SPACETALK Adventurer – Kids in Adelaide Review

When we were asked if we wanted to try out the latest SPACETALK Adventurer watch, it was a big HECK YES. Our daughter has been asking for a smartwatch for awhile now (ya know, cause ALLLLL of her friends have one!) but we had been nervous to make the leap. Partly because we try to keep the kids screentime and tech use to a minimum (with varying results, we’re not perfect!) and partly because of the security and privacy horror stories we had heard.

Thankfully we don’t need to worry about ANY of that with the SPACETALK Adventurer. Without social media or open internet, we were sold. Our daughter was thrilled to receive her new watch, it was easy to setup and best of all, we have full control of when and how she uses it. I downloaded the SPACETALK app to my phone, paired it with the watch and off she went!

Thank goodness that via the SPACETALK app, we have full control of who she can message and call… because our daughter has become a messaging fiend! They can only message or call people that you setup via the app on your own phone – at this stage she only has her Dad and myself which is a relief because she has taken to sending us a message from the backyard to dob on her little brother for snatching. We also received poo emojis from her while sitting on the toilet… face palm! I’m sure this wasn’t what the creators of the SPACETALK Adventurer had in mind when they designed the watch but we’ve all had a good giggle over it.

Poo emojis aside, it is super handy to foster some independence. We only live a few hundred metres from her school and knowing she has her watch on her has given me the confidence to let her walk to school on her own. Via the app on my own phone I can track her location to make sure she hasn’t gone astray (or god forbid something worse) then I can send her a quick message to wish her a good day before School Mode kicks in.

Yep, SCHOOL MODE. The SPACETALK Adventurer has settings you control via your own phone so that your child can’t play with or use their watch during school hours or other periods you set. We currently have School Mode set to come on between 8:30am – 3:10pm on weekdays and Sleep Time set for 6:00pm – 7:00am every night. During these times, the smartwatch turns into a regular ‘ol watch that they can only see the time on. However the features continue to work in the background so parents can still track their location if need be and it continues to count their steps and heart rate (if this is something important to you and your child).

The latest SPACETALK UPDATE is a bit of fun, but also super important – the new wellness features, allows your child to “send a feeling” – they can let you know how they are feeling in real time if you aren’t with them. This is a great idea if they are perhaps at a friends house or off on a school holiday day program and want to let you know if they are feeling out of sorts (or perhaps that they are having a GREAT time!).

We can see how our daughter having her SPACETALK Adventurer watch over the next few years will be a huge help as she gets more & more independent, wants to walk to friends houses, be able to check the weather to decide what to wear and begins to get more ‘digital literate’ as the world around us moves at a breakneck speed. It’s a huge comfort to know that while she is doing all of this, we can still monitor and keep an eye on her to keep her safe.

Grab your SPACETALK Adventurer or find out more by clicking here.

*Kids In Adelaide were gifted a SPACETALK Adventurer Watch in exchange for an honest review.
The above review is 100% our own words and opinions*

PREVIOUS KIDS IN ADELAIDE SPACETALK REVIEW:

A while ago my almost 9 year old was riding to her sports training at the oval that’s 3 streets from our house. She’s a very confident bike rider and recently we’ve felt that she’s capable and confident enough to ride herself to and from training. Her coach would text when she arrived, and when she left. It was all going great.

UNTIL

A few weeks ago a group of teenagers heckled her while she was riding. She got scared and rode a different way and then got a bit lost. She didn’t want to go back the way she’d normally come home because she’d have to go past the boys again but she didn’t know how to get home a different way.

She panicked and started crying. She wasn’t sure what to do and she doesn’t have a phone so she couldn’t call home. In the end an older lady was out walking her dogs and saw Winnie crying. The lady tried to call me but I was in the shower and didn’t hear my phone ring so the lady asked if she’d like a lift home, and my daughter SAID YES?!?! She actually GOT INTO THE CAR WITH A STRANGER!!!! OMG! Doesn’t that just make you feel SICK!

Long story short, I get out of the shower and listened to a voicemail from the lady saying she had her. I almost vomit and call her back to be answered by my daughter, still sniffling, and telling me that she was in the car with a lady who was bringing her home. I almost vomit again and run out onto the street to see the car just pulling up, thank the lady, and then hug my daughter almost hard enough to pop her head off her shoulders.

After getting the whole story, and trying very very VERY hard to not express my major shock/disbelief/disappointment that she had got into the car with a stranger I realised that if we were going to continue to let her have this little bit of independence, she was going to need a way to contact us in case of emergency. Being only 9 I really didn’t like the idea of her having a phone yet for a number of reasons so we started looking into smart watches. Something she could wear and not lose, something easy to use and something I could trust to do the job in case we ever have this kind of situation again.

After reading up on a few of the different brands I kept coming back to the SPACETALK and asked if they would be interested in sending us a couple of their Adventurer watches for the KiA kids to try.

9 year olds Harvey and Winnie have had them for a few weeks now and they are definitely doing the job I was hoping for. The SPACETALK Adventurer is aimed at 5 – 12 year olds as a way of progressing to a mobile phone, a wearable alternative that allows kids to stay connected and contactable by their parents. It’s a nice looking little all in one with a great list of features, but not TOO many that it becomes a distraction.

What we love about the SPACETALK Adventurer

• No access to the open internet and no social media
• It can make and receive calls and text messages but ONLY to contacts set up by you. You’ll receive an alert if/when unauthorised messages or phone calls are blocked.
• SOS Alert. Easy to activate and will notify all contacts on your “safe list” that an SOS has been sent out.
• The sound quality for phone calls is surprisingly good.
• Parental control is set up via the app connected to your phone. It’s very easy to set up and configure.
• School Mode – allows you to turn the call functions off during school hours if you want to or if your school requires it.
• Easy and fun to customise the home screen
• Calendar, Stopwatch, ability to set awards (eg clean your room, do your homework) and check the weather.
• Location tracking is excellent. We’re super impressed with this function. We can even tell if he’s at our neighbours house and not ours, so it’s accurate within just meters. At any time you can find out where your child is and you can also turn on auto location updates to send you an update at a designated time (from 5 minutes to hourly)
• Fitness Tracker
• Camera. Because who doesn’t love seventy billion selfies from your kid
• Available in 4 colours.
• 12 month warranty

Things to consider

• Dust & Water Resistant. NOT water PROOF but is protected up to a depth of 1 metre for up to 30 mins. Treat it like a phone, you wouldn’t shower or swim with your phone, so we’d suggest using the same rules for the SPACETALK.
• You’ll need a Nano SIM card with calls, SMS and data, and a SPACETALK in-app subscription for up to 2 watches $5.99/month or up to 5 watches for $8.99/month.
• You’ll need to charge it every night. The first couple of weeks we had it the battery went pretty fast BUT we were using it A LOT. We also reduced the auto location updates to every hour instead of every 5 minutes which helped and you can also turn this function off and only use the on demand location.
• It’s on the bigger side so if your kids have tiny wrists they might not like the size.

All in all both Winnie and Harvey are very happy with their SPACETALK Adventurers. I’m definitely more comfortable about sending her off on her bike now. It’s given her independence and safety and me peace of mind.

The SPACETALK Adventurer is $346 and available online at

www.spacetalkwatch.com/products/spacetalk-adventurer

The toys mentioned above we received free of charge for the purpose of this review however as for all reviews from Kids in Adelaide the above is honest and in our own words.