My daughter is in love with this thing! She's 8 years old, very smart little girl, and she is very happy with My Password Journal. She's gone through many of the preset recorded ideas for writing, she loves the secret storage compartment underneath the journal inside, loves the invisible ink that is activated by the inside light, and is especially in love with the ability to catch the intruder Daddy trying to get into her secret writings! Haha. So freaking cute. I try to break in and sound like her to get it to open up and it goes off with this alarm and says to me in her voice "Get away from my journal or i'm gunna come and find you!" lol. I can't believe it records her voice and then it unlocks when she says her password!Words of advice: Try to keep your passwords on the shorter side. Several words can get difficult. Tone of voice matters, if you say it when you're excited and then try to say your password when you're depressed, it's probably going to stay shut even for the owner. So, my best advice is to record it in a normal tone of voice. Also when you record, don't be so clear and concise. Encourage your child to say it however they would normally say it in a sentence, even cutting out a syllable. Otherwise, entry requires a very clear and concise, very enunciated word(s).Have fun! Your little ones will for sure, and the price is just great for this thing. You'll probably have to eventually buy some separate invisible ink markers, and DEFINITELY a new notebook for inside form the store or whatever. The book provided is super thin, probably like 40 sheets of small paper. They really should have made it fatter than what they provided. That was the only downside. It's a really stingy notebook inside. Otherwise, perfect perfect perfect and consumes the heck out of their time. Keeps them very busy with their very own creativity, and encourages writing, AND journaling, which if you don't already know yet, is like free therapy. Journaling is better for kids and adults alike more so than a therapist. Journaling is therapeutic. Period.My 6 year-old daughter had asked for something that locked because her older brother (9) was going through her "very important, secret stuff" and she needed to protect it at all cost! I had looked around for something cute that would work and found this little journal. As I was reading the details it was perfect! It was lockable without having to keep up with a key and had a spot for writing or drawing and a little secret hidden box inside to keep her stuff safe. In order to unlock the journal it has a built in microphone that records your chosen password in your own voice. So when anyone else besides my daughter tries to open the locked journal it instantly recognizes it's not the same voice or password and sets off an alarm to where she again can record a message to the said perpetrator! My son attempted to unlock it and alarm started beeping so loud and next thing you heard was "GET AWAY FROM MY STUFF JACKSON!" Yup, it worked flawlessly! The next time she unlocked her journal it said "one person tried to access your journal" and then played my sons voice back from earlier trying to say her password!!It's the coolest little journal ever and perfect for any little girl!This was my 6 year old daughters favorite Christmas present. There are some drawbacks to this toy though...My daughter could set the password by herself. She had a really great time with it until weeks later she set the password with a long pause and a murmur at the end. This was impossible for her to recreate. So, every time she tried, the password journal sounded out the siren along with, "intruder alert!" There is a convenient solution to reset the journal (it's an inconspicuous button on the back.) But, I don't enjoy high maintenance toys that blast out a siren and require instruction manuals past their initial opening date. I recovered from the stress of this toy, but I think it's a lot more enjoyable if you don't set a password. If you find yourself in a similar situation just press the purple button in the back and it will unlock in the front with out all the British chatter and sirens. I attached instructions for this password journal, because it's good to have a backup copy that's easy to locate!My 8-year-old daughter was thrilled to get this journal. We laughed for an hour over her brothers trying to break in and the various intruder alert messages she recorded. It was the biggest hit of Christmas morning for her. Her brothers could open it by saying the proper password in a high-pitched voice, which disappointed her, but I didn't expect sophisticated voice recognition and told her as long as she made the password hard to guess, she'd be fine.She was crushed when they discovered the reset button on the back, but I gave them a stern talk about leaving the journal alone.The problem came after about three hours of use. The mechanism holding the journal together no longer works. Without the opening mechanism it's nothing but an unwieldy plastic case for a tiny notebook. It can now be opened without engaging the electronic stuff at all. You just gently lift the plastic cover and it opens. The worst part was when my daughter said in a tiny voice, "That was the whole point."I am returning this and am taking my chances on a replacement because there are several positive reviews and I'm hoping we just got a defective one. But if the next one breaks in a couple hours I'm giving up and getting something else. Very disappointing.Update: After my refund/return went through I tried to buy a new one and they aren't even available anymore except through third-party sellers for 150% of the price. I'm just going to have her pick out something else. It's really a shame because it's such a cute idea.Bought two of these now as my daughter had one and really loved it, so got another for my niece.It is a great toy and the voice recognition is fairly good as long as you say exactly what you recorded, it will then open to reveal the journal inside. What great is the message you can add when the password is incorrect, my daughter had great fun with this as when her brothers tried to open it, her message was a funny shout telling them no entry.It is really easy to use and understand and gives kids that sense of security for their possessions so is a good learning toy. The batteries seem to last forever too as ive not changed mine in 3 years.I bought this for my daughter recently and she loves it. She finds it really entertaining that nobody else can access her secret diary. She also likes recording cheeky messages that the diary says to anyone (her younger brother) who doesn't provide the correct password.Another good feature is that it comes wit an invisible ink pen for writing secret messages.The reason that I've given this four stars instead of five is that the diary quite often doesn't recognize my daughters voice. This provides some annoyance to my daughter but not enough to put her off. Aside from that, I'd definitely recommend this.It was a xmas present for my 8y old. The locking system is rubbish. I believe the locking system doesn't connect well. It took us numerous times to open it with a nail file to reset password after it hasn't click while locking resulting in error and leaving my girl unable to unlock it. I dont have the packaging otherwise we would return it. Not worth the moneyMy daughter wanted this for Christmas but it’s been a hassle since, we’ve had to reset it twice as it hasn’t recognised her voice and in order to reset you have to take the screws out etc so I’m hoping she forgets about this as it’s locked out again and I need to reset it for the third time!Alot of money for not alot of 'journal'. My 9 year old got this for her birthday and what a disappointment. It's not a journal inside its a tiny notebook not even 10cm x 20cm with maybe 20 pages. Secret compartment too small to put anything other than a folded piece of A4 paper. Not impressed at all.