Earlier this year when Amazon unveiled the Fire TV set-top box it talked about a feature that would allow parents to control how their kids access content through the Fire TV. That feature is just around the corner now. Its called FreeTime and essentially offers the same functionality as the kid friendly mode on Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets. The feature has a user interface of its own that lists content in a fairly basic way while allowing parents to set different parental controls about the kind of content that can be accessed.
The software update also brings features that Fire TV users have been asking for. In the regular Fire TV interface users will be able to filter searches to view all of the content that’s available for free as part of an Amazon Prime subscription.
In FreeTime parents can set time limits for duration of content playback as well as set at exactly what time during the day or night their kids can access the feature. Parents have control over the apps that can run in FreeTime, ads are disabled for those apps and strict restrictions on in-app purchases are placed.
FreeTime Unlimited offers content from the likes of Nickelodeon and Disney in a package deal, users can sign up for it to bring the content into FreeTime. This update is due to be released next week though Amazon says it will initially be rolled out only to a subset of users, wider availability expected in the coming weeks.