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The best smartwatches and fitness trackers for kids can help the whole family stay connected
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Kids are glued to tech these days. If you’re a parent looking to buy your child their first wearable, a smartwatch or fitness tracker that’s specifically designed for kids is a smart pick.
While a kid-friendly Apple Watch SE is one of the best options for older kids, top brands like Fitbit and VTech make watches packed with fun, kid-friendly perks. That includes step counters, virtual rewards for activity, sleep tracking, and apps that let parents set schedules and monitor progress. Most also have built-in GPS so you can check your child’s location when they’re out playing. Some even let you call or message them in case you need to speak to them, making it easy and quick to stay in touch no matter the situation.
When you’re shopping for a smartwatch or fitness tracker for kids, look for tough designs that can withstand daily play; water resistance; battery life that can keep up with them; and a range of communication options that put you in control as a parent.
Shop our picks for the best smartwatch and fitness trackers for kids below.
What is best smartwatches or fitness trackers for kids in 2024?
Best smartwatch for older kids: Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen)
Amazon
If you’re buying a smartwatch for an older kid, the affordable second-generation Apple Watch SE is a great option that doesn’t skimp on functionality. It’s also a “grown up” smartwatch that your child will want to wear, thanks to the Apple Watch moniker.
This model has most of the features you’ll get with newer and more expensive Apple Watches, like activity tracking, health monitoring, safety features like emergency SOS, and up to 18 hours of battery life. It shares the same easy-to-use interface as the Apple Watch Series 9, along with comparable water resistance and heart rate tracking as well as a responsive raise-to-wake display.
While advanced health sensors and always-on display are not included, the SE focuses on the core functions kids will appreciate, like interactive faces, activity rings, music controls, and location monitoring for parents who want to keep tabs on them.
You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to give your older child their first smartwatch by way of the essential Apple Watch experience. It serves up safety and activity tracking in a more budget-friendly package that still comes with plenty of cool factor attached.
Best smartwatch for younger kids: VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch DX3
Amazon
Younger kids will be attracted to the VTech KidiZoom Smartwatch DX3, and so will you, for a variety of reasons. This candy-colored watch may look like it’s just a toy, but it comes with dual cameras for pics and videos as well as a built-in light that can be used as a camera flash or flashlight.
Kids can deck out the clock face with their own photos or choose from more than 50 animated designs. When it’s school time, the watch can switch to School Mode to limit playtime. When it’s time to relax, your kid can go on solo adventures with games like “Monster Catcher” to find hidden creatures, or get moving with “Racing Run” and “Crazy Dance” challenges. Two kids with watches can even share preset messages with each other to communicate while playing games.
While there’s no location or tracking functionality, this watch acts as a good introduction to what a smartwatch is capable of for the future, when your kids get a little older. With so many ways to customize, capture memories, get active and connect, the KidiZoom DX3 is a great first wearable.
Best tracker smartwatch for kids: AngelSense assistive technology watch
Amazon
If you want to stay on top of where your kid is at all times, or you have a special needs child who requires extra attention, the AngelSense assistive technology watch is the perfect solution. This wearable goes beyond standard tracking to provide 24/7 monitoring and alerts, so you can rest easy knowing you’ll be able to track your kids wherever they roam, even if you just lose contact briefly in the middle of a crowd.
AngelSense auto-learns your child’s routine and then sends alerts for potentially dangerous situations like unexpected stops or delays. You can listen in with the watch’s assistive speakerphone to check if they’re okay and talk through emergencies. If your child wanders off, use the live location sharing and alarms to start an emergency search.
Key features like accident and fall detection, SOS calling, geofencing and two-way voice provide an extra level of protection. Well-being tools like step counting and voice messages let you monitor health and activity, too.
Keep in mind that live features require a $49.99 monthly subscription that includes a SIM, unlimited tracking, assistive speakerphone, special alerts, customer care and more. It’s worth paying for. AngelSense is a great smartwatch that can give the peace of mind you’ll want when it comes to keeping your kids safe.
Best budget smartwatch for older kids: Xplora XGo 2
Amazon
The Xplora XG 2 is a mobile phone watch that uses GPS, WiFi, and GSM tracking. It gives you real-time location monitoring to keep tabs on your kids. It’s also very affordable, with subscriptions that start at just $9.99 per month in addition to the watch’s base price.
Set up safe zones around home, school or other key spots and get alerts if your child wanders outside the pre-marked areas. The XGo 2 allows calling, messaging, voice notes, camera use, and has an SOS button for emergencies.
School Mode limits functions during class while still enabling location tracking and SOS access. With the Xplora app, you get full control over the watch’s settings and variety of options It’s the perfect intro to mobile for kids ages 5-12 while giving parents peace of mind.
The XGO 2 strikes the perfect balance of independence for kids and control for parents in an all-in-one mobile watch. You will need to purchase a subscription, but it’s the cheapest option available at the moment with all of these features, and kids will love feeling like they’ve gotten their first grown-up watch.
Best fitness tracker for kids: Fitbit Ace 3
Amazon
The Fitbit Ace 3 is an ideal starter fitness tracker for kids. It’s no smartwatch — it lacks the abilities seen in most of the other options on this list — but it’s great at what it does. It offers all-day activity and sleep tracking in a durable, waterproof design built to withstand daily play.
With up to eight days of battery life, animated clock faces, and family account management, the Ace 3 works to make health fun for even the youngest user. Kids can earn virtual rewards for hitting step goals while you monitor their progress through the Fitbit app, and that should be enough to get them up and moving.
For active kids, the Ace 3 offers friendly motivation to build healthy habits together as a family. If you have an energetic kid who’s ready for their first wearable, the Ace 3 is perfect for encouraging healthy habits in a straightforward, entertaining package.
By making fitness feel like an adventure, it can inspire kids and parents to be more active.
The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 6, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Joining us now is Arizona’s Democratic Senator, Mark Kelly. He’s in Detroit this morning on the campaign trail for the Harris campaign. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. MARK KELLY: Good morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to talk to you about Arizona, but let’s start in Michigan, which is where you are right now. And it is going to be such a key state to a potential Harris or Trump victory. Vice President Harris is facing challenges among black men, working class people, as well as the Muslim and Arab populations skeptical of the White House support for Israel’s wars. What are you hearing on the ground there from voters?
SEN. KELLY: Well, my wife, Gabby Giffords, and I have been out here for a couple days. We’ve been campaigning across the country, Michigan, I’ve been in North Carolina, Georgia as well. I’ll be back to Arizona here soon. The vice president was out here speaking to Muslim organizations and the Arab community about what is at stake in this election and addressing the concerns that they have. What we’re hearing, issues about the economy, about gun violence, about, you know, supporting American families and the difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. You know, Kamala Harris, who has a vision for the future of this country, Donald Trump, who just wants to drag us backwards.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Today in Dearborn, Michigan, there’s a funeral service for an American man who was killed in Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike. It just underscores how that community you’re talking about out in Michigan feel some of what’s happening in a personal way to their community. Given how close this race is, do you think this war and the expectation it could escalate could cost Democrats both a seat in the Senate and potentially the presidency?
SEN. KELLY: Margaret, nobody wants to see escalation and it’s tragic when any innocent person, whether it’s an American or Palestinian, lose their life in a conflict. Tomorrow’s one year since October 7th, when Israel was violently attacked. Israel has a right to defend itself, not only from Hamas, but from Hezbollah and from the Iranians. But, you know, I and my wife, you know, we feel for the community here who’s been affected by this. And that’s why the vice president was out here earlier, a few days ago, meeting with that community.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s a live issue.
SEN. KELLY: Yeah, sure. I mean, there is an ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Israel is, you know, fighting a war now on, I think it’s fair to say, two fronts and then being attacked by the Iranians as well. And, they- they need to defend themselves, and we need to support our Israeli ally. At the same time, when women and children lose their life, innocent people in a conflict, it is- it is tragic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You do sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee and so I know you know how intense the efforts are by foreign actors to try to manipulate voters going into November. Just this Friday, Matthew Olsen, the lead on election threats at the Department of Justice, told CBS the Russians are, quote, highlighting immigration as a wedge issue. That is such a key issue in Arizona. Are you seeing targeted information operations really focusing in on Arizonans right now?
SEN. KELLY: Not only in Arizona, in other battleground states. It’s the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and it’s significant. And we need to do a better job getting the message out to the American people that there is a huge amount of misinformation. If you’re looking at stuff on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Instagram, and it’s political in nature, and you may- might think that that person responding to that political article or who made that meme up is an American. It could be- it could look like a U.S. service member. There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China. We had a hearing recently, with the FBI director, the DNI, and the head of the National Security Agency. And we talked about this. And we talked about getting the word out. And it’s up to us, so thank you for asking me the question, because it’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on November 5th.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. And we will do our best to help parse that for viewers. But on the topic of the border, President Biden did announce just this past week new regulations to keep in place that partial asylum ban that he rolled out back in June. That’s what’s credited with helping to bring down some of the border crossing numbers in recent weeks. It was supposed to be a temporary policy, dependent on how many people were crossing at a time. Do you think this is the right long term policy, or is this just a gimmick to bring down numbers ahead of the election?
SEN. KELLY: Well, the right long term policy is to do this through legislation. And we were a day or two away from doing that, passing strong border security legislation supported by the vice president, negotiated by the vice president, and the president and his Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats and Republicans–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But this is not legislation.
SEN. KELLY: –This is bipartisan. This isn’t. But the legislation was killed by Donald Trump. We were really close to getting it passed. That’s the correct way to do this. When you can’t do that, Margaret, when a former president interrupts the legislative process the way he did, which is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen in my three and a half years in the Senate. After that happened, the only other option is executive actions. And this has gone from what was chaos and a crisis at our southern border to somewhat manageable. And if you’re the border- Border Patrol, you know, this is this- you need this. I mean, otherwise it is unsafe for Border Patrol agents, for CBP officers, for migrants, for communities in southern Arizona. So it’s unfortunate that this was the- these were the steps that had to be taken.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
SEN. KELLY: But that’s because the former president didn’t allow us to do this through legislation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, we have to leave it right there. Face the Nation will be right back.
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