In August, the Alexa Skills Kit announced support for Kid skills, enabling developers to build skills for kids younger than 13. Kid skills are subject to Alexa skills certification and require parents to provide consent before they are enabled on Alexa devices.
We know many of you are building kid skills to enter the Alexa Skills Challenge: Kids with Devpost for a chance to win your share of cash and prizes totaling $250,000. To help ensure a frictionless certification process, please follow the certification tips and best practices we’ve outlined below. These recommendations for kid skills are based on common issues we see developers face.
Tips for Kid Skill Certification
1. Follow Privacy & Compliance Requirements
During skill creation, you are asked, “Is this skill directed to or does it target children under the age of 13?” If you would like to publish your skill as a kid skill, make sure your skill satisfies these requirements and answer “yes” to this question.
2. Avoid Ads, Shopping Functionality, and Collecting PII
With some kid skill submissions, we're seeing ads, in-skill purchase offerings, and personal identifiable information (PII) being collected. The certification requirements for these are clearly defined in our technical documentation and strictly enforced. Please avoid adding this type of content in skills directed toward children.
3. Deliver All-Ages Content
Skill responses are carefully reviewed and assessed during the certification process. The result of this review is a Maturity Rating, which is displayed on the skill's detail page. Skills with content rated to be Mature or Guidance Suggested are prohibited as kid skills and will not pass certification. Skills intended for children should only contain content that is appropriate for all ages.
4. Publish in the US
As this time, we are only publishing kid skills in English (US). If you are creating a kid skill and have created it for multiple languages, please know that it will only be made available in the English (US) after it passes certification.
Build a Great Kid Skill for a Chance to Win Cash and Prizes
Learn to build a stellar kid skill and enter the Alexa Skills Challenge: Kids with Devpost. This is an opportunity for developers to publish a stellar Alexa skill for kids under the age of 13 for a chance to win their share of cash and prizes totaling $250,000.
Join us for a live webinar this Wednesday to learn what kids find engaging when it comes to voice experiences. We'll share tips and best practices for building skills that educate, entertain, and engage kids under 13. Then we'll hop over to Twitch for a bonus hour of on-the-fly skill buildling. Register now to save your spot.