Windows Phone “KidsZone”

Well, isn’t this interesting? Windows Phone 8 seems to include a new feature called “KidZone.”

Ever given your phone to your kids and had it come back with a few new (expensive) applications, a few odd messages sent to your friends and all your settings changed? Microsoft has fixed that.

From what I’m hearing, Windows Phone 8 features a toggle that flips the entire phone into a kid-friendly mode. Yes, with it’s own wallpaper, theme colors and apps. You choose which applications you want to give the kids access to in said mode and when it’s enabled, they can’t access anything else. To get out of “KidsZone” mode, you need to enter a predefined password.

A literally sand-boxed phone, so your kids can play with it and not wreck it. Sounds perfect to me, and it has a few other scenarios it would be useful in too, such as when you give your phone to drunken friends to play with. I’ve been wanting this feature since the beginning of time itself, since I often have new phones and want to show people them, but every time I let someone use it, it inevitably comes back with some small setting changed.

Maybe this is what Nokia and Microsoft are so excited about.