We are a way to digital household with kids on ipads, Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch, Laptops and phones (iphone). While most devices do offer some sort of screentime function, there is no way to do this cross manufacturer. And some devices are just bad at it (looking at you Sony) where we switched from kids accounts to grownup accounts just so the kids can play say… fortnight.
We set rules and sometimes even (google based voice) timers to remind them or limit time on a specific device. But can use some additional support. For example when I am working from home in my home-office it would be good that I could get a notification that they didn’t stick to an agreement. Instead of having to check on them the entire time. Also don’t want to be those parents that walk into our kids rooms every hour to ‘check’. Not looking to be a controlling-parent, but sometimes it can get quite bad (incl. for their mood) and they are at that age you want to not monitor everything (i.e. they hang out on their own room without mom and dag), but also don’t let them fully control it themselves.
I know not all devices can be added to HA yet (again looking at you Sony). But those that can, can’t seem to find anything that exposes for example usage. Being to just track if a device is unlocked for x amount of time for example. Guessing because the potential for misuse is very high.
Still curious if any other parents here found some good ways and tips to have HA support your kids screentime?
When the PS4 started to have issues I upgraded to the 5. Really hope at some point it will allow HA to connect to it. PS4 ended up with my other older generation consoles in storage.
I can understand it. It is in essence a huge invasion of privacy. That’s also why I myself am a bit hesitant. The manufacturer cannot ofc. know if you use it for good or bad. It was worth a try. But I fully understand the downsides may outway the upsides in the overall picture.
So far this has been rather un-succesful. I have sensors for the specific sources on the TV. So a source like an HDMI port named ‘Playstation’, ‘Switch’ can be tracked, but not account specific. And I found out there is a steam native integration that allows you to track friends online time. With my kids being friends it’s easy to setup a history_stats sensor.
It’s kinda stalker-like I realize you can actually track all your friends online/offline time as such
iOS, Epic Games Launcher, and specific account tracking for Nintendo, Playstation no luck so far.
I have a Huawei router and with an integration for it, I can target which device has its access to specific domains or to the internet revoked. This way my son can still listen to music on Spotify but not watch Youtube, Netflix etc. With an automation this could also be scheduled for specific hours.
