CORRECTING and REPLACING Comcast Launches New WiFi Parental Controls Feature
July 12 2018 - 12:32PM
Business Wire
With Xfinity xFi Parents Can Now Assign a
Specific Time Allowance for WiFi Usage;
Survey Finds Children Spend More Time on
Devices During the Summer and Parents Want Better Tools to
Monitor Access at Home
First paragraph, second sentence, and the photo caption of
release should read: WiFi usage (instead of internet usage).
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the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180712005146/en/
Comcast launches a new home WiFi controls
feature – “Active Time Alerts” that enables parents to set specific
time allowances for their child’s daily WiFi usage at home (Photo:
Business Wire)
The corrected release reads:
COMCAST LAUNCHES NEW WIFI PARENTAL CONTROLS
FEATURE
With Xfinity xFi Parents Can Now Assign a
Specific Time Allowance for WiFi Usage;
Survey Finds Children Spend More Time on
Devices During the Summer and Parents Want Better Tools to
Monitor Access at Home
Comcast today launched a new home WiFi parental controls feature
that enables parents to set specific time allowances for their
child’s daily internet usage at home. The new “Active Time Alerts”
feature on the Xfinity xFi platform will notify parents when their
child’s WiFi usage on their home network is approaching their
allotted time.
A new, nationwide survey of parents found that 92 percent
believe their children spend more time on their devices during the
summer than any time of the year and nearly three-fourths (74
percent) of parents wish they had a way to turn off their
child(ren)’s WiFi access whenever they want.
“This latest xFi feature gives parents more visibility and
control over their children’s online activity at home which is
especially useful during the summer months, when internet usage
spikes,” said Eric Schaefer, Senior Vice President of Internet and
Communications Services for Comcast Cable. “With Xfinity xFi, we
are giving customers the ability to personalize their home WiFi
experience and providing tools that can help solve real-life
problems.”
At home, parents can easily set up Active Time Alerts by
selecting their child’s profile within the Xfinity xFi app and set
specific weekday and weekend time limits across their child’s
assigned devices. Once the child is close to reaching the allotted
time limit, the parent can choose to receive a push notification,
text or email alert and take action: by either extending the time
or pausing WiFi access altogether.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has emphasized the
importance of limiting 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 new survey, commissioned by Comcast and conducted by
Wakefield Research, supports the AAP position and also found:
- Teens are more
interested in surfing the internet than ocean waves: On a
beach vacation, more than half (56 percent) of parents with
teenaged children surveyed believe their child(ren) would rather
interact with their devices than surf the ocean waves.
- Devices are
sweeter than candy to kids: 76 percent of parents say their
kids are more addicted to their devices than candy.
- Most parents set
rules on device time: 73% of parents say that they put
limits on the amount of time that their children or family spends
on devices.
Last year, Comcast launched Xfinity xFi, a new way for customers
to personalize, troubleshoot, monitor and control their home WiFi,
including the ability to instantly pause WiFi connectivity by user
or device. The “pause device” feature is the most popular xFi
function, with users tapping “pause” about five million times since
launch, most often during dinnertime, between the hours of 6:00
p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
The xFi digital dashboard can be accessed via the xFi mobile app
(iOS and Android), website and on the TV with the X1 voice remote.
xFi is now available to Xfinity Internet customers who rent a
compatible Xfinity WiFi device, and comes at no extra
cost.
About the Survey
The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 1,000
nationally representative U.S. parents ages 18 and older between
June 21 and June 25, 2018, using an email invitation and an online
survey. Quotas have been set to ensure reliable and accurate
representation of U.S. parents 18 and older. 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 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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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180712005146/en/
Comcast CorporationCharlie Douglas,
215-264-8020charlie_douglas@comcast.comorEllen Yu,
215-286-5558ellen_yu@comcast.com
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