Parents' Guide to

Podcasts

By Stacy Zeiger, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Sift through iTunes' mixed bag of audio and video content.

App iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad Free Education
Podcasts Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • Podcasts App: Screenshot #1
  • Podcasts App: Screenshot #2
  • Podcasts App: Screenshot #3
  • Podcasts App: Screenshot #4

Community Reviews

See all

There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What’s It About?

PODCASTS helps give kids access to all the free podcasts iTunes has to offer. They can choose to download individual podcasts or subscribe to a series to keep up on all the latest episodes. To find the podcasts that interest them most, kids can search for a particular podcast by name or browse all the available podcasts by keyword or category. The available categories cover a range of subject areas and age groups, with the Education and Kids & Family categories offering the most kid-friendly podcasts. All the categories organize podcasts by both audio and video podcast series. Clicking on a series brings up a list of the podcasts available for download and the option to subscribe to the series. Once kids have selected episodes to download or series to subscribe to, those podcasts appear on the My Podcasts page, where they can organize their podcasts and customize the settings to change features such as whether to automatically download the latest episodes or delete played episodes. A My Stations page also allows users to organize their favorite podcasts into stations so they can listen to multiple episodes in sequence or make it easier to access key podcasts using other Apple devices and software. When it comes to actually playing a podcast, kids can use Siri to bring up a podcast by name or by asking Siri to play a particular station, or they can play a particular station or episode directly in the Podcasts app.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (2 ):

The huge selection of podcasts available to browse is both the best and worst thing about this app. Kids should get a kick out of the old-school radio-show style of most audio podcasts; although the format is retro, the content can be very modern. Unfortunately, finding quality podcasts on a particular topic takes some time. Yeah, kids can simply search for a particular word or browse the categories, but they'll come up with a wealth of podcasts -- some that will fit the bill and others that will contain inappropriate or simply low-quality content. However, once kids find some of their favorite podcasts, they'll enjoy downloading and listening to the latest episodes. A handy settings feature allows them to determine how many episodes to have available at a given time, whether to automatically download new episodes, and whether to keep played episodes, which helps control the amount of memory the app uses. Note that without careful management of these settings, kids could quickly find themselves with a large amount of memory taken up on their devices.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the podcast format. What's different about it compared to TV shows or online videos?

  • Come up with ideas for a family podcast and record a sample episode.

App Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

See all recommended app lists

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate