deep.

hnthrow10282910 3mo ago

Let the kids live.. Without trackers you psychopaths

qsera 3mo ago
What? You don't want your kids be familar with parental tracking so that they can graduate seamlessly into government tracking?

branon 3mo ago

I'd be concerned a kid would lose this. Sure it's got Find My but that only tells you where it's at, doesn't guarantee retrieveability. Also do you need an iPhone to manage the kid's Apple Watch or can you do this with a PC (web UI somewhere? apple.com?) or Android device etc? This is very important, if they're billing it as a safety device for kids, interacting with/reading data from the safety device should NOT require a _specific model_ of separate device. I should be able to do it from anywhere.

_AzMoo 3mo ago
You'll need an iPhone to manage it. It's the same with managing an iPad's Family Sharing settings. Need another Apple device to manage it properly.

etempleton 3mo ago

I think some people are missing the point here. There is an age where it makes sense to get your kid some kind of connectivity device, but you don’t want to get them a smart phone so you either get them an over priced dumb phone or kids phone or you could get them the Apple Watch. It allows them to call you for pickup and maybe text a few friends, but is inconvenient enough they won’t sit and stare at it all day.

GuestFAUniverse 3mo ago

$275 for a kids watch. Even considering the extras it provides: no. And we have an iPad Air for educational work, which get used daily. It's not about the money per se. Additionally Apple isn't very good in proper parental controls compared to family link on Android. Abysmal at best. So, why would I buy another Apple product with probably the same bad UX for me as a parent? Not gonna happen.

jcoder 3mo ago

My child has an SE, and the only downside we’ve seen is that without a connected iPhone or WiFi network, the battery life is unimaginably bad. That little LTE radio works hard in the school.

thebruce87m 3mo ago
How bad is bad? My son has an Xplora and it doesn’t even make it to 5pm after less than a year.

deleted 3mo ago

[deleted]

snigacookie 3mo ago

[dead]

danielmarkbruce 3mo ago

i have this for both my young kids and it's great. It results in me letting them do all manner of things I wouldn't otherwise let them do because in an instant they can call me if things go sideways. It ends up being less "tracker" and more "if they really really need me they can get me". It's win win - they get to do more, and I get to feel better.

ricardobeat 3mo ago

I wanted this about six years ago… had to find a donation iPhone just to set up a child’s apple watch.

onesingleblast 3mo ago

[dead]