By Brittany Bluth
It was nearly 3 a.m., and Todd Jensen''s roommates were still awake. The boys were not up late writing a paper or studying for a test, they were playing video games.
'I don''t play video games a ton,' said Jensen, a junior majoring in neuroscience from Seattle, Wash. 'But if there is a game you really like, you can totally lose track of time.'
With a new technology called the Time-Scout Monitor created by a company based in American Fork called Card Access, controlling the amount of time a child spends playing video games may become much easier.
'When it comes to monitoring the amount of time a child spends playing video games, parents often become the bad guys,' said Kent Hansen, president of Card Access. 'The Time-Scout Monitor is a tool that allows parents to set the time before hand, and then a third party, the time monitor, controls that time.'
The idea for the Time-Scout Monitor came when researchers at Card Access realized that their own children were spending an increasing amount of time playing video games and watching television.
'The people at Card Access all have children actively involved in video games,' Hansen said. 'Studies showed that the amount of time children spend playing video games could really affect other areas of development. We wanted to make sure that our children still made time to study and to get some physical exercise.'
The Time-Scout monitor works by acting as the on/off control for whatever electronic device parents decide they want to monitor.
Parents plug that device into the Time-Scout Monitor, which plugs into the wall.
The parents can then control the use of that device by adding time into a child''s account.
When the child wants to use the device, he or she simply swipes the card through the machine. Like a debit card, the machine then begins to count down the amount of time that is in the child''s account.
When the child is done playing, he or she can swipe the card back through the monitor, and the power is shut off and the time saved until next time.
If the child is playing and the amount of time expires, then the Time-Scout monitor shuts the power off.
'A lot of times technology makes life more complicated than before,' Hansen said. 'We wanted to make sure that the Time-Scout Monitor is extremely simple and easy to use.'
Some BYU students think that the Time-Scout Monitor is a great solution to limiting the amount of time that children spend playing video games.
'I think this device is a good idea,' Jensen said. 'I think that kids who spend too much time playing video games, I don''t think it''s good for them.'
The Time-Scout Monitor is available for $69.95. It can be ordered by going to www.time-scout.com or by calling 1-888-299-8989.