I found Kindle Fire tablet seems to be good enough for kids. It has everything that you need. But apart from that you can see that there are some other tablets for kids under 120. And some of them are specific to some activities and the options. I have found that those may not cost much. But for the games in Android, you'd find that Kindle Android seems to be a good option.
I think 5 years old if a bit too young for a tablet. I would say 10 or 11 years old is the best time to give a kid something like that, they usually are a bit more careful and knowledgeable with such devices at that age.
I think is a good idea only if the time spending on the tablet is supervised by a parent. Never let the child more than an hour on this gadget. A tablet is good because it can teach our child to know the letters, sing, learn new words etc. The only disadvantage is that a tablet makes the child more irascible if it spends a lot of time on it.
I think it would be fine to give a 5-year old child a tablet as long as the parents are in control of the time they'll spend on the gadget. There are many educational apps that a child can enjoy while learning at the same time. A tablet don't have to be connected to the internet for young kids to enjoy them. Parents can allow their kids to use the tablet as a reward for good behavior or good performance at school.
I would not recommending buying a tablet for a 5 year old kid as a gift and I would prefer to let the young kids play something with their hands, such as building blocks, drawing, playing puzzle, etc. But again, this depends on the family of the kids. Some parents do not mind the kids looking at the screen all day long, as I have seen many parents let the kids use the tablet or their mobile phone all the time, then perhaps this might be fine to give the kid a tablet. But I have also heard some parents complain their kids spending too much time on the screen. Perhaps it'd be better to ask the opinion of the parents first before giving such gift.
@kaka135 Agree with it. Even I have seen some parents which allow their kids playing games on phone all the day. Not only that, in fact they give phone by their self to avoid kid's annoying demands and mischievous . But that's not the proper way. Later on it will create problems and not good for kids at all.
Yes, I am not sure about other countries, but here I can always see young kids (even toddlers) sitting on high chair, watching tablet/mobile phone screen while eating in the restaurant. A friend told me he started giving his child mobile phone to watch videos or play games since he was 1 year old and now he is 2 years old, if he doesn't give him the phone, he would definitely throw tantrums, so he just has to give in. As you said, it might "solve" the temporary problem for parents as the kids can be quiet and sit still for a short while, but it may create problems in long run. Perhaps with parents' proper guidance and set boundaries, it might still be fine for the young kids to use tablet.
Same thing is happening in my country too. Though it wasn't here before 5 to 6 years. But lately this is happening almost everywhere. This has become kind of trend and everybody is following this. Yes as you said, they just used to give phones to kid so that they don't do things like you mentioned. But I wonder how our elders were managing the things when there wasn't phone and all that. So if they have done it then why not us. Lol. I am trying to avoid all these things from my kid so far. And I hope I will be successful in this thing.
