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Should you get an Apple Watch for your kid? Here are all the benefits

If your child isn’t old enough yet for an iPhone, the Apple Watch can be a great alternative device that offers many of the key safety and communication features of the iPhone, but with fewer potential pitfalls.

Apple’s new ‘Apple Watch For Your Kids’ website provides a go-to hub for outlining all the benefits of giving your child an Apple Watch. Here’s what it says.

The benefits of Apple Watch for kids

The new website provides clear information, lovely visuals, and a helpful overview of what could make the Apple Watch a good option for your child.

Some of the highlights include:

  • being able to text or call them thanks to a cellular connection
  • tracking their location with the Find My app
  • managing their device from your iPhone
  • reducing notifications with Schooltime
  • kid-friendly durability and water resistance
  • emergency SOS support
  • Apple Cash access so they can use Apple Pay anywhere it’s accepted
  • Apple Music access
  • personalization of watch faces and bands
  • and more

Be sure to check out the page for more details on the benefits.

How to set up an Apple Watch for your child

Apple has made it possible for any compatible cellular Apple Watch to be set up for a child. There’s no need to purchase a special kids-only Watch.

The first step to setting up a Watch for your child is to make sure they are part of your family in iCloud Family Sharing.

After they are part of your iCloud family, open the Watch app on your iPhone. From here, tap the ‘All Watches’ button in the top-left corner.

You’ll see an ‘Add Watch’ button, after which you’ll hit ‘Set Up for a Family Member’ and follow the steps from there.

Does your child use an Apple Watch? How has that been working for your family? Let us know in the comments.

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Author

Avatar for Ryan Christoffel Ryan Christoffel

Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.

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