We’re the first generation to raise digital kids, and it’s not easy.
How do we keep our kids safe online? Where should we place limits and what should those limits be? Are our children addicted to screens? Are WE addicted to screens?
Power of Moms gets asked to review products all the time, and we usually say no. But this time, we were intrigued.
Meet Circle:
It’s a little device (works with Apple products only, for now) that’s designed to help us set healthy boundaries on our family’s screen use. It can give each device a “bedtime,” pause the internet, filter content to be appropriate for the age of each individual, and set time limits on the activities we’ve approved for our children to do online.
I just got mine in the mail, so I can’t yet give a full review, but I thought now was a great time to start the conversation with you, the deliberate mothers.
Here’s a quick video that’s worth watching and a link to where you can get your own Circle, if you’re interested (it will open in a new window when you click):
Click here to learn more about how you can get your own Circle!
(Power of Moms is an affiliate of Circle. This means that, should you decide that Circle would be great for your family, a portion of the price you pay will go towards supporting our website.)
In the comments below, I would love to know two things:
(1) What do you think about Circle? Does this look like the solution we’ve been waiting for?
(2) What other things do you do in your family to stay on top of the whole screen thing? (Links to your favorite articles or resources would be appreciated!)
The Internet is amazing. It’s what makes Power of Moms possible, and I love all the goodness out there.
But yes, there are a lot of challenges that come with it.
At the end of the day, our children have to learn to discipline themselves and make wise choices when we’re not watching. However, putting safeguards in place and having these conversations with our children as we go along seems like a great idea to me.
Okay, turning it over to you… Excited to hear your thoughts!
I don’t know if this is the solution I’ve been searching for but I hope so! I ordered mine a few days ago and I’m excited to use it for my family. I’ll give you my feedback after we implement it.
I actually ordered one, excited for the possibilities. I was greatly disappointed. The features such as bedtime and time limits didn’t work. the only features i could do were add devices and pause my main desktop internet. I had long talks with the company and they were sorry but were very pleasant with the return. It’s too bad, i was excited but maybe that was my sign that I just need to be more proactive in being in control of what information and time limits my kids are having on devices and not depend on, well a device!
Oh, I’m so bummed to hear that Kelli!
Mine just came in the mail, but I haven’t had a chance to take it out of the box yet. Why didn’t the bedtimes and time limits work? Were they not compatible with your devices or was it that they were buggy?
I’m interested in knowing, as well, Kelli. Did they say it didn’t work for everyone or was there something unique about yours? They didn’t offer to replace it? I’m just opening mine now so I’ll test it out…
Thanks for the feedback!
Hi, I had the same experience as the other Kelli and I’m returning it too. I found it was inaccurate with time used and didn’t put devices to sleep. My daughters are teens and I had their devices to be set up from 3-9pm and they were to use it for 2 hours within that time. But they were able to go on unlimited and it would not limit it to 2 hours. I would also use my iPhone and it would say 0 minutes used on internet. It was totally inaccurate. It is a great concept, but it caused more frustration than was worth. We are going back to the simple on/off option on our modem. There is no protection software installed so all devices must be public. I was bummed.
Really helpful feedback, Shannon. Did they give you any response as to why it wasn’t working? Is it something with the operating systems? With so many different devices out there and upgraded/not upgraded apps, I’m wondering how this will work. I’m going to look out for these issues. Thanks for the heads up!
My husband talked to them. They didn’t really have an explanation. They were very nice about the return though. We have all apple devices though and my computer is a macbook so it should have worked fine the way it says. We downloaded the app and I loaded all the family members and devices. But, it just wasn’t accurate. My husband also said it didn’t work with netflix/apple TV. Our Apple TV is old so that may be why, but he got frustrated and wanted to turn it off. He thinks it may be that it’s just in the beginning stages of development so it may get better. I will look back into it in the future as I absolutely love the idea of it. I hope it works for you!
we had almost this exact same experience. We have all apple devices but the bedtimes never turned off the devices or paused them or whatever, and the time limits never turned things off either. They were very nice with returns and just asked for me to explain what went wrong and they said it may have been a dud. Which i get happens, but I’m not happy about a dud when i pay that much money. 🙂 But, I’m sure it can improve and what not but like Shannon said, it wasn’t worth the frustration.
We use Microsoft Family Safety on our devices. The profile follows them from device to device. All the same features there as well.
Does everyone have their own login on each device? That sounds really interesting, Leanne!
Yes. Each child has a child account, and with that account, I specify which sites they are allowed to go to, when they can use the computer and for how long, which apps they are allowed to use. And it sends me a weekly report of how they spent their time. I always find it so interesting to see how they use their time.
I’m more aware of my kids use than my own!
Mine are almost 8 & 6. Rule 1 is now electronics during the week. Saturday and Sunday only.
iPads already have a lot of built in controls that we use. We don’t have regular YouTube loaded, only YouTube kids. And they can’t download or update anything without our passwords being entered.
We also have very limited access to tv (not that they don’t watch…no issue with that. We just don’t do live tv. They watch only the shows we allow on Netflix or ones we own). So they don’t see commercials and they are still very innocent. My 8 yo is still very content to watch little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse clubhouse!! I’m sure once they get older and spend more time with their friends we will need to do even more.
They have iPads bc school required it. However they received our outdated versions when we upgraded. I don’t feel they should just be handed these devices or cellphones or laptops. In my day we had pagers/beepers as teens. I also had my own phone line. BUT I had to pay the bills. So that is the rule that will be in our house. They will need to be able buy the devices and pay for the service themselves. When they start needing more computer access for school they will be in a public space and I will make sure they are aware that I have full access to everything they do and they have no such thing as privacy! My biggest worry is actually social media. I know there may be a stigma for them not participating but I personally don’t have a real Facebook or Twitter myself!!! I use my alias for everything and I don’t put a lot of personal info out there.
Love how deliberate you are about your rules. 🙂 It does change a bit as they become teenagers, but I think there are always ways to be careful and make adjustments as you go. Thanks for sharing!
Does circle only work when devices are using your home wifi? What about when devices are using cellular data or wifi other than your home wifi?
Good question, Alissa. I looked through their site, and it looks like a “4G” type of service is coming, but for now it’s just wi-fi. So this would work for laptops and iPads, but iPhones that can be switched off of Wi-Fi would be a different story. I feel like there are a lot of “What about…” questions I still have, but I’m eager to try it out and see!
Yes only works with wi-fi. It only took my (trustworthy) teens about 30 seconds to figure out all they had to do was switch off wi-fi and the system was completely de-activated! So frustrated. I thought Circle was going to be the answer along with parental involvement. Back to square one, I guess.
We have a limited data plan, and we can tell how much data each user uses, so we just told the kids that we will be monitoring both, and when they are home, they need to be on wi-fi. It’s not a perfect help, but I’ve actually been pretty happy using it for the past few months. I’d recommend trying it a bit longer. 🙂 Good luck!
I’m really happy with how we’ve chosen to go about media use for our family right now. My kids are still pretty young (oldest is 9.5) so I know things will change going forward, but for now, we’ve chosen to just not have our kids participate in media usage at all for the most part. They don’t have pads, pods, or use our devices. They don’t play video games, computer games or watch tv. We watch an occasional movie as a family, about once a month, and little youtube clips here and there, a few a week, together, but other than that, they are playing creatively without devices. We homeschool so they have lots of time to explore the outdoors, create things in our home and play with each other (I have four kids). It’s been such an amazing choice for us and I’m so glad we were inspired to head in this direction. We don’t have to ‘limit screen time’, monitor it, talk to zombie children, fight screen battles, worry about my 3 boys accidentally coming across porn, etc. and my kids are happy, present and creative. (Not saying kids who use screens aren’t those things, just that my kids aren’t social misfits because they don’t use screens.) My husband and I don’t watch tv, but do watch workshops and learning courses at times on our personal devices. We don’t own a tv though. We also have very deliberate discussions on being ‘present.’ My daughter reads a ton so even though we don’t do screens, we still have opportunities to teach them about when is okay and not okay to tune out, such and bringing a book out to dinner, or to a family gathering, etc. Being present with the people around you. She now helps remind her younger siblings to ‘be present’ and I feel like when they are older and do start using devices that they will have a good, solid foundation about how to use them appropriately while being around people.
That looks like a great product and I’m grateful for the technology that will give our kids more protection, especially as the technology continues to get better.
why are you even commenting on this if you don’t have a need for it? Sounds like you just wanted an opportunity to say how AWESOME you are as parents. Your kids don’t use screens and are present, creative, little humans. Go you.
I try to inspire other people who may be thinking of going screen free to know that it is possible, doable and worth it. And to let people know there is another option to using screens. And to let others who share our lifestyle to know they’re not alone.
Thanks so much, Crystal! I appreciated your comments, and I know you weren’t sharing in a judgmental way. It really is helpful to have a variety of perspectives, as every family is unique. And things change as kids grow and technology advances, so I think the more perspectives we can hear, the more deliberately we can make our own choices for our families. xoxo
Absolutely. What a blessing to have so many options and to be able to choose what works best for our own unique family. 🙂 <3
We’re very old-fashioned. Homeschooling. We have shirts that say, “Come to the Dork side, we have pi.” No iPhones, just flip phones.
We have a massive child friendly VHS collection, cause you can edit them. We haven’t watched TV for…decades. We collect Folkmanis puppets and make our own too.
It’s a different life than what’s happening around where we live right now. It was such a relief though. A lady down the street and her husband just moved in. They also have 6 kids like we do. They have an amazing VHS collection too and she doesn’t like Barbie dolls either.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/27/magazine/lives-the-quarter-acre-universe.html
This is probably the best article I’ve ever seen that describes the life I’d like to create for my family. It’s real.
We ordered a Circle after a friend posted about it on FB. I have high hopes and I really do think that it is the answer I’ve been wishing for. So disappointed to hear that it didn’t work for several readers, but glad to know that returns were easy. We will just have to try it when it gets here and see if ours works. We have tried many different things and different things have worked for us at different times (restrictions on devices, rules for use, CovenantEyes, NetNanny, etc.), but having more control over iOs devices is key, and the filters, etc., don’t take care of that issue. With three (almost 4) teens, and school-required laptops and iPads in addition to phones, it is my #1 parenting headache.
Hi Moms!
I welcome new technology that allows us to further protect our kids in a meaningful way online, however I am typically cautious about any “quick fix” parenting tool that might allow me to tune out of what my kids are actually doing. It seems like this might be a great tool if implemented with caution and care to ensure that open dialogue and direct parental influence is not overshadowed by the “app will do it” attitude that we all can get so caught up in! After reading the other comments about the devices glitches, I might wait until the 2.0 version to try it myself. 🙂
April,
Just wanted to follow up after my last comment. We ordered a Circle and just set it up today. It appears to work exactly as they claim. It took some careful figuring out to make sure we identified all the devices correctly, etc., but after testing it out, it is definitely doing it’s thing!! I agree with Michelle’s comment above (nothing can take the place of being present and mindful), but in addition to being deliberate about our parenting and tech use this device promises to be very helpful (especially with three teenagers, a 10 yo, and multiple devices to monitor). We’ve tried (and still use) filters and accountability apps, but this takes it to another level. Very much looking forward to the addition of capability beyond the home wi-fi that they expect to release in 2016. Curious about what your experience has been, April.
Thanks for the follow-up, Jeanette! Love what you shared.
Okay, here’s what I have learned:
(1) Plug Circle into a place where people won’t keep unplugging it. Seriously. My fault. I plugged it in by the couch where my husband charges his phone, and he kept pulling the plug, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of having it. We moved it tonight.
(2) It doesn’t “solve” the issue of self-mastery. Teens could easily go onto 3G or 4G to bypass Circle, and if they are on someone else’s Wifi, I can’t monitor a thing, but that’s okay. It actually prompted a lot of great discussions.
(3) I LOVE that it tracks all the sites my kids are visiting. They know that I can see each website they visit, so it makes them more accountable. Not that there was a problem, but I think it’s super helpful for them to know that I care where they are when they are online.
We’re going to add a few more devices to Circle next week, once it is plugged in permanently, but I’m actually really loving it. Easy to use. Easy to set up. Doesn’t stress me out. 🙂
Thanks!