smart home technology

Fun, Safe, and Educational: Smart Home Technology is Kid-Friendly

Move over “Back to the Future”. Zion Market Research predicts that the smart home technology industry will be worth $53.45 billion by 2022. Security, lighting, entertainment, and climate control are four features of smart home technology that are particularly growing in popularity. But smart homes aren’t just for adults. Kids can be kept safe and can benefit in many ways from living in a smart home and engaging with smart home technology.

The benefits of smart home technology for children

Before launching into the many positives for children living in smart homes, it’s important to touch on the basics of child safety. A technologically-advanced home that’s both fun and educational is both trendy and exciting, but keeping children safe and making sure your home is childproof remains one of the most important details for any parent. Aside from the physical dangers that any home poses to children, parents are now responsible for raising a digital generation and protecting them from what is right and wrong in the cyber world. Smart homes demand smart parenting.

Smart homes are all about fun

Smart speakers, like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, provide kids with endless entertainment. Through just the power of voice, kids can learn to make these speakers play music, tell jokes, and answer a whole range of inquisitive questions. Trivia games for all ages are another way in which these speakers keep children entertained and happy, particularly when friends come around to play.

Bath time is always a fun part of the day, but with smart home gadgets, like the smart bathtub, to get to grips with, bath time takes kids to a whole new level of fun. Similar to the way in which a Bluetooth speaker works, the smart bathtub ripples music waves through the water. Kids can upload their favorite tracks and create their own music libraries, or they can have fun playing around with some of the preprogrammed mixes.

Smart homes keep children safe

Any parent knows that watching children and keeping them safe 24/7 is, quite frankly, impossible. But smart home technology is paving the way to safer homes for kids and peace of mind for parents. Light dimmers, for instance, mean that lights can be controlled using voice. Children have a habit of waking up in the middle of the night and wandering into mom and dad’s bed. But moving around without the lights on can be dangerous for little ones. If they can’t reach the light switch, the last thing you want them to do is to climb their way to the light. So, teaching them to turn the lights on and off without a simple word can be a really effective way of keeping them safe in the twilight hours.

Allowing the kids to play outside is another parental nightmare. Most parents are torn between wanting their kids to run free, socialize, and have a good time, while worrying about trips, falls, and unwanted interest from strangers. The good news is that there’s a range of smart security cameras available. Simple systems, that are also fairly inexpensive, allow you to keep an eye on the kiddies and even store all the camera footage on microSD cards. The Nest Outdoor Security Camera is one of many options.

Smart homes can be educational

On top of keeping them safe and keeping them entertained, smart home technology helps children to learn. As children get older, it’s easy to get distracted from important homework tasks, for instance, by procrastinating on the internet and chatting with friends via social media networks. Cool, smart connectors, like Circle, help parents monitor internet activity at all times around the house. By installing an app onto just one device, mom and dad can cut off internet use at certain times of the day and keep tabs on what the youngsters are looking at and engaging in online.

For practical learning opportunities, the Smart Baking Scale is a really cool option. These scales don’t just weigh ingredients, but instead they turn cooking into a step-by-step visual experience that kids will just love. It’s easy and fun for kids to learn how to cook by engaging with this smart home appliance.

So, remember, when treated with respect and when carefully monitored, smart technology can be super kid friendly and benefit children in so many ways. In particular, it’s a chance for them to enjoy themselves, to keep out of danger, and to learn. Smart home technology, when used right, is fun, safe, and educational.

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