Kid’s Corner – Separate Area for Kids on your Windows 8 Phone!

As reported by The Verge, the new Windows 8 phones will include a separate start screen specifically designed for your children’s apps.  The Kid’s Corner, previously known as the Kid’s Zone, gives kids a place to play with their own apps, music, games, and videos, without being able to get into all the “adult stuff.”  This is a huge improvement over current smartphone/tablet operating systems that don’t allow for separate users.  iOS allows you to create folders where you can separate out your kid’s apps, but as any parent knows, this isn’t a big help.  My daughter may start in “her” section of my iPod touch, but she still has full access to everything else, including clicking on ads, ending up at the apple store, and attempting to purchase something.  Luckily my installations require a password first – I’ve had friends that were not so lucky.

More on how to set up the Kid’s Corner after the jump.

On the Windows 8 Phone, in the settings section, there will be a screen to customize your Kid’s Corner.  You can choose a name, wallpaper/background picture, background style (light or dark), and color to personalize it.  You can designate which apps, games, music, or videos are accessible in the Kid’s Corner.  Want them to have access to nothing but Angry Birds?  Done.  Want them to have access to almost everything but your e-mail, facebook, and twitter (okay, and “boobs of the day” app your friend convinced you to download)? Yep, that’s easy enough to do, too.  It does appear that there is only one Kid’s Corner, so if you have children of various ages playing on your phone, you’re going to need to figure out what’s allowed for all of them.

In order to access the Kid’s Corner, you swipe left from the lock screen.  To exit, press the power button.  Assuming you have your phone password-protected, this will lock your child out of the phone and your apps.  Well, unless your child has figured out your password.  But that’s a whole other problem…