Kids get child friendly MP3 player

One of my greatest fears as a dad to be is that come three years time, I am going to find all my gadgets ruined by little hands

21 March 2006 18:32 GMT / By Stuart Miles

One of my greatest fears as a dad to be is that come three years time, I am going to find all my gadgets ruined by little hands.

I've already had stories recollected about sandwiches in video players, smudged digital cameras lenses, console controllers hurtling across the room at high speed and general carnage.

Understanding this might be the case with your MP3 player, Maxfield, a company I've never heard of, has launched the MAX-JOY MP3 player designed especially to meet the needs of 6-12 year old children.

According to the company, everything has been thought of from operation, design, material, headphones, display, price (and the optionally installed audio fairytales) are specifically engineered to meet the abilities and wishes of children.

Special child-friendly features include an audio output restriction to a maximum of 60DB from the main player to protect those growing ear-drums and tough external stereo headphones by Koss are designed not to interfere with developing ears and come with a whopping 15 year guarantee

Finally, the unit promises a seriously rugged dirt, water and impact resistant outer casing complete with safety screws for access, to prevent little fingers dismantling the unit without a parent present.

The model comes in a range of fun colours the MAX-JOY comes in two options alone or with pre-installed content (such as audio stories) in a bundle with an MMC card so that children can get started as soon as they unpack the MP3 player.

The 256 - 1Gb player is available from amazon.co.uk and initially launching with the player only option at a cost of around £48 pounds sterling to be followed later this year by the £61 pounds sterling “bundle” option with the MMC Card containing audio stories & Fairytales.