I have hatchlings that are about two months old. At this age they can be handled (By an adult ) pretty easily. If they bite no big deal, they wouldn't break the skin. Again at this stage, if you work with them for a month or two you can really developed a very tame animal. Some of my customers put them on leashes and bring them everywhere.

Tame really deepens on how much time you put into them and the best time to buy one is as young as possible.  At a year old, if they are already wild then it will take a lot more time to tame him down, however, even at a year old if the animal is somewhat tame you can still archive great results in a couple of months.

"Safely around kids" is a board term, I guess the answer is , how old are the kids? I wouldn't let anything less than an 8 year old handle a hatchling; the animal could bite which would be more of a traumatic experience to the child then the damage. You also have to consider what the child will do to a hatchling as they could easily injure the animal. I think it also has a lot to do with how familiar and responsible a child is with animals.

Hope that helps.

Sam Pascucci