Electronics
A generation lost to large amounts of time in front of a TV, phone, tablet, or computer has arisen. You no longer see 5 year olds sitting and playing together. Now, you find them sitting beside their parents watching their favorite TV shows. Parents do not buy toys that educate. Instead, they buy apps that educate. Technology has overcome our children’s lives, and we are not helping prevent it.
Electronics are the way we are headed, and if we are not careful, it maybe all we know. It is easy as parents to get overwhelmed and lost in the chaos of raising kids. Sometimes it is just easier to stick the kids in front of a device and leave them be so you can get a chance to breathe, but it is becoming harder and harder to pull our kids away from that world. We should be careful when we invite them into it with no restrictions.
Screen
Screen is a new startup, coming to solve our technology problem. With the ease of sticking our kids in front of a device, comes the ease to forget that they are there, allowing them countless hours of vegetation and lack of imagination. Screen is taking a stand against it.
What it is
Screen is a device and service you can attach to any of your electronic devices. You control it with your smartphone, and it monitors the amount of screen time your child will be able to receive. It does not stop there though. You will also be able to monitor and control what your children are working. Whether at home or at work, you will be able to control what is going into your child’s mind and for how long.
How it works
It requires you to sign a contract. No, not with the company- with your kids. You work together to draw up a contract, agreeing to the amount of time your children can spend in the digital world. When you find an agreed upon time, both the parents and kids digitally sign the contract on their device.
The app then allows the parents to set the restrictions to each individual device whether it is the computer or game counsel. The devices then run the client through their data or wifi connections and will alert the master device if any of the devices are turned offline to avoid restrictions.
The application then logs what apps were used, where they went, and even goes as far, copying the screen to your master device. It would be like looking over their shoulder to see what they are watching.
The device will send warnings that the time is about to go off, allowing the child to find a stopping point before the monitor will shut down on them.
Release Information
Screen is not yet available for order. The founder has said as of now the service component is free of charge, and the set-top device will normally be $139. Right now, if you pre-order the counsel, you can get it for $99.
This could be a good option to start getting kids away from the tv and back to playing with each other outside. Ironically, we have to use technology to control the impact technology has on our kids. This could be a device that begins to push our society away from the addictive aspect of technology and back toward human-to-human interaction.