parenting
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When is it okay to pass little Jimmy the Gears of War?
As Clive Thompson puts it, "We're the first generation that is young enough to have grown up playing games, but old enough to have kids." So what do we do when the little ones start asking questions like, "Why did the big tank man just crack open that alien's skull?" Which is immediately followed by, "So when is it my turn?"On second thought, when is it considered appropriate to hand down the controller in the first place? Clive gets in touch with his moral compass and with the help of an all-star cast of gaming pappies and the Lego corporation, begins to formulate a game plan to tackle the subject in his own home. For those who plan on leaving Azeroth long enough to breed someday, welcome to the world of responsibility. For those who already have this encounter on daily farm status, would you like to share your techniques with the rest of the server that we call life?
Bill Gates clamps down on daughter's internet time
Sure, we've seen individuals getting their hand slapped (or worse) for browsing the internet a bit too often, but you'd assume that having a dad who envisioned the Redmond powerhouse and pays the bills by way of computing would be the perfect father figure for the computer-addicted. Apparently, that's not exactly so, as a recent Reuters report tells of Bill Gates himself clamping down on his 10-year old daughter's internet and gaming time. According to Bill, his oldest gal wasn't even into the 'net until this school year, where tablet PCs became a necessary tool, but now that she's found access to a never-ending supply of information, her habits have suddenly changed. She latched onto Viva Piñata, purportedly playing for "two to three hours per day," after which her health started deteriorating and her chore accomplishments plummeted. Although we mention those last bits in jest, Mr. Gates slapped down a "45-minutes per day" law for non-school related computing tasks on the weekdays, and added just 15 minutes for weekends, probably garnering quite the evil eye and stirring up early thoughts of rebellion in his youngster. Seriously Bill, if you're that worried about daddy's little girl stumbling upon some form of cyber predator, there's always the parent-approved IM-Me, but throwing time restrictions on your own products is just a tad illogical, no?[Via BloggingStocks, thanks Randall]
Tranwo Digital Wireless Child Tracker will find your errant kids
Parents of the 21st century must be exceptionally bad at keeping track of their kids, given that we've seen a small handful of devices trying to achieve what parents somehow have been able to do for millennia without the benefit of such gadgetry. The latest addition to the party is Tranwo's Digital Wireless Child Tracker, which comes with a parent and child unit, allowing each to call for the other via a series of beeps. Basically, when one person signals for the other, the buzzers in each device will sound, and will get faster and faster as parent and child get closer together. No word on how much nor when this ridiculous invention will hit the streets, but the five-language manual indicates that Tranwo is probably aiming for a global release.
Sony follows Nintendo's steps and starts targeting moms
The Wii has been a huge hit at my house over Thanksgiving. Even my mom loved Wii Sports, and is thinking about buying a system for herself. Absolutely mind-boggling. Sony is eager to capitalize on the burgeoning gaming mom market, and has expanded their newly revitalized advertising campaign to less traditional media sources. A quick visit to marthastewart.com (pictured above) will reveal ads for the PSP with a tagline "Sugarplums aren't the only things dancing in their heads." Whatever that means. This campaign will also run on parenting.com and AOL's Parenting channel.The new campaign is "fairly unique for us," said John Koller, senior marketing manager. Sony plans on going for a more organic advertising approach, avoiding the very teen-oriented animation that defined the PSP's first year and a half. Finally![Via Ad Week]
DriveSync tracks your kids' joyrides
Nothing gladdens our hearts more than seeing yet another paranoid parent kid tracking device aimed at locking down the hearts, minds and loins of today's youth. This one provides off-line GPS tracking (read: cheaper than real-time) of your vehicle so you can see when, where, how fast and how aggressively your teen is abusing the family getaway-mobile. The data is tracked passively and stored in a USB key that plugs into the receiver unit and detaches to be read on your home computer. The data is uploaded to a DriveSync server where it gets interpreted, generating reports including trip logs and usage alerts ("Junior's doing 95!"). All of this is couched under euphemistic marketing language about identifying aggressive driving behavior in your teen (or your fleet drivers, if you're the paranoid trucking co. manager-type instead of paranoid parent) and nipping it in the bud early, but don't be fooled, kids -- what this really means is no more clandestine trips to the liquor store without the 'rents finding out.
