Screen-time tools should focus on enforcement, not just monitoring

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Parents who prioritized technology support were responding to daily conflict, safety concerns, and the emotional strain of being the enforcer. They wanted help setting limits, blocking content, and reducing arguments, especially as children got older and digital risks increased. The strongest demand was for tools that automate enforcement across devices, provide oversight and alerts, and reduce parent-child confrontation rather than simply report usage.

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Lauren M.

What would have to be true is that the service would have to actually be enforced and that it could not be overridden by my children.

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Jessica F.

I think the other thing that would be beneficial is not using technology until chores are completed and homework is completed. Like, there was a way for access to technology to not be available until those things are completed, and it's not something I would have to personally manage

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Lauren M.

This one just feels more like an argumentative battle that recurs, reoccurs every single day and it would be just nice if that kind of like negativity and that bad vibe wasn't there on a daily basis.

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Lauren M.

Every time I either put the limits on the phones of my children or other devices or when I tell them that enough time has passed and that it's time to put the devices away. It's just a battle.

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Craig W.

Mainly the pushback from the kids themselves. So, when their screen time has run out, it can be sometimes difficult to say no when they're emotional and they're asking for more screen time.

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Craig W.

I suppose a platform that could, yeah, that could help manage my children's use of technology. You know, that would be cross platform and cross device. Where I would wanna stay involved is, you know, have an oversight of of of that platform and, you know, being able to have have a notifications monitoring, etcetera, in place.

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Hannah L.

Something else that would be massively useful would be some kind of streaming system where we could whitelist the programs that we wanted our children to watch. So instead of so that we could preset, you know, you can watch these five different programs, and they're the only thing that those children have access to, but then the child could independently access them through a remote or an app or something. That would be extremely useful.

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David B.

So a reliable restrictions on websites and screen time and restrictions that work properly.

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Daniella U.

I think setting like limited screen time, seeing where like my kid is spending their time on there, and maybe notifying me if there are maybe any threats that are going on.

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David D.

It should be able to decide which apps and websites are actually eating with it and not allow them access it when they try to access it.

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David D.

That would be an app that manage the kid's phone and app activities because that would enable me to control and monitor whatever my child is actually viewing on their phones

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Rob S.

managing technology and devices and things like that would be really useful. . . if we could crack that, that would be probably the most useful thing for us.

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Pascal S.

Technology and apps evolve so quickly that it’s hard for us to keep up. Delegating that kind of management feels more secure.

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Violette C.

I would be willing to pay, but, like, for a small amount, if there was an AI app that would specify in psychology and children's psychology and children's aspect of life, if it could give me advice in day to day or if it could also talk to the children or an app with real psychologists that could talk to the child and explain why we cannot have screen time

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MaryMargaret B.

that might be something I'd be willing to pay someone to help with is figure out how to keep technology safe for her

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Jonathan A.

It's just it's it it's so debilitating, I guess, in a way, you could say, having to manage such a thing.

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Elise M.

it's not really setting rules, it's getting her to put the phone down during mealtimes or other moments; sometimes that's a little more complicated

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Neville M.

It will help limit my son spend time doing unconstructive stuff on, like, on the mobile devices or on the iPads, and it'll make it make him concentrate on doing stuff that's more productive, which I think will help me as a parent.

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Jessica F.

I think it would have to be being able to not just monitor the type of technology being used, like the actual device, but the type of media being consumed on it and not just being able to manage the amount of time spent, but the resulting behavior of the kids depending upon what they're watching and then adjusting parameters for using technology based off of that.

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Jessica F.

So I could see if we wanted to give them access to more technology and trying to meet in the middle of more of an all or nothing approach. We're having something or someone to help handle that and monitor that would be beneficial, especially helping to monitor not only their usage, but their resulting behaviors.