Review: KidMix -The Social Network & Playdate Planner for Kids

Bottom Line: A nice idea for social networking for kids that parents can have control over but the app will only be really useful and fun for kids if they can get their friends to sign up.

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iPhone/iPad (FREE)

Also free on Google Play

and free on Amazon App Store

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This app has no ads, no in-app purchases and no external links.

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Social media and kids are a tricky blend for parents trying to find a perfect mix of freedom and control. KidMix has created a Kidsafe-certified app (information >>HERE<< ) that has done a nice job giving parents as much control as they may want over their kids' social freedoms while also allowing kids the opportunity to learn how to navigate a social environment in a protected space. The app requires a parent account to get started. In order to be verified in the set-up process, parents will have to provide a good chunk of information including the last 4 digits of their Social security number and address for the free verification or pay a one dollar fee via credit card or PayPal. I chose PayPal in my set-up because I am always a bit weary of sharing too much personal information online. Once the parent account is set up, children profiles can be created complete with user names, passwords and even information to be shown on their pages such as favorite foods and gaming systems. Children profiles can be created with two different levels of freedom. One allows children to choose from pre-written phrases, while the other gives children the freedom to type what they want.

In the parent dashboard, there are nine areas of activity containing mail, calendar, kid profiles, send messages, invite friends, playdates, SmartZone, manage my groups and advanced settings. Mail, calendar, profiles and messages are self explanatory. To invite friends, users can search by user name or send an invite via email or phone number. At all points in the process parents have full knowledge and control over friends, messages and posts. Parents can even create groups and plan playdates. One of the other nifty little ideas in this app is letting children plan their own play dates. They select a friend, pick what they want to do and where, then send the request where both parents and children are involved in the decision. Playdates remain in the calendar as well as the playdate section until removed.

The app has a newsfeed where children can see posts by their friends and depending on parent settings, they can comment and like. A nice addition to the app is the SmartZone. This area is chock-full of curated videos organized by topic and includes books, gaming videos, style, learning, sports and more. Children tap a topic, then browse through titles and choose a video to watch. External links embedded in videos are disabled, but they can be liked within the app as well as favorited and shared with friends.

As much as I like the idea of this app it has bugs and user interface issues that need to be worked out. My biggest pet-peeve while tinkering with the app was that I believe the app is best used on iPhones or iPods instead of iPads because the orientation of the keyboard and placement of fields to be typed in were in opposite alignment on the sign-in screen. While the iPad is horizontal, the welcome screen is horizontal but fails to fill the screen while the keyboard is aligned as if the iPad were in a vertical position. I also found that the option to go back from certain areas was negated when orientation was changed during use. One last bug was that when I created test users as my children and set up their wallpapers and interesting facts, I was unable to see those choices on the parent dashboard.