Play Safe – helps make your Android kid approved
by Paul Wilks
Jun 27, 2012 7:59 AM –
Install
Play Safe is a hugely important app for anyone that has children. Simply stated the app allows you to place selected apps- into a kind of sandbox that lets children use only those apps/games and denies them access to other parts of your device. If you’re keen to let your child play with a cool app you’ve found for them but worried they’ll cause havoc if left alone with your Android, this is the perfect app for you!
Price: Free
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Keeps your children away from the parts of your device you don’t want them to be!
- Simple to set up!
- Easy to unlock (if you know how)!
Cons
- In-app banner ad links will take them to the web, and those that show the status bar might permit access to your settings of you’re on ICS.
Features:
It was my youngest daughters birthday recently. We got her a little netbook running Windows. She loved it, but inexplicably managed to delete Windows and screwed her laptop up in just 20 minutes. You leave kids to their own devices for just a few minutes and they can cause untold problems with technology, I still have no idea how she did it- and she’s only 7! I’m sure I’m not alone at feeling somewhat fretful at the thought of handing over expensive Android hardware to young hackers children. However, with Play Safe there is a solution.
Play Safe lets you create a simple interface for your child to use and only access apps or games you approve of. It can subsequently lock them away from access to things like photographs, messaging apps and Grand Theft Auto 3. Instead they just get a child-friendly list of apps/games to choose from and play with.
The initial screen for you, the responsible adult, lets you select the ‘safe’ apps and games by simply ticking them. You can then choose to action the child lock, which presents the menu of ticked apps for your child. On the menu screen there is a small Play Safe Icons which, if pressed and held for 3 seconds, unlock your device back to its normal state. This therefore gives your device an extra level of security against the clumsy explorations of your pride and joy.
However, there are still a couple of ways ‘out’ if your child is persistent. If an app includes an advert, these will link to the browser and typical browser access. Furthermore, if the app shows your status bar, they might be able to access your settings if you’re on ICS for example. That said, any other app access is locked and pressing the home button will only take them back to the Play Safe menu. Obviously these loopholes can’t occur if you place ad-free, full screen games in the menu, so that’s worth bearing in mind.
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Play Safe – Intro screen
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Play Safe – Simple tutorial
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Play Safe – Set Play Safe as default (only when activated)
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Play Safe – Apps list available to children
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Play Safe – Select apps from menu
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Play Safe – Unlock pressing and holding the icon
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Play Safe – Unlocking
Usefulness:
Extremely useful app to prevent your from child accessing parts of your Android you do not want them to. Simply add the approved apps and these are the only ones they can use.
Ease of Use:
For both the adult and the child the app is very simple to use. Adults simply have to select the appropriate apps in a straight-forward tick menu. Children have a basic menu containing the approved apps, and they can select which one they want to play with by tapping them.
Frequently Used:
This clearly depends on how often you want your child to use the apps/games you have selected. It might be, however, that apps like this mean you’re more likely to let your child play with those games. 
Interface:
Really simple and child-friendly. Almost like a very basic educational app.