Fitbit has announced the Ace 3, the brand’s latest version of its activity and sleep tracker for kids. The health tracking company believes the Ace 3 makes it fun and easy for kids ages six and up to get active and build healthy habits with the whole family. The Ace 3 introduces more animated clock faces plus new accessories to motivate kids. It also shows up Fitbit’s smartwatches by offering up to eight days of battery life in a swim proof design.

A recent report from the University of Cape Town’s Sports Science Institute of South Africa - Healthy Active Kids South Africa notes South African children were found to spend an average of just over three hours on screens per day (not including school work), with only a third of children meeting the screen time recommendation for their age.

Fitbit believes to offset this, parents are challenged to find new ways to help kids stay active, and that the Ace 3 inspires kids to get moving regardless of circumstance and helps them build healthy habits to last a lifetime.

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.

According to Fitbit, 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 energize 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.

The Fitbit Ace 3 makes activity fun with animated clock face characters that change and grow as kids make progress toward their goal 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.

Coming soon, the Ace 3 will be the first wearable to bring one of the most beloved characters to kids’ wrists: Minions. It will feature two accessory bands in Despicable Blue and Mischief Black, with more engaging Minions features and offerings coming soon.

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 ages 12 and under and required for using the Ace 3.

Through a Fitbit Family account in-app, parents are able to 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 matters most, like activity and sleep stats, as well as parent-approved friends, clock faces, avatars and badges. The Ace 3 experience is designed to meet the child privacy standards outlined by law where available, including COPPA in the United States and GDPR in Europe.

With an easy setup process using a parents 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, the Ace 3 allows kids to spend less time charging and more time moving with the confidence of Ace 3’s day battery life of more than a week.

Fitbit Ace 3 will be available at Fitbit.com, Hi Online, TAL, IC, Totalsports, Dis-Chem, eBucks, Superbalist and Momentum, with worldwide availability starting 15 March 2021.

The Ace 3 is set to retail for R 1 799 with classic, comfortable and secure silicone bands, featuring a bumper design to withstand spills and tumbles, in Black with a Sport Red clasp or Cosmic Blue with an Astro Green clasp. Coming soon, the Minions embossed silicone accessory bands will be available starting at R399.