Spotify Kids is an offer from the streaming provider Spotify, through which selected music, radio plays or podcasts are accessible for children and parents are provided with corresponding setting options.
A dedicated editorial team selects the child-friendly audio content for Spotify Kids, so that only Spotify content that is suitable for children and young people is available. There are songs by musicians popular with children, movie music and many compiled playlists. In addition, radio plays such as Benjamin Blümchen or podcasts such as the “Sendung mit der Maus” can be listened to online and offline.
An interface designed especially for children with large images is intended to appeal to young users and make it easier for them to use it independently with simple operation.
Parents can choose between five different profiles and associated content. There are setting options for younger (0 – 6 years) and for older children (5 – 12 years).
The offer is part of Spotify Premium Family, which allows multiple people to use the Premium service at the same time without commercial interruptions. Each family member gets their own account.
Children love to listen to stories and music. As a parent, you may not always have the time to read to your child or turn on certain songs. For such situations, it is helpful if children can choose and save audio content themselves. Being able to choose media content independently is a great experience for many children and contributes to self-determined media use – but it should always be accompanied by you.
With similar services, such as YouTube Kids, it was observed that, despite a pre-selection, problematic content and content not suitable for children could also be seen time and again. Whether this is also the case with Spotify Kids is still difficult to assess, because the offer has only been available since May 2020. However, it is important to take a critical look at the audio content your child is using, despite the pre-selection. Users complain that the offer is not sufficient and parents should be given the option to add Spotify tracks themselves.
Spotify stores the usage behavior of its customers in order to optimize the product. Privacy issues should always be considered when selecting and installing a suitable streaming service.
When using Spotify Family Premium, parents can set which content children can and cannot listen to. The audio content selected by the children is visible to the parents for up to three months. You can then decide which songs, radio plays, and podcasts you’d rather take out of the app.
Offers such as Spotify Kids can tempt children to be left alone with their media use. However, a selection of child-friendly content is always subjective and may not correspond to what you want for your child. Therefore, you should look at the offer together with your child beforehand and talk about it.
The older your child is, the more you can let them make the choice on their own. The function of being able to watch the selected music afterwards gives you the possibility to keep an overview of the child’s media usage. However, it can also make your child feel controlled by you. Therefore, it is better to ask your son or daughter directly what they listen to and like. It is also a great experience to listen to music or stories together.
Here are the instructions on how to set up Spotify Kids.
