Think your kids spend too much time watching television, using the Internet and playing video games?
You’re not alone.
A study done last year by the Kaiser Family Foundation (www.kff.org) shed light on the volume of “new media” our kids take in.
According to the study, children ages 8 to 18 spend nearly four hours each day–or nearly 30 hours per week–watching television. They also spend about an hour per day using the computer for non-school activities, and another hour or so each day playing video games.
The study also found that two-thirds of all kids have a television in their bedroom, and about half have a video-game console there as well. About one-third have a computer in their room.
All of which adds up to the average child spending more time with their TV, computer and video game system than the average adult spends at work on a given week.
How can you manage your child’s “new media” time?
A Boulder, Colo., company called Hopscotch Technology is trying to help. Its product is called BOB (www.usebob.com).
“That stands for Bring on Balance,” said Tom Gallop, the company’s CEO. “It sounds goofy, I know. But moms get it. They get that sometimes there’s an imbalance with the amount of time kids spend in front of the TV or computer.”
The unit looks something like an old-school, low-tech calculator. There’s an LCD screen and a push-button number pad.
BOB plugs into your electrical socket, your TV or computer monitor. Using a real key, you lock the component’s plug into the BOB device.
Using the unit’s buttons, you assign a four-digit code to each child (and, if you wish, the adults in your family). Then you set the maximum time each person can spend in front of the TV or PC. You can also specify times of day when the device cannot be used.
“So you turn on the TV,” Gallop said, “and a screen comes on asking for a [code]. The TV [programming] cannot come on without the [code].”
Once the code is entered, the timer starts counting down. When your child’s time is used up, the TV or PC monitor is turned off. If they try to re-enter their code, it will stay off. The next day, or week, depending on how you chose to program BOB, the timer starts anew.
How do you keep track of who’s using which code?
Six lights on top of the unit, one for each code, tell you which one has been entered. “That way, your kids can’t cheat and use somebody else’s code.”
Often, the benefits of BOB reach beyond the obvious one of limiting the amount of time your kids spend in front of the tube.
“The top two benefits were not what we thought they would be,” said Gallop. “The biggest one is that moms are happy they don’t have to fight with their kids anymore. And the other one is that parents are happy their kids learn how to budget their time.
“So if I have one hour left for the week, but I know my friend is coming over this weekend to play video games, I’m going to preserve that hour.”
Wheaton resident Judy Barg was one of the families to test the device last year.
Barg, 40, attached BOB to her computer screen and programmed daily time limits for each of her six children.
The kids, ages 4 to 17, got hours based on their age and Internet-use requirements. They were also blocked from using the computer when Barg and her husband slept.
The older kids got more time than the younger kids. And everyone was granted extra hours on the weekends.
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“So the older kids couldn’t be on between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.,” Barg explained. “And then on the weekends we gave them until midnight.”
With the unit, “I didn’t have to do as much refereeing,” she said. “And they weren’t wasting time. They’d get right down to business.”
Overall, Barg said, “I think it teaches kids to balance their time better. And they actually negotiated with each other. I gave the older boys permission to use each other’s minutes, so they’d say, `I’m not gonna be around today, you can use some of my time.'”
BOB retails for about $90, and is available at several retail locations. Locally, you can find it at Abt Electronics in Glenview.
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Alex L. Goldfayn is host of “The Technology Tailor Show” on WGN-AM 720 on Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.