Amazon has just announced a software update to their Kindle Fire tablet and among other things, it improves parental controls in the realm of purchasing and access to specific content.

Version 6.3.1 now gives users the ability to password-protect their purchases – so little Timmy doesn’t deplete your bank account without your knowledge. The new version also allows parents to disallow access to certain types of content -or block their child’s access to the Silk browser altogether.

Along with the new parental controls, here’s a smattering of what else you’ll find in v.6.3.1 via Amazon:

Sharing: Easily share favorite passages and notes from books directly from Kindle Fire. Simply highlight a passage and select “Share,” add a note, and choose which social network youd like to post to.
Book Extras: Powered by Shelfari, Amazon’s community of book lovers, Book Extras make it easy to see supplemental material about the book you are reading, without leaving the book. View descriptions of characters, a glossary of common terms used in the book, information on the authors and common locations referenced in the book, and more. To view Book Extras within your book, tap the bottom of the screen to bring up the options bar, tap the menu icon and select “Book Extras.”
Archive of Personal Documents: Your personal documents are stored in the Amazon Cloud and available for redownload at any time from the Docs content library on your Kindle Fire. Just as with Kindle books, Whispersync automatically syncs notes, highlights and furthest page read for personal documents.
Print Replica Textbooks: Students can buy thousands of print replica textbooks to read on their Kindle Fire and save up to 60% off the list price of the print textbook. Print replica textbooks maintain the rich formatting, color and layout of the print editions, with features including notes and highlights, zoom and pan, linked table of contents, real page numbers, and Whispersync of notes, highlights and furthest page read.
Reading View for Amazon Silk: With Reading View on Silk, the content that you’re interested in is elevated above the clutter in a reading-optimized, single screen view (even for multi-page articles). The full page is still available in the background, allowing you to easily toggle back to a traditional view to see other interesting features on the page.
Movie Rentals: The rental period for movie rentals downloaded to Kindle Fire now starts when you starts watching the movie, rather than at download.
Additional Enhancements: Faster re-connect of Wi-Fi after your Kindle Fire has been asleep, and general performance enhancements.

Of course, like all updates, this one will be automatically pushed to your device in due time. If you want to manually install the update, head here to find out how.

Last week we saw some good news for Amazon regarding their Kindle Fire. comScore data revealed that the tablet’s market share had almost doubled since December 2011 and was now accounting for more than half of the entire Android market share. Although earlier this week we heard that Target is about to stop carrying the popular device.