Fitbit Charge 3 for 11 year old?

[oMo75]

Just wondering if anyone has bought the Charge 3 for their kids. I know there are kids Fitbits, but I think by age 11 (age of my daughter), they wouldn't be far off wanting features that the kids ones do not have.
Would love to hear all feedback/opinions.

Thanks

 ps I know kids that wear the Charge 2.

[SteveH]

Note that when you set up an adult fitbit account (which you will need to do with the Charge 3) then you have to provide a date of birth. The terms of service say that you need to be at least 13 and it checks

[oMo75]

thanks, already aware of this. I will set it up as my account on her ipad.

[LZeeW]

@oMo75  First, I want to echo @SteveH 's comment that is is a violation of the Terms of Service to set up an account this way.  There are internet privacy laws in place to protect children.

Second, my more practical thoughts.  You say that your child might want more features.  But a lot of the data she gets will be just plain wrong.  So that makes in a useless extra feature.  The calorie burn algorithms are based on age.  There is a term that I would use for using her height/weight and your age -- garbage in = garbage out.  My next point is about the Charge 3 sizing.  My wrist falls into the small size, but the stiffness of the band leaves noticeable gaps.  If you daughter's wrist is less than 5.5", the Charge 3 will not fit.  The Ace is designed for a smaller wrist.  My final point is about the real "need" for an 11 year old to track certain information.  You see, the Ace originally had a weight tile for children.  This was removed.  Although I am not privy to corporate thinking (CC members are volunteers), I believe this was removed to lessen the chance of children fixating on weight, with its potential for the development of body image issues.

My daughter is grown and I can look back on her teenage years and the issues she faced.  They were all normal parts of growing up, but certainly crises for her.  Get your daughter an Ace.  Let her be a kid.

[Orion22]

I think I would agree with some of the other comments...the Charge 3 is a bit of overkill for an 11 year old. I would hazard a guess to say that most of your daughters friends with the charge 2's are probably just using the fitness tracker as a fashion accessory or maybe just like keeping track of their daily steps and probably have no use for all the other info that a C2 or C3 can supply; like daily calories, weight loss, HR, etc. Seems like an ACE would be a better fit. Anyway you know your daughter better than anyone...is she an avid runner and/or athlete?

[SunsetRunner]

I agree.  My son is 11 years old and needs a stopwatch.  You have to move up to the Charge 3 to get that feature.  He is in middle school and for PE they time their mile runs and he is expected to show improvement over the course of the year.  He is running on his own (preparing for cross country as well) to improve his time but without a stopwatch feature can't tell if he is improving.  I read the terms of service and they clearly say that you can set up an account for someone under 13 with a parents permission but have not attempted to do so since we have not made a purchase for him yet.  From the comments on this forum I assume the app won't allow it even though the terms of service will (with Parents permission). Good luck!

[Rich_Laue]

Yes but the Charge 3 is not designed to conform to the COPPA Regulations and cannot be legally added to an under 13 account.

[oMo75]

This is one reason I posted. No, she would not use all features at this point in time, but eventually would.
She is a dancer and she isn't obsessed with anything about weight. Loves her food lol.
I was already second guessing the size of it and have checked the measurements etc. But no where that I have been has a display model for trying on to check to see what it will really look like. I don't want the ACE. Yesterday I did consider going for the Garmin Vivosmart, but undecided. Never was good at making decisions!

[budenberg]

Get him to look at his watch at the start and end of his run and remember his time, even the most mickey mouse of watches will work better than a Charge3.

[CLTGreg]

---

@Rich_Laue wrote:

Yes but the Charge 3 is not designed to conform to the COPPA Regulations and cannot be legally added to an under 13 account.

---

Well, it actually is designed to conform with COPPA as far as saying it isn't allowed. The only legal issue once they use an age gate is whether the person sign-up up is under 13 or is facilitating a sign-up for someone under 13 would be one of fraud against fitbit. Not a violation of COPPA.

So, with the ACE either fitbit has created an infrastructure that allows gathering information from children that allows for verified parental consent which creates the PITA aspects of COPPA including the ability of a parent to review all data gathered by fitbit and the ability to revoke permission. There's no reason this can't be done with the Charge 3 except the dataset would probably be too big of a headache to deal with. Or they are gathering info and throwing it out but the PITA aspects would still be the same so it's likely to be the first idea. Keep the compartment small.

I have seen fitibit support say explicitly that the issue is hooks to social media which may be partially true but not the whole picture. On the one hand you could end up with an issue if the tracker was posting stuff to facebook for a U13. First of all the youth would be committing fraud against facebook who doesn't allow U13 accounts because of COPPA. Cheating with fitbit and facebook would be double fraud.

But it's not just social media. Simply gathering pulse and storing it over time would be a COPPA violation without the consent, examine, and remove consent aspects. And if any third party was crunching data on behalf of fitbit would also be under the law.

I appreciate the post about how a U13 wouldn't mesh with algorithms that are based on age but I think there's a bigger lesson whether one is committing fraud against fitbit, facebook or YouTube. You're teaching your kids that it's OK to lie because "everyone is doing it" or "it's not that big of a deal". These lessons are for life.

[Orion22]

Yeah, that would be a consideration too. The physical size of the thing might look too big on a child, because the charge 3's display is 40% larger than the charge 2's. It does however, come with both a small band and a large band; fairly easy to swap out. As far as finding display models I would say check either Best Buy, REI or Dicks Sporting Goods.

[Orion22]

Ha! I was just going to say something similar! If all he needs is a stopwatch, then you can buy about 15

el' cheapo sport watches for the price of one charge 3. Plus the buttons are usually large physical buttons and the display is big and vivid compared to the charge 3. Now if he needs to see his steps and pace...that is a different matter.

Only $10

[Someone1456]

Hi. I’m a mother of a daughter who is 11 and I got a charge 3 for her. I went to target to buy her this Fitbit. She thought it was a great Fitbit for her use and her busy schedule. I spoke with the target employee and he said the charge 3 is great for kids like her. I dont know why the charge 3 is bad for 11 year olds. It’s great for them if they are active. I just wanted to point this out because there’s tons of comments saying the Ace is better for 11 year olds when they could get something more than an ace.

[Rich_Laue]

But the Charge 3 does not confirm to the COPPA regulations or Fitbits Terms of service it is unlikely that an 11 year old will be able to create an account. 

The Ace is designed to conform to the COPPA regulations  

Sorry

[oMo75]

I agree with you that the 3 is better..............though I didn't end up getting it. I got her the G V smart 4 instead.

Kids fitbits are a waste of money unless you start at a young age (5+) . when you are a late comer, its a waste of money as it would only be a year or two before they want the added features.

[Rich_Laue]

That could very well be with the age, but Fitbit needs to stay within the boundaries of the federal government. 

I'm unable to get any hits with a search for a G V Smart 4, so unsure of what tracker this might be, but all American companies have to conform with COPPA

[smiggleking]

ive iven one

[Pb4ugoyo]

I am a petite adult with a small wrist and I have the charge 3, it is quite large on my wrist and if your 11 y.o. is average size the watch face will look abnormally oversized. The small size band is also much larger than the ace. I would go with the ace for a pre teen for sure. 

[smiggleking]

I think you’re right pb4ugoyo