Starting healthy habits early: the best fitness trackers for kids this early Black Friday 2024

The best fitness trackers are a terrific way to encourage yourself to be active, keep you accountable when you’ve set yourself goals, and can give you an idea of how much activity you get each day. But it isn’t just adults who stand to benefit from being active – the best fitness trackers for kids can offer similar benefits. Well-established brands such as Garmin and Fitbit offer fitness trackers that are ideal to help encourage healthy habits in children.

The best Black Friday deals on fitness trackers

We interrupt your scrolling to let you know that the Black Friday sales event officially begins on 29th November 2024 – but there are plenty of excellent early Black Friday deals out there right now. With a huge range of retailers offering the lowest prices of the year, this Black Friday Sale is packed with amazing fitness tracker bargains to discover. So, grab that top-tier tech that's perfect for sorting the Christmas list. We've rounded up the best offers below. Or, keep scrolling for our full buyer's guide.

Shop Black Friday deals on: Very | John Lewis | Currys

£40 off: Fitbit Charge 6, WAS £139, NOW £99

Save £25: FITBIT Inspire 3, WAS £85, NOW £60

£10 discount: Tikkers Teen Series 10 Smart Watch Wireless Earbud Set, WAS £40, NOW £30

Save 25 per cent: Tikkers Kids Series 13 Smart Watch, WAS £25, NOW £18

Now back to our regularly scheduled content.

There’s plenty of evidence showing the importance of exercise for children and young people. Studies have linked being physically active to improved fitness, better cognitive function and lower risk of obesity and associated health risks.

Best fitness trackers for kids at a glance

• Best overall: Fitbit Ace 3 – View on John Lewis
• Best premium fitness tracker for older kids: Garmin Vivosmart 5 – View on John Lewis 
• Best kids’ fitness tracking smartwatch: Apple Watch SE – View on Amazon

• Best budget kids’ fitness tracker: Biggerfive Vigor 2 – View on Amazon

• Best Garmin fitness tracker for younger kids: Garmin vivofit Jr.3 – View on Amazon

The NHS recommends that children and young people 5-18 years old should be aiming for at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day. A fitness tracker can help ensure young people aren’t missing the valuable health benefits of being fit and active.

Here’s our selection of the best fitness trackers for kids, whatever their age.

The best fitness trackers for kids in 2024

Please note: All prices are correct at the time of writing. Prices, stock and deals are subject to change without notice.

The best fitness trackers for kids: Buyer's guide

There's a lot to think about when it comes to choosing a suitable fitness tracker for your kids. Factors such as price, features, the age of the child, and what the goals of the user are, will all be worth weighing up.

Age appropriate

Depending on the age of your child, some devices will be more suitable than others. For younger children, a simple device with basic functions that can track a few activities will likely be most suitable. These often come with apps for parents to use as well. These will also tend to have brighter designs designed to appeal to a younger audience.

For older children and teenagers, you might feel that a more advanced device is appropriate. This will, of course, be down to personal preferences, but fitness trackers that are notionally designed for adults will also offer plenty to more competitive athletes and young people keen to take ownership of their own health and fitness.

Features

As we mentioned earlier, most fitness trackers will have a few basic features – step counts and sleep tracking, for example. But it's important to decide which features you consider to be essential, or which ones you might prefer not to see on your chosen device.

For example, more sophisticated fitness trackers can drill down into heart-rate monitoring, blood oxygen levels, VO2 max estimates, and the like. This may be useful for some, but for others, features such as estimated calorie burn might be undesirable. So, it’s important to consider what you want your child to be able to monitor before making your buying decision.

It's worth noting that on some devices, such as the Apple Watch SE, some features can be turned off depending on the age of the person wearing it. If you don’t want certain metrics to be monitored, take the time to see if it can be disabled, if it is available on a particular tracker.

Price

Fitness trackers are available at a wide range of prices, ranging from budget-friendly devices for less than £50, up to premium devices that can cost over £100. Often, the price will be linked to the quality of the fitness tracker and the number of features it offers. It's helpful to set yourself a budget and try to find a fitness tracker that fits, although depending on the features you regard as essential, you may need to be a little bit flexible.

Goals

Finally, think about the goals for the intended user of the fitness tracker. For younger children, it may just be about encouraging them to be more active and encouraging them to develop healthier habits. For older children, it may be about giving them the tools to make healthier lifestyle choices for themselves or understanding how being active impacts their overall fitness. Perhaps they play sports to a competitive level, and a fitness tracker could help them to hit fitness goals. Once you know the purpose for getting a fitness tracker, you'll be able to identify which model best meets your needs.

FAQs

What can a kids' fitness tracker do?

Features will vary depending on the make and model, but you should expect a fitness tracker to include many of the following features:

Activity tracking – this includes step counting, and potentially also tracking of specific sports and activities, such as running or cycling.

Sleep tracking – sleep is essential for children, both in terms of improving academic performance, and growth. Sleep tracking lets you see whether your child is getting enough quality sleep.

Challenges – some of these devices set challenges for kids to get more active. For example, step competitions, or badges and rewards for reaching activity goals.

Some of the more advanced models on our shortlist also offer other health and fitness tracking features such as heart-rate monitoring, estimated calorie burn, and blood oxygen tracking, among other things. It’s worth pointing out that some of the devices we’ve chosen are primarily designed for adults, and some features (such as calorie estimates) may not be suitable for all children, particularly younger ones.

Are fitness trackers safe for kids?

There are a few things to think about when it comes to the safety of fitness trackers. Devices designed for children from the likes of Fitbit and Garmin offer parental controls, so parents can limit who can interact with them in challenges, for example. Apps are also operated and managed through an app which can be installed on the parents' smartphone. Location data can also be kept private, and many of them will allow you to set up an in case of emergency contact as well.

There’s also the potential impact of fitness trackers on body image. While these devices are designed to encourage healthy habits, there’s always a possibility that some children will obsess over their numbers to an unhealthy extent. We’d recommend keeping an eye on how any child is using their fitness tracker, and if it looks like it’s starting to encourage negative habits, consider whether the drawbacks are starting to outweigh the benefits.

Kids' fitness tracker vs adult fitness tracker

Our shortlist has selected a mixture of devices, some designed specifically for kids, while others are for adults but can be suitable for older children. The main differences between these devices are in the features these trackers offer.

Many (though not all) fitness trackers designed for kids will only include a few basic fitness metrics, such as tracking sleep, step counts and minutes spent being active. Fitness trackers for adults will usually offer far more than this, with metrics such as heart rate and blood-oxygen tracking, and estimating calorie burn. Calorie estimates may not be desirable for children to track.

On the other hand, the extra insights into metrics such as stress, training readiness and the effect of training – often found in fitness trackers for adults – could be useful for any particularly sporty young people, especially as they get older.

The design of these fitness trackers will often be notably different. Fitness trackers for younger children tend to be much more colourful, as well as being smaller, and have smaller clasps that are ideal for smaller hands and wrists. In practical terms, these will potentially fit better, and be less likely to fall off.

Pros and cons of fitness trackers for kids

Like any technology, there are benefits and drawbacks to fitness trackers for kids, including the following:

Encourage healthy habits – a fitness tracker can help children to be more conscious of their activity levels and help them take responsibility for their own health and fitness.

Motivation - The rewards for completing activity goals or winning challenges can be extremely motivating for some children.

Can potentially lead to negative reactions – some children may become anxious if they miss their activity targets, and this can potentially lead to unhealthy behaviours around exercise.

Unwanted metrics may be tracked – as we mentioned earlier, some fitness trackers may track metrics you don’t want your kids to worry about – calorie burn and BMI, for example. In younger children, these probably aren’t metrics they should be focusing on.

Summary: the best fitness trackers for kids

Fitness trackers can be a tool to encourage kids to think about their activity levels, encourage them to be more active, and develop healthy habits that can benefit them as they get older. There are potential drawbacks as well in terms of the risk of encouraging an unhealthy relationship with exercise. It’s therefore important that you choose a fitness tracker that will suit the needs of your child.

We've picked a variety of trackers, some that are suited to younger children, and some that are best for older kids. Our top pick is the Fitbit Ace 3. But every child is unique, so choosing the right device will depend on how old the child is, how that child intends to use the fitness tracker, and which features are important to help that child develop a healthy and happy relationship with being active.

How we chose:

When selecting the best fitness trackers for kids, we looked for a mix of devices that would be suitable for a variety of different ages. This means that some picks may be suitable for some, but not others. We also considered the features that are available on these devices, the accuracy and performance that they offer, and design and battery life.

We’ve primarily focused on dedicated fitness trackers, rather than smartwatches. We have included the Apple Watch SE as an example of a smartwatch that is also a superb fitness tracker. But, given the extra features available on smartwatches (many of which parents may prefer their kids don’t have access to), we’ve limited it to just one example of smartwatches on our list.

Steven Shaw is a Senior Digital Writer covering tech and fitness. Steven writes how-to guides, explainers, reviews and best-of listicles covering a wide range of topics. He has several years of experience writing about fitness tech, mobile phones, and gaming, and is well versed in searching for Black Friday deals.

When Steven isn’t writing, he’s probably testing a new smartwatch or fitness tracker, putting it through its paces with a variety of strength training, HIIT, or yoga. He also loves putting on a podcast and going for a long walk.

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