Playstation Allows Parents to limit game time

[Levisallanon]

https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/07/ps4-update-lets-parents-control-how-long-their-kid-can-play/

So according to the article:

Quote

So as not to surprise kids in the middle of a sick run, Play Time Management will warn kids that their time is running short so they can finish up and save.

So I'm curious how this will work. Some single player games still use safe points so will this notification be in time to reach a safe point? Especially if you don't know where the next one is and you maybe are stuck behind a puzzle or something.
On the other hand in online play you also might not know how long the game will last, and if you are playing in a team this could harm the team if you are disconnected. I'm curious what other people think about it.

Also I'm kind of interested how long it will take before someone finds a work around like setting the internal clock to another timezone or something like that.

And as a last point I kind of wonder why a parent would ever use this function. If you as a parent don't have enough authority over your kid to make sure it doesn't play "to much" then I think you're doing something wrong and this probably wont solve your problem anyways.

I would love to hear @LinusTech his opinion on this matter and if he would ever use it for his childeren, as he has stated multiple times already he thinks gaming etc are very usefull things for childeren to learn skills.

[pas008]

I could see its use

you cant keep an continuous eye on them while they are in their room

or the fact many kids will sit in their room all day and game

 

I personally wouldnt use it, my son knows damn well to take breaks and get out of the house and be a real friend to his real friends

[knightslugger]

my child wouldn't HAVE a playstation in their room... or a TV.

[aezakmi]

1 minute ago, knightslugger said:

my child wouldn't HAVE a playstation in their room... or a TV.

my kid would have a PC, to play the way it's meant to be played.

[Levisallanon]

11 minutes ago, pas008 said:

I could see its use

you cant keep an continuous eye on them while they are in their room

or the fact many kids will sit in their room all day and game

 

I personally wouldnt use it, my son knows damn well to take breaks and get out of the house and be a real friend to his real friends

From what I see you can only set a certain amount of play time for a day. You can't seem to set it so that you can play 3 hours and then first need to have a break of 2 hours before you can play more. That would be usefull :).

[yian88]

Finally... its way too easy to get addicted.

Now sadly they cant do the same with the PC master race so as soon as they get their own pc or phone, its back to square one.

[Mira Yurizaki]

21 minutes ago, Levisallanon said:

And as a last point I kind of wonder why a parent would ever use this function. If you as a parent don't have enough authority over your kid to make sure it doesn't play "to much" then I think you're doing something wrong and this probably wont solve your problem anyways.

To make it easier to enforce the rules they actually stated. When I was a kid my parents had a 2-hour per day rule for playing games. And they made us log it in a book. Do I really think they actually checked of that? No. But I was a good kid, so I followed the rules.

 

Now if you have a kid who says "lolnope" and doesn't want to follow the rules, this will make sure they do. It's either that or the video game system is taken away and then what?

 

I mean, parenting isn't some cut and dry thing. I'm sure if you have a rowdy kid, anything to make it easier to enforce the rules you want to set is a godsend than trying to helicopter parent over them 24/7 when you're trying to do other things in life.

[NTDaws]

My child that does not exist, would have his own room with his own TV. But I would limit game time to 3 hours.

[NTDaws]

2 minutes ago, yian88 said:

Finally... its way too easy to get addicted.

Now sadly they cant do the same with the PC master race so as soon as they get their own pc or phone, its back to square one.

I am usually only addicted to a game with a total of three days, then I lose interest.

[aezakmi]

Just now, yian88 said:

Finally... its way too easy to get addicted.

Now sadly they cant do the same with the PC master race so as soon as they get their own pc or phone, its back to square one.

ah, of course you can, your kid doesn't wants to do homework or clean the room? just remove the PSU cable while he/she is playing

bad grades? remove the RAM for a month

[Levisallanon]

Just now, Being Delirious said:

My child that does not exist, would have his own room with his own TV. But I would limit game time to 3 hours.

I'm curious as to why 3 hours.

Personally I would probably see if I could set a weekly limit instead of a daily limit. So they could for example game 21 hours a week. So if they don't game that much during the week days they could go all out crazy in the weekends. That would learn them to manage resources at the same time :).

[NTDaws]

Just now, aezakmi said:

ah, of course you can, your kid doesn't wants to do homework or clean the room? just remove the PSU cable while he/she is playing

bad grades? remove the RAM for a month

I put a boot lock in the bios.

[TimeOmnivore]

I'm personally of the mindset to let your kids do whatever they enjoy, so long as they're not neglecting their health nor harming themselves/others. If your kid enjoys spending their free time playing games, just let them play games. That being said, if your kid doesn't seem to do anything else, maybe sit down and talk with them about it and try to get them to broaden their horizons - whether that be going outside, getting IRL friends, or just some other hobbies they may be interested in. Depending on their age (e.g. less than 12-15), if they refuse to do any other things, maybe then consider using something like this. Also, if your kid is young, putting in stopgaps like this may help prevent them from developing addictive personalities in the future, but I'm not a child psychologist so I'm just guessing here.

 

All that being said, I'm not a parent, will never be a parent, and generally dislike children... so my opinion may not count for much, but I genuinely think it's a good idea to let your kids do what they personally enjoy, particularly once they're past a certain age (which varies based on the specific child, I'd imagine).

[NTDaws]

Just now, Levisallanon said:

I'm curious as to why 3 hours.

Personally I would probably see if I could set a weekly limit instead of a daily limit. So they could for example game 21 hours a week. So if they don't game that much during the week days they could go all out crazy in the weekends. That would learn them to manage resources at the same time :).

My non-existent parenting methods may not be controlled. I would probably set up a PC. Have a login time between 4:00-6:00. And have it heavily limited, only access to Steam, Windows Store, Xbox App, Origin, UPlay, etc.

[-TesseracT-]

1 minute ago, Being Delirious said:

My non-existent parenting methods may not be controlled. I would probably set up a PC. Have a login time between 4:00-6:00. And have it heavily limited, only access to Steam, Windows Store, Xbox App, Origin, UPlay, etc.

lol. maybe a bit too excessive?

[Bcat00]

Wow, as much as i would loath this system as a kid, it's actually a good thing.

[Murasaki]

17 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

my child wouldn't HAVE a playstation in their room... or a TV.

mine wont see the internet until they're out of the house

[Ginger_]

Hasn't this been around forever now? Or is that just Xbox? 

 

I don't own either, but I'm fairly sure I've seen this option before

[AlwaysFSX]

Oh I had this as a kid, even with a PS2. It was called my parents parenting.

[NvidiaIntelAMDLoveTriangle]

How was this not a feature already?

[Mooshi]

Better than my gen where the cord can get ripped out and you get a swift belt to the butt lol

[Murasaki]

2 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

Um, you do know most schools have online homework now, right?  They can fail if they don't have the internet.

3rd world country, no problem

and im joking with this, dont even plan to have kids

[Cheezdoodlez]

Iirc blizzard have had this thing for a long, long time. Im surprised this wasn't already a thing on PlayStation.

[AshleyAshes]

1 hour ago, Levisallanon said:

And as a last point I kind of wonder why a parent would ever use this function. If you as a parent don't have enough authority over your kid to make sure it doesn't play "to much" then I think you're doing something wrong and this probably wont solve your problem anyways.

Because it makes it simpler.  Some kids will go 'lemme finish this round!' or 'Let me get to the save point' but if the machine just goes 'Bloop' you can just grin and say 'Bed time. :D'

 

If I was a parent for example, I'd configure the router to cut the kid's devices off from internet service at a specific time like bedtime.  It doesn't mean I can't 'enforce the rules' it means that at X O'clock the internet dies on their devices and I can just say 'Welp, I'm def not changing the router settings, so I guess you got nothing left to do but go to bed.'  A child can make no attempt to drag something out when the internet just shut off on it's own.

[Murasaki]

1 minute ago, valdyrgramr said:

So, no school then?

ha ha