Time's up: Monitor limits use of electronic devices

Jared Price used to park himself in front of the TV screen, blissfully blowing three or four hours each summer day playing video games or watching programs.

No more.

Now the 13-year-old and his siblings — also TV and game junkies — each get six hours, tops, every week.

Policing their tube time is a new product from American Fork-based Card Access Inc. The Time-Scout Monitor keeps tabs on their time and shuts off the power to the TV if they venture beyond what their parents have approved through time accounts stored in the monitor.

"I don't really like it because I like to play a lot," said Price, of Pleasant Grove. "Yeah, it helps me get some other stuff done, but it can be frustrating. I guess if I was a parent, I would get it."

That's what Kent Hansen likes to hear. The president of Card Access, Hansen believes parents, once they learn about the Time-Scout Monitor, will want at least one because it relieves them of time enforcement duties and eliminates begging and battles over electronics use.

"We are parents, and we saw a concern in our own lives and in talking with people, not just in Utah but elsewhere, that everyone had the same concern: parents having a difficult time trying to limit or control the amount of time kids are spending watching TV, playing video games or being on the computer," Hansen said. "It's not that those devices are bad, but you need to have moderation in those things."

Parents plug the TV, video game box, computer or other device into the Time-Scout Monitor's power box. They use an "add/subtract" swipe card with a timer unit to adjust time they establish for up to 10 accounts. One swipe? Thirty minutes. Two? An hour.

Each user gets their own card to access their time account. Swiping starts the clock. A second stops it and shuts off the device's power. Beeps warn the user when the allotted time is nearly up.

Parents also can lock out certain time periods; for example, keeping kids from surreptitiously jumping online at 2 a.m. And they can program an override, allowing a block of time for free access without sucking away valuable minutes from the accounts.

Older, enterprising youngsters can outsmart the system by unlocking the device plug from the power box by using a paper clip poked into the appropriate hole, but parents can thwart that by slapping a luggage lock on the power unit.

The Time-Scout Monitor costs $69.95 and is available at 1-888-299-8989 or www.time-scout.com.