More Than Half of Parents Have Been Told by Their Children to Put Away Their Phones During Dinner
October 18 2017 - 10:00AM
Business Wire
Comcast Study Shows Families Overwhelmingly
Want Dinnertime to be Screen-Free and Some Even Unplug Their Modems
to Limit Their Children’s Wi-Fi Access
“Pause Device” is Now Comcast’s Most
Popular, Home Wi-Fi Control Feature
A new Comcast survey released today shows that parents across
the country are almost unanimous in their belief that disconnecting
from devices during mealtime improves family bonding, with nearly
half (42 percent) not able to remember the last time their family
had a device-free meal and some going so far as to disconnect their
modems to stop their children’s Wi-Fi usage.
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More Than Half of Parents Have Been Told
by Their Children to Put Away Their Phones During Dinner (Graphic:
Business Wire)
However, children aren’t the only ones to blame – more than half
of parents have been told by their children to put their cell
phones away during meals. For these reasons and more, Comcast’s
“pause device” home Wi-Fi control feature has become the most
popular function of the company’s new Xfinity xFi platform.
The nationwide study of parents, conducted by Wakefield
Research, also found:
- Dinnertime is
bonding time – Nearly every (98 percent) parent surveyed
agrees that disconnecting from devices during mealtime improves
family bonding.
- Parents can set
an example – More than half (52 percent) of parents have
been told by their children to put their device away
during meals.
- Device-free meals
are rare – More than 2 in 5 parents (42 percent) can’t
remember the last time their family had a device-free meal. And
Millennial parents have an especially hard time remembering the
last time they broke bread without a device at the table (49
percent), compared to Gen Xers (37 percent) and Boomers (33
percent).
- Sneaking screen
time - Parents admit to taking away their children’s devices
an average of once per week and more than half (56 percent) have
found their children trying to sneak their devices when they were
banned from them.
- Going to extremes
to disconnect – nearly one-third (31 percent) of parents
make their children leave their devices in a basket before bedtime,
while 14 percent go so far as to disconnect their modems to stop
Wi-Fi usage.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has recommended that
parents develop personalized plans for their children’s device use,
warning that excessive screen-time can displace important
activities such as face-to-face interaction, family-time,
outdoor-play, exercise, and sleep. The AAP has even developed a
media time calculator to help parents better track and manage
usage.
“Technology should adapt to meet our customers’ needs, not the
other way around,” said Eric Schaefer, Senior Vice President of
Internet and Communications Services for Comcast Cable. “With xFi’s
‘pause device’ feature, parents have the power to decide when it’s
time for family members to connect with each other, rather than
their devices.”
Earlier this year, Comcast launched Xfinity xFi, a new way for
customers to personalize, monitor, and control their home Wi-Fi,
including the ability to instantly pause Wi-Fi connectivity by user
or device. The “pause device” feature is now the most popular xFi
function, with users tapping “pause” about five million times since
launch, most often between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
Comcast has also launched a national television campaign to raise
awareness of the “pause device” feature.
Xfinity xFi gives users a simple digital dashboard to set up
their home Wi-Fi network, find their password, see what devices are
connected, troubleshoot issues, and set parental controls.
Additional family-friendly xFi features include:
- Timed
Pause: with xFi, parents can pause devices for a set amount
of time – 30 minutes, one hour, or two hours.
- Safer
Searching: xFi includes simple parental controls that
include search settings for Google, Bing, and YouTube.
- Notification
Center: xFi customers get real-time notifications about
activity on their Wi-Fi network so when their children have friends
over and a new tablet or phone logs on, the parent receives a text
message and can decide whether to allow connectivity and even set
parental controls remotely.
The xFi experience can be controlled via a mobile app (iOS and
Android), website, and on the TV with the X1 voice remote. xFi is
now available to more than 10 million Xfinity Internet customers
with a compatible Xfinity Wi-Fi device, and comes at no extra
cost.
About the Survey
The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 1,000 U.S.
parents between September 22 and September 28, 2017, using an email
invitation and an online survey. Quotas have been set to ensure
reliable and accurate representation of U.S. parents. Results of
any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the
variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews
and the level of the percentages expressing the results. For the
interviews conducted in this particular study, the chances are 95
in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more
than 3.1 percentage points in each country from the result that
would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons
in the universe represented by the sample.
About Comcast
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and
technology company with two primary businesses, Comcast Cable and
NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation’s largest video,
high-speed internet, and phone providers to residential customers
under the XFINITY brand, and also provides these services to
businesses. It also provides wireless and security and automation
services to residential customers under the XFINITY brand.
NBCUniversal operates news, entertainment and sports cable
networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television
production operations, television station groups, Universal
Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts.
Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more
information.
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Comcast CorporationCharlie Douglas,
215-286-3353charlie_douglas@comcast.com
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