According to the latest figures from communications regulator Ofcom, 71% of British children aged 5-15 have access to a tablet in their home, including 34% who own their own device. .

Now Amazon is hoping to boost the latter figure with the UK launch of its dedicated children’s tablet: the Fire HD Kids Edition, which originally launched in the US in October 2014.

The tablet is a rebranded version of Amazon’s existing Fire HD tablet, with a rubberised case to protect it if dropped (or thrown in a tantrum), and a built-in subscription for unlimited access to a catalogue of children’s apps, e-books and videos.

Pre-orders for the device, which will cost £119 or £139 depending on whether parents want 8GB or 16GB of memory, have started in the UK and Germany today, with shipments due to start on 18 June.

Amazon is making a calculated appeal to parents’ distrust of in-app purchases and advertising within children’s apps on iPad and Android tablets, promising that its Fire for Kids Unlimited service will bar apps using either feature.

Buyers will get a year’s free access to the service, and will then pay between £1.99 and £4.99 a month after that point – if they are members of Amazon’s Prime membership scheme – depending on how many children they have.

Non-members will pay between £3.99 and £7.99 a month, with the subscription service also available on Amazon’s existing range of Fire tablets.

Partners include traditional media brands like Disney and Nickelodeon, as well as children’s apps developers like Toca Boca, Oceanhouse Media and Dr Panda. Children will be able to browse the catalogue by character and theme, as well as the individual books, videos and apps categories.

Amazon told the Guardian that the content will not be divided by age group, but that Fire for Kids Unlimited will learn the habits of children over time, ensuring that the content they prefer bubbles up to the top of its menu system.

Parents will be able to set time limits for their children’s screen time, including the ability to set different daily limits for the individual categories; block entertainment content and leave education content unlocked; and specify that their children must spend a certain amount of time reading ebooks in a given day before they can play games or watch video.

There will be no internet access on the device unless parents specifically “white-list” individual apps like YouTube, or unlock the tablet for web browsing, Amazon confirmed.

This is not the first tablet launched for children. In 2013, Samsung launched its Android-based Galaxy Tab 3 Kids device in the UK, going head-to-head with Tesco’s family-focused Hudl that Christmas.

Apple and Google have also launched features aimed at parents and children as part of their iOS and Android software and app stores.

In 2013, Apple added a dedicated Kids section to its App Store, and laid down new rules for developers offering their apps through it, covering privacy policies, advertising and “parental gates” blocking internet access and in-app purchases without a parent’s permission.

In May 2015, Google launched its own family features for Android’s Google Play store. They included a filter for child-friendly apps, clearly-labelled age ratings and notifications for use of in-app advertising, and dedicated pages for brands like Peppa Pig, Star Wars and Frozen on its store.

Both companies – and Amazon – have faced regulatory scrutiny of how children are using their devices. All three have been investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over in-app purchases made within children’s apps.

Amazon is the first to experiment with an all-you-can-eat subscription service to sideline these issues. That one-year built-in offer – not to mention its promise to replace the Fire HD Kids Edition at any point within two years if a child manages to break it – is likely to have strong appeal for parents.

That said, the children who the device will be bought for may quickly spot what’s missing from the offer – it seems Minecraft, by far the most popular game for children on tablets in 2015 – is not included in the subscription.