Microsoft spoils Christmas with Xbox 360 locking feature
Another excuse for the kids to hire a hitman
An upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update in early December will add a "Family Timer" feature that lets parents set a limit on gaming time.
Merry Christmas, Billy! You have exactly two hours to enjoy your present.
Similar to the Windows Vista counterpart, the timer can restrict gaming on a per-day or per-week basis. When the alloted time runs out, the console will automatically turn off. Notifications will appear to warn the child when the end of the game session is nigh.
It should at least make gunning for the next save point more interesting.
The addition will help parents set boundaries for children, without the fuss of enforcing the rules themselves. There's no finer weaning than at the cold, uncompromising teat of mother technology. Then again, perhaps it's safer to keep your distance when pulling the plug.
The new feature will highlight Microsoft's second year of its "Safety is no game. Is your family set?" (yes, that's really the name) initiative with the Parent Teacher Association.
Oh well, who's up for a rousing game of hoop 'n' stick?
"As a leader in interactive entertainment, it's Microsoft's responsibility to provide parents with tools they can use to manage their children's video gaming and online experiences, and we have made that a priority from the very start," said Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft's entertainment division, in a statement.
American football star Jerry Rice was also a part of the announcement...for some reason. He quite touchingly stated that being a father was a greater accomplishment than both winning the Super Bowl and being a finalist on the reality show 'Dancing with the Stars.'
Even better than coming in third place on a reality show, Jerry? If teardrops ruin this keyboard, we're sending the bill to you.
This just in: Children often don't like rules restricting playtime
As a part of the announcement, Microsoft released the results of an independent research poll they sponsored on children's use of digital media.
The poll looked at 800 parents with children between the ages of five and 17 who have a video game console in their home. It showed that 45 per cent of parents say that enforcing rules about their children's media consumption creates tension at home. About 99 per cent have some rules, but only 47 per cent have "comprehensive" rules concerning access, content and time. The research also revealed that only 16 per cent of families are anal enough to put media-use rules in writing, and 40 per cent of parents involve children in related discussions. ®
COMMENTS
paid to NOT play?
WTF?
No wonder kids grow up expecting everything and claiming its thier 'right' to have it all.
Parents are 100% to blame for a childs poor upbringing, not teachers, not schools, not government, not games makers not the internet.
The number of kids who fall behind during the early years of education simply due to the fact their parents are too busy to read with them, or talk to them is shocking. Its all too easy to farm them off to a child minder at 6am and have them delivered back at 9pm. The lame excuse of being too busy with work is just unacceptable, if you are too busy to look after your kids dont have kids! Simple.
Someone should do a study into the chemical inbalance that occurs in 95% of all new parents causing them to act irrationally and to pass all responsuibility of anything bad thier kids do onto the teachers or child minders, God forbid it has anything to do with the lack of a real parent being there.
*Rant over*
Didnt reven take my coat off.
feeling old?
for me it was the Atari 2600. And there wasn't any of this lame "pay to not play" crap. It was "get your @ss outside or you never use it again.
None of this "stress" and "argument" shite either. If some new toy or gadget was a means for us kids to add hassle, then it went away. So we learned to not make it an issue.
Thanks to Dr. Spock, nanny-state liberals and their "kids never lie" based Stormtrooper Child Welfare shocktroops (guilty until proven innocent, warrantless search, no miranda) and an endless cycle of pandering to children/controlling their parents thru Media, anything resembling "parenting" is now considered "abuse".
*This* is why society is heading down the commode. Not the games, not the shows, but the lack of parenting and leftist governments who allow teachers and bureaucrats more control of a child than his/her own family.
In our day...
... our dad used to wake'us up 'alf hour before we had to go to bed... piece of coal and a worm for our tea.... etc.
Coat is well and truly on :)
*cough* When i was a lad.....
My parents thought I was a genius simply because I could USE the home computer. Admitted, it was a Sinclair Spectrum, and did need a saint's patience simply to get it to read ALL the data from the cassette deck, but I was actively encouraged to play Dizzy all day long!
Hell, they could never get me off my Amiga, even for food! =P
I don’t know if I would have ever have reached “certified code monkey” without the helpful backing from my parents =)
So how long
So how long will it be before some little scrote reports his parents to ChildLine because they blocked him from using his XBox 360?
Or what if it's not ChildLine, but a hired hitman? (Oops, that's already happened.)
