Fitbit hopes its Ace 3 activity and sleep tracker will make it fun and easy for kids aged six and above to get active and build healthy habits with the whole family.

Ace 3 introduces more animated clock faces and accessories to motivate kids and show off their personal style. With up to eight days of battery life in a swimproof design, Ace 3 can keep up all week long.

With distance learning, no in-person physical education and the lack of after-school sports, kids are spending more time on devices, with a survey in the USA showing that parents believe their kids are experiencing a 500 per cent increase in screen time. To offset this, parents are trying to find new ways to help kids stay active. Ace 3 could inspire kids to get moving regardless of circumstance and help them build healthy habits.

“As families continue to navigate remote learning and social distancing guidelines, it is a constant challenge to keep kids moving, motivated and happy, while trying to balance the time they spend on screens for school as well as free time,” said James Park, co-founder of Fitbit. “We’ve infused Ace 3 with experiences that bring more fun into kids’ day-to-day lives to help them, and their parents, reconnect with the joy of movement, helping instil important, foundational healthy habits that can last a lifetime.”

Ace 3 helps kids develop healthy habits by encouraging them to get active and get the sleep their growing bodies need. The device helps motivate kids to get moving to reach the 60 daily active minutes with reminders to take at least 250 steps per hour, with an option to customise during school time. Plus, kids can easily set personalised goals and track their activity by reviewing their stats on the bright, easy-to-use touchscreen, setting timers and racing against the stopwatch.

Sleep tracking, bedtime reminders and silent alarms help parents and kids work together to develop a consistent sleep schedule that gives kids enough time to rest and energise for another day of staying active and building healthy habits. In the Fitbit app, kids can connect with parent-approved friends and family, engage in friendly competition via Family Face Off challenges, and celebrate milestones with virtual badges and trophies.

Animated clock face characters change and grow as kids make progress towards their goals throughout the day. With new bunny, cat, Martian and spaceship animated clock faces, and more than 20 clocks to choose from, kids now have more options to personalise their device and express themselves in a fun and engaging way. Kids can also match their individual style with different accessory band options and, coming soon, it will be the first wearable to bring one of the most beloved characters to kids’ wrists: Minions.

With two accessory bands in Despicable Blue and Mischief Black, and more engaging Minions features and offerings coming soon, the iconic Minion characters from one of the world’s most successful animated franchises will soon be on-wrist to motivate kids to stay active.

While kids focus on getting active, parents can be assured their child’s privacy is protected. To do so, parents can set up a family account to access privacy controls and protections, which is strongly suggested for children aged 12 and under and required for using Ace 3. Through a Fitbit Family account in-app, parents can access Parent View where they can easily see their kid’s activity, manage what is shown on their kid’s app experience, and approve their kid’s friend requests.

Meanwhile, kids can experience Ace 3 in-app via Kid View, a focused view that promotes the development of healthy habits by showing the data that matter most, such as activity and sleep stats, as well as parent-approved friends, clock faces, avatars and badges. The experience is designed to meet child privacy standards outlined by law where available, including Coppa in the USA and GDPR in Europe.

With an easy set-up process using a parent’s Fitbit Family account, families can work together to pair Ace 3 with Android and iOS devices so kids can get moving quickly. Kids with their own smartphones will be able to receive call notifications directly on-wrist to stay connected to their parents, family and friends. Once set up and fully charged, it lets kids spend less time charging and more time moving.