# Sideloaded apps in freetime



## Adf.ford

So I had been having some trouble with the new kindle fire hd we bought for our son, 10. The freetime controls are perfect, because it lets him do everything he wants to do, but nothing we don't want him too.  The only problem was that he likes to watch YouTube videos. Almost exclusively minecraft videos, so I have no problem with it. I Sideloaded the Google apps and then the YouTube app, and it works perfectly, but I can't make it available in freetime. Very frustrating! But then I realized that I can make the es3 explorer app available in freetime.  This app, among others things, allows you to launch other apps that are installed. So, using the explorer app, my son can launch the Sideloaded YouTube app while in freetime and watch videos.  I tried to launch the silk browser like this, but it did not work, saying that it had been disabled in the parental controls. I had been searching for a solution to this problem all evening, so I thought maybe this could help someone else.  Anyone else have any experience using the explorer app to launch other apps in freetime?


----------



## cinisajoy

Hmmmmm.  I don't have free time but here is a question.    Why don't you just turn off free time when he wants to watch videos?


----------



## Betsy the Quilter

Another consideration--I use a third party app to watch YouTube videos...don't know if it can be included in parental controls.  Let me check which one I use.

Betsy


----------



## Adf.ford

cinisajoy said:


> Hmmmmm. I don't have free time but here is a question. Why don't you just turn off free time when he wants to watch videos?


The problem with free time is that it's all or nothing, and you need to put in the password to turn it off. Once it turned off, he would have access to everything, even things I blocked in freetime.


----------



## cinisajoy

My thinking was if you install a work around for videos,  could your son take advantage and use it to go other places?
Not that your son would but I know kids that would do just that.

I have a relative that convinced her great grandmother that an iPad was not the same as the computer so it was safe to take the iPad to her room.  She was 11.


----------



## Adf.ford

cinisajoy said:


> My thinking was if you install a work around for videos, could your son take advantage and use it to go other places?
> Not that your son would but I know kids that would do just that.
> 
> I have a relative that convinced her great grandmother that an iPad was not the same as the computer so it was safe to take the iPad to her room. She was 11.


I think that is a definite concern. I tried to access the Internet through the silk browser using this method, but it told me that Internet access was disabled by freetime. I didn't try any other apps last night, but still testing.


----------



## 68564

If you open YouTube, you pretty much defeated any hope of limiting what he sees. 

You said you wanted to launch silk browser through the file explorer? I do not follow... why not just allow it through the parental controls? Of course opening Silk browser also pretty much defeats all hope at control so not sure what you are trying to do?


----------

