Garmin and Disney launch Fitbit-style activity trackers for kids

Getting children off the sofa and out for a bit of exercise remains one of the most talked-about parenting tasks. In fact, it has been since I was a child racking up 10,000 hours of football-management experience on my Commodore 64 computer…

One relatively recent angle on this is the emergence of activity trackers for children: Fitbit-style devices that can be worn on their wrist or clothes, and apps that go with them to encourage children to get out and about. The latest examples come from a new pairing: Garmin and Disney.

The former company – known better to many parents for its GPS navigation gadgets – is making the Vivofit Jr 2 wristband, while Disney is bringing some of its big brands to the party, from Minnie Mouse and Captain America to BB-8 from Star Wars.

The pitch: “Each band theme offers a corresponding mobile app adventure where children can complete missions to advance in the journey and unlock new character step icons, with the help of their parents, by achieving 60 minutes of activity every day.”

Apparently the device has a battery life of more than a year – WHY can’t my Fitbit do this? – and tracks steps, sleep and ‘active minutes’ during the day. There’s also a feature where children can compete against friends who’re also wearing one of the bands. Parents get to manage the companion app and check up on how their children’s stats are doing, complete with “schedule alerts” to remind them to finish their homework or brush their teeth.

(#ParentingIn2017)

The Vivofit Jr 2 will cost $99.99 in the US, and the app works with an iPhone or Android smartphone.

As a parent, I’m still not sure how I feel about activity-trackers for kids. The longer I go on with my own Fitbit and the healthy-living apps I use with it (diet, workouts etc) the more I wonder whether getting sucked in to all this stat-tracking isn’t actually super-healthy for me as a person.

So do I really want my children to be stressing about whether they’ve taken enough steps during a day? Hmm.

The alternative view, of course, is that turning this sort of thing into a game where they’re unlocking new levels and characters and storyline means it’s not a stress. Let’s see if lots of parents want to give Garmin’s new devices a go.