A baby keyboard game that does not fill the screen is a browser tab with a toy in it. The address bar, the other tabs, the bookmarks, the close button: all of it is one accidental tap away. Fullscreen removes those targets. It is the single biggest safety feature a smash site can have, and this guide is about getting it and keeping it.
Games that go fullscreen on their own
Browsers only allow a page to go fullscreen after the user has clicked or pressed a key, so every game needs one press to start. After that, these switch by themselves and stay there:
Those are ours. They go fullscreen on the first press and stay there, they have no ads and nothing to sign up for, and none of them has a parent lock yet, so they are games to play together rather than to hand over.
Tiny Hands Play's Kaboom Keys also fills the screen, inside a collection that goes from six months to nine years:
Its weak spot is the exit: Escape leaves instantly. Pair it with the browser's own fullscreen below.
The browser's own fullscreen
Every desktop browser has a fullscreen mode that hides its toolbars. Use it even on games that do it themselves, because if the game's fullscreen drops, the browser's is still there.
| Where | Key |
|---|---|
| Windows (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) | F11 |
| Chromebook | The fullscreen key (row of keys above the numbers) or F11 on an external keyboard |
| Mac (Chrome, Safari, Firefox) | Control+Command+F, or the green window button |
Two things to know:
- Escape exits. In every browser, Escape leaves a page's fullscreen. A well-behaved game jumps straight back in on the next key press, because that press counts as the user gesture the browser needs. The browser's own fullscreen (F11 and friends) is separate and survives Escape in most browsers, which is why you want both.
- Fullscreen is not a lock. Keyboard shortcuts still work. Ctrl+W closes the tab, Alt+F4 closes the window, Command+Q quits. The lockdown guide is about those.
Tablets and phones
Mobile browsers do a version of fullscreen when a site asks, and it is less reliable than on a desktop. The better tool is the device's own lock, which pins the screen to one app and disables the home button:
- iPad and iPhone: Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access, turn it on and set a passcode. Open the game in the browser, then triple-click the side button (or the home button on older devices) and tap Start. Triple-click again and enter the passcode to leave.
- Android: Settings > Security (or Security and privacy) > App pinning, sometimes called Pin windows. Open the game, open the recent-apps view, tap the app's icon at the top of its card and choose Pin. Hold Back and Overview together to unpin.
- Fire tablets: Amazon Kids (the profile switcher) is the lock; add the browser or the site to the child's profile.
A stand matters more than it sounds. A tablet lying flat gets leaned on, and a lean is a dozen taps.
A kiosk trick for laptops
Chrome and Edge can be started in kiosk mode, which is fullscreen with no toolbars and no way out short of Alt+F4 or Command+Q. It is a small step beyond most parents' needs, but it works well on a laptop that has become the toddler's laptop:
- Windows: create a shortcut to Chrome and add
--kiosk https://kidsmashgames.com/shiny-smashto the end of the target. - Mac: in Terminal,
open -na "Google Chrome" --args --kiosk https://kidsmashgames.com/shiny-smash.
Swap the address for whichever game you have settled on.
Checklist
- Open the game and press one key so it can go fullscreen.
- Press the browser's fullscreen key too.
- On a tablet, turn on Guided Access or app pinning.
- Volume down, keycaps checked, other windows closed.
- Watch the corners the first few times.