Microsoft to add "Parental Timer" to future 360 update

[Doctor Manhattan]

Microsoft on Wednesday showed off a new Xbox feature that will allow parents to set the amount of time that kids can play games.

"All of those things are starting to make Xbox a much broader gaming world than it was even six months ago," Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices unit said in an interview.

Bach said the ability to set time limits on children's gaming should help parents feel more comfortable with having a game console in the house.

The new feature, which will be available in a few weeks, is also designed to be easy for parents who may not be as technologically savvy as their game-playing offspring. "It's really, really easy," Bach said. "You go to family settings. You go to timer. You say daily or weekly. You pick a number of hours and you are done."


Am I the only person who thinks this will be COMPLETELY useless as any person with five braincells can just change the timer and lengthen it? Even if they add password, its not that hard.

[Covered in Bees]

Probably can make a password or something.

Or not.

Hell, I don't know. I don't have any kids, and if I did, I doubt I would use a feature like that.

[SuperEclipse]

Shocked that MS did it first.. I thought Nintendo would be first to something like this.

[digital gopher]

The parental controls on the 360 are fairly strong. You have to know your parents Email password, and they're gamertag passcode. Good luck :)

This won't be useful to me, but for parents who want to enforce time limits for their kids; this is great.

And the Fall Dashboard Update is slowly seeming like the "Winter Dashboard Update".. Sine it's not coming out till December.

[blinkboy211]

Little kids are going to end up being pissed. Be playing Halo 3 then all a sudden the game goes off and they cant play it. If parents are that concern about kids playing video games then just not get them a consule next time. Make then go outside and play with their imaginary friends.