BOB: An easy and effective tool to manage your children’s time in front of a screen

Are you concerned that your kids are watching too much TV, playing too many video games or surfing the Internet when they could be outside playing? Maybe you have young children and are interested in instilling good habits from the go. Or maybe your little ones are too young for TV, but they love to push those buttons! BOB may be just the guy, errr tool, you’ve been waiting for. And if you’re living in the US, your children are watching on average 3-5 hours of television a day, much more than the recommended 2 hour daily maximum the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests.

“I realized that my children weren’t enjoying the same kind of playtime I had valued as a child,” said Tom Gallop, CEO and co-founder of Hopscotch Technology. “My children were watching nearly 20 hours of television a week! We set out to build a device that helps parents manage the use of media by their children,” and the solution, BOB, does just that.

So what exactly is BOB? It is a small device that you can plug a TV, video game or computer cord into (instead of plugging into an outlet). You then program the device with details such as how much TV your child is allotted (either daily or weekly), block certain times (after school during homework time, for instance) and set up a four digit pin number for your child (or children). When your child wants to watch TV, he simply enters his code and the television turns on. When the allotted time limit is met, the TV automatically turns off.

One cool feature for parents with very young children, when BOB is setup, the button on the TV no longer functions so if your baby is prone to pushing the TV button on and off repeatedly, that is no longer an issue. Setup is really fast and easy. Learn more about the media time manager, BOB, at www.usebob.com. Purchase BOB at www.amazon.com or www.target.com.

See CleverParents-tv Vidcast #6 featuring BOB.