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Regulate Your Kids' Gaming With Time Scout
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a PC World/Yahoo story discussing the Time-Scout Monitor, a device "which tracks and enforces usage limits on electronic products, and cuts the power when time runs out." It's aimed at kids who may watch TV or, particularly, play game consoles for too long, and uses an ATM-like card to allott time on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. According to the man behind it, Kent Hansen, "You get home and the kid is playing Nintendo or the computer when they're supposed to be doing homework. Then you're facing arguments and negotiations that make you the bad guy. With this product, there's no argument, because you can't argue with a box."
Kid: Mom, what happens when I unplug the Nintendo from that funny-looking box and plug it into a normal socket?
Mom: Shit.
--TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
for parents to pass the buck to a machine. First they want an electronic device or two to raise their kids, then they want this thing to limit their access to the electronic devices.
Oh well, at least the average kid will probably be able to figure out that they can unplug their TV or whatever from this and plug it directly into the wall.
I'm starting to think this isn't the best place to promote my Anti-Sig Campaign.
I can see it now.. a kid is too involved in a game and then *CLICK*, no power. "But I forgot to saaaaaaaaave".
As far as not arguing with "a box", I'm sure a kid is more inclined to hit the box than attempt to argue with it!
From the post (my emphasis):
Right. Exactly. Just another excuse for parents to not be parents and be their child's best friend. Ladies and Gentlemen, you aren't supposed to be your kid's best friend. You're supposed to be their parent, their role model, their mentor, their teacher. Quit sluffing off and do your jobs!
P.S. To those parents who do monitor the time their kids spend online, playing games, watching TV, etc. Thank you.
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
We see a lawsuit for a kid saving just as their time runs out, resulting in a memory card garble?
The article doesn't really seem to say whether or not the devices are somehow physically locked into the base unit or not. Just that a monitor is plugged into a wall, and the time-limited device is plugged into a base unit.
Anyway, I'm sure a lot of desperate kids understand that the power supply is swappable at the console's end, and that their nearest toy store sells it. An extension cord will eliminate any need of a "base unit" to worry about plugging into.
Apart from the above, what about multi-TV households? I suspect that any family ready to blow $70 on a device like this has multiple televisions and would need one of these devices on each one. If only one is attached then, of course, the product can easily be evaded by moving to another TV.
Realistically, the only way this product works effectively (if only one is bought) is in stopping kids from using their console (again assuming that there is a locking mechanism as described in my first paragraph). They can still vegetate in front of one of the TVs in the house, and frankly I would find that more disturbing were I a parent than having the kid playing video games (at least their brain is engaged with the latter).
I guess there's one more way this could work, and that's by integrating the idea into televisions and consoles themselves. Then, parents could simply choose to buy only components wtih the card access technology. Otherwise, there are just too many ways around it, and by the time the child is old enough to play videogames they're going to have the ability to evade the system.
--Note that all of the above assumes that the concept is a "healthy" idea in terms of parenting which is another argument entirely.
I actually followed the rule for more than a year, then my dad started going on lemmings binges and the injustice of it all sank in. Ultimately, if she'd said "an hour per day" or something I probably would have wasted less of my life overall on computer games.
We could put them on Linux boxen. Yeah Linux can handle unanticipated shutdowns. Better still put one before a UPS in the chain.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
What ever happened to just parents setting down a set of rules and actually enforcing them? Devices like this might be the new 20th century way of being a parent, but they often tend to throw off the responsibilities of being a parent. Nothing beats being there for your kids. Take an active role for crying out loud, their only kids once.
... you could hook a car battery up to the back of this thing as well. Extend your game over the time limit and the box shocks the pee right out of you.
It's true, I've tried.
... left ! God and BABY Jesus, I am not playing that entire level again!"
... unless, of course, you decide that it's to blame for the "glitch."
"What the f--"
"I pushed left, you squirrely piece of shit
Storm out of the room. Wait at least two minutes (you do have your pride), then slink back in and play that entire level again.
I also recommend a wireless controller. Preferrably one of the more expensive models. Trust me, you're much less tempted to throw a $50 miracle of modern technology into the wall
/* Pleurez, pleurez, mes yeux, et fondez vous en eau! La moitie de ma vie a mis l'autre au tombeau. - Corneille */
Scouting not your speed? Adults not willing to help out with troop logistics occasionally? Go grab your local equivilent of Computer Bits and find your local gaming groups. Yeah, it's not really reducing hours gamed, but it's getting that all-important social interaction, which is the ultimate goal.
Gaming too much is more of a social issue than a technological one, and one that requires a social solution.
Help us build a better map!
Teach your kids to be good, upstanding, homophobic Americans! Just like the good old days!
... there was no discussion (not that I had a gaming console besides an Atari 2600 when the Nintendos were in fashion). If you were told to get off the games, or computer, or your butt, you did it. Plain and simple. If you didn't, well, let's see how many people between 25-40 are out there tonight and let them answer. :)
CliffH
sigs are like a box of chocolates, they all suck remove the underscores to email me
With this product, there's no argument, because you can't argue with a box
No kid with the cognitive ability to play games is going to be fooled into believing Mom and Dad can't get them more game time. This will just change the arguments to "Just 5 more credits Mom, PLEEEZE? I gotta get to the save point...etc". Not a final solution for arguments about game time, but an effective deterrent for sneaking in that last level before hormework/bed. I can't help thinking that with the advent of gaming families it may become an irritation parents don't want to deal with when it's time to get their game on. Such was the downfall of the V-chip.
----------------------
"Not all who wander are lost" -- JRR Tolkien
Kids may be foolish, but they're devious. Furthermore, parents assume that their children are stupid and incompetent, and therefore slack off, doing things like using "12345" as the password or leaving the original power supply lying back behind the TV.
Besides, if the Time Scout can't somehow lock onto a console's power-cord connection, it's a waste of money. Power cords are cheap and easy to acquire, especially if there are more than one kid working together - a couple week's allowance for a new power supply, they plug in when they're home alone, and they can burn all their alotted time when the parents are home. It's futile trying to control a latch-key kid*; if you're not there, what's to be afraid of?
And what's this shit about not having to fight with your kids? Are people so afraid of accountability that they're willing to entrust the raising of their offspring to electronic devices? If you're so afraid of fighting, why not just let the little bastards play Nintendo all day?
I hate to sound so vitriolic, but shit like this ticks me off. If you don't want your kids to play Nintendo when they should be doing their homework or chores, don't let them. If they do, take the console (not the power cord) and put it in your office at work. This sounds like a device designed for parents who have to leave their kids alone occasionally, and I will guarantee you that if it's hidden in the house, they will find it. They'll most likely even be able to replace it so that you won't even know they did.
* You might not be able to control them, but if you do a good job raising a kid, you won't have to. There are no children who are born incorrigible.
What's funny about that whole topic is that for the short time I was in Boy Scouts before I gave up on Scouting or at least my troop being horrible, it was a bastion of barely-repressed homosexuality...
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Another device to seperate the responsibility of parenting from the parents.
'Same speed C but faster'
And negate one more reason for being a parent....Why are we removing all the actual parenting from the process of raising a child?
...we are from the government - we are here to help...
there have been timer things like this for years. there have been times like this for watching tv, the only thing i see different is the card swipe ting. guess what, no one bought them then, no one will buy them now...
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Why argue... Simple solution... It cuts the power on my Xbox or whatever. I cut the power on it.
With this product, there's no argument, because you can't argue with a box
Yeah, right.
Reminds me of that old Country-Western standard "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be black hats."
-- MarkusQ
...why don't parents just kill their children and get over with it. If someone has so little interest in his child that he needs such a unit to make sure it doesn't watch too much TV, he's probably better without children.
A good American is not one who simply accepts whatever deviant acts other people want to do. I find homosexuality disgusting and when I raise my children I will inform him that what homosexuals are doing is wrong. It is a sexual perversion just as wrong as incest and bestiality. You liberals disgusting me with your embrace of any and all "lifestyles" EXCEPT the ones where two parents are married and work hard to support their kids. Fuck you.
If it comes to that, why spend $$$ on some stupid box, when it all comes down the grounding in the first place?
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Kids make parenting so inconvenient nowadays. Like totally.
== chicks are for fags ==
How long until some ingenius little tyke figures out how to hack or modify the device anyways? If they can't get enough access to do what they want to do, they'll go to the library, school or a friend's house and use a computer there to figure out how to break the restrictions on the box. Then all mom and dad have is a $70 hunk of metal and plastic, and they're back to square one.
Gabriel Ricard
I'd rather him grow up with better hand-eye coordination, logic skills, an reflexes. Oh but wait, too much Tetis is going to turn little Timmy into a homicidal maniac.
It's not stupid. It's advanced.
Went from Pack 94, Sylmar to Troop 592, Portland.
Help us build a better map!
Instead of: Mom: "Johnny, save your game and come to dinner," we get: Box: "click" Johnny: "Goddammit I was almost through that level!"
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
I agree that the modern parent leaves too much parenting Jo XBOX and re-runs of "Leave it to Beaver", but have you ever tried saying Goodnight to a kid with ADD? It's quite a process, let me tell ya (my girlfriends brother can't focus on food, let alone homework). This is a firm "sorry, get your ass to bed". Sure, there will be whining of "just a few more credits pleaaaaassee...." but there is a firm 'NO' that can along with that.
It's a slightly less drastic measure than unplugging the game machine yourself (which starts a much more fun and larger arguement) and this device gives you a warning. It's hard to monitor the exact bedtime clock when you're doing laundry, the dishes, and trying to balance the checkbook all at the same time.
Before we all claim that anyone who uses some outside help in disciplining their kids is a bad parent, we should really think about how this might actually be usefull.
Just my 2 cents
No one here is whining about the tool you moron.
They're whining about 1) the uselessness (some of us complaining are parents) and 2) the very real rise in parental irresponsibility (my 8 year old was almost killed by a neighbor's brat throwing a metal bar at him).
And 1 more thing, the tool makers aren't honest. Since when is every college website a porn site? Since they installed CyberPatrol.
Censorware won't let you near any discussion of
censorware, winter being "hard on" cars, or www.janehan"cock".com.
There, I said it. You can stick your head back in the sand now.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
I put an X-10 plug on the TV and the firecracker
thingie from Radio Shack on my linux router. a cron job shuts the TV off every school night at 9:00 and won't turn it back on until the next morning. The kids know where the remote is and can turn it back on if a mistake was made (holiday - no school tomorrow) but normally they get the hint and go to bed. (or sometimes finish up homework they told me was done before the TV got turned on).
Real SUV's don't have cupholders
It's 5:42 A.M., do you know where your stack pointer is?
Back when my siblings and I were growing up, my parents instituted a time keeping system of their own, using an old set of poker chips and a couple of cheap kitchen timers.
You earned chips by doing your chores and by performing well in school. For instance, doing the dishes was worth a red 30 minute chip.
Chips could be cashed in for TV, computer or game time.
Extra chips could be earned by doing extra chores.
When you wanted to cash your chips in, a parent would mind the timer.
The system worked well...TOO well. Not only did our grades improve, but Saturday Mornings turned into huge fights about who'd get to vacuum the living room (worth 60 minutes.)
Had I know such a thing would be considered marketable, I would have patented the system and started selling kits for $50/ea.
I couldn't actually find a reference for my "locking socket" conjecture although I have heard of people seeing them in public places where the management doesn't want you removing power to their equipment...
I did, however, find a reference for putting a lock through the holes to prevent someone from plugging in the equipment in the first place: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_389.html
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.