Seeing the world through the eyes of a child is an amazing thing. And when you give your child a camera – or your smartphone – they can show you exactly how they view their world.

I know that my daughter has shown great promise and creativity using any available camera, be it on an iPad, a Nintendo DS, or a smartphone. Together with the right app you child can improve her creativity and skill with a camera. Let’s take a look at six creative photography apps for kids.

Strip Designer

Does your kid love comics? Strip Designer allows your child to take their photos and create a comic strip out of them! The app is easy to use. Simply select a template out of a number to choose from, such as film strip, and import the photos. They can also grab photos from Dropbox and import additional fonts from the web. Then, add texts and stickers to create a comic book or strip experience.

Strip Designer has lots of neat options, including word balloon shapes, over 150 stickers, font effects, page effects, and more. Kids can publish to Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. This is a great app for the budding comic artist or just for kids who love comic books.

Ratings: 5 out of 5 stars
Educational value: 3 out of 5 stars
Ease of play/use: 4 out of 5 stars
Violence & scariness: Can create illusion of violence with the word stickers (i.e., “BAM”) but otherwise none
Sexy stuff: N/A
Bad Language: N/A
Consumerism: Costs $2.99 but there are no in-app purchases

Typic Kids - Stickers for Photos

For the budding creative kiddo, Typic Kids allows your child to decorate photos with fonts, stickers, frames and filters. All decorations are kid-friendly, so no sexy stuff or bad language to see here. Kids can also resize photos, which can be imported from their own photos or shot directly from the app.

Easy to use, this photography app for kids has written directions only so your child will need to know how to read. All effects can be undone as well.

Typic is designed to share your photos to social media under the “Parents Only” button. However, this is unlocked by answering a simple 1-digit multiplication question so it may not be as secure for older kids.

Ratings: 4 out of 5 stars
Educational value: 3 out of 5 stars
Ease of play/use: 5 out of 5 stars
Violence & scariness: N/A
Sexy stuff: N/A
Bad Language: N/A
Consumerism: $1.99 to purchase

Kudos

Kudos was designed with kids’ safety in mind. This photo-sharing app features “Parental Supervision” which gives parents the ability to regulate content on their child’s account. Kids under 13 are required to enter a parent’s email address, notifying you by email every time your child posts and if Kudos’ content moderators remove a post by your child they deem inappropriate.

When sharing tools are used, questions pop up to teach kids proper social media etiquette. All profiles are private so only friends can see posts. Additionally, only parents have the authority to approve friends. Captions are allowed but not comments, to avoid bullying. Users are prevented from being anonymous as well, however, liking images is anonymous. Geo-location services are also deactivated in this app, making it one of the most secure apps for children that we’ve seen so far.

Ratings: 4 out of 5 stars
Educational value: 4 out of 5 stars
Ease of play/use: 4 out of 5 stars
Violence & scariness: N/A
Sexy stuff: N/A
Bad Language: N/A
Consumerism: none at present

Hipstamatic

This is a photography app not specifically geared for kids. The purpose is to add filters and other editing controls to your iPhone camera. The app features a full darkroom editing suite, which is great for kids who want the ability to tinker with photos in a realistic way or learn photo editing skills. Images can be posted to numerous social media feeds. Hipstamatic tracks social feedback right in the app.

Hipstamatic allows you to shoot in ClassicMode&trade, creating analog photos, or ProMode&trade, for more control and options. Kids may not be interested in creating 70s style photos. Between that and the lack of parental controls, this may not be the best choice for kids.

Ratings: 2 out of 5 stars
Educational value: 4 out of 5 stars
Ease of play/use: 3 out of 5 stars
Violence & scariness: N/A
Sexy stuff: N/A
Bad Language: Possible exposure to bad language in contests
Consumerism: $2.99 plus in-app purchases available

Paper Camera

This app adds effects to photos, especially cartoon and sketch effects, turning images into art or comic work. The interface looks like a sketchbook with menus and icons appearing hand drawn, which may be confusing to some users. All effects are done in real time and includes choices like “Pen and Paper,” “Comic Boom” and “Bleaching.” Another effect splits panels and there are lots of other options for creativity.

Your child can take photos or record video. Photos can be pulled from the camera or cloud apps and can be shared to email, apps like Dropbox, or social media. This app is for all audiences so there are no dedicated parent controls.

Ratings: 4 out of 5 stars
Educational value: 3 out of 5 stars
Ease of play/use: 3 out of 5 stars
Violence & scariness: N/A
Sexy stuff: N/A
Bad Language: N/A
Consumerism: $2.49-$2.99 to purchase. Some in-app purchases available

Photo Editor by Aviary

Aviary is a web-based photo editor that has been around for years; Photo Editor is their powerful editing app. This tool can teach interested teens the basics of image editing before they invest in a costly graphics suite. There are standard editing tools such as orientation, text editing, saturation, red-eye reduction, multiple paint/erase brushes and more for a total of about 20 tools. There are numerous tools you can purchase as well. Kids can also add stickers, frames and overlays, edit colors, use filters, and more.

Photo Editor has a camera in the app. Photos can be shared to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. Aviary recommends this app for ages 12 and up for infrequent and mild themes not suitable for kids.

Ratings: 4 out of 5 stars
Educational value: 3 out of 5 stars
Ease of play/use: 4 out of 5 stars
Violence & scariness: Infrequent reference to mild horror and fear themes
Sexy stuff: Infrequent use of mild suggestive themes
Bad Language: Infrequent use of mild profanity, crude humor and alcohol/drug references
Consumerism: In-app purchases available

There are lots of photography apps for kids available, especially if they are interested in creating amazing photos or have a story to tell. Depending on age, maturity and the interests of your child, you can find the right app for your child to thrive as a budding artist.