Some things about screens can be absolutely aggravating for parents. What are your parenting tech pet peeves? (Maybe it’s what the hardware or software does, or maybe it’s what the user does.) Here are my top three:

1. “Wait! I can’t exit until I finish this level.”
2. The message that says you can’t install the game your child is BURSTING with energy to play, until you update QuickTime or blahblah player or ….
3. When my kids are totally into me only during commercial breaks.

What are yours? Click on…

This is a present-day morality story, if there ever was one: The tale of one father’s generosity, a son’s foolishness, his forfeighted treasure, and the treasure recouped 100-fold (by the generous father only). But the moral may well be to be careful what you pay on eBay.

An account of the Hans Reiser trial yesterday caught my attention with the headline, “Couple fought over violent video games.” This got me to thinking about what happens when parents disagree about screen issues. The Reiser case is extreme — he played very violent video games with his then-six-year-old, considering it an education of sorts. And few screen squabbles result in a missing mom, with the dad on trial for murder. But in many, many households, well-intentioned parents struggle with how to present a united…

I came across an awesome resource this week–totallywiredbook.com (and its sister site, ypulse.com). It’s the blog of Anastasia Goodstein, author of a book called (you guessed it) Totally Wired. The tagline on the title caught my attention: What teens and tweens are REALLY doing online. A year or so ago, I had an experience with my child doing something online that, ahem, totally surprised me. (He knows what I’m talking about.) So, I was immediately hooked in.

In describing the book, Ms. Goodstein says:…

For a while now, I’ve toyed with the “If you can’t beat them, join them” idea as applied to game consoles: Should I embrace instead of enforce? Microsoft’s new marketing campaign for Xbox 360 is geared towards families. Maybe you’ve seen the new commercials in which a series of helium balloons drop onto the roof of a parking garage and all the makings of a family-room session of Guitar Hero are set up, with teens and dads then playing together. And the company…

Reality check: Answer any of these questions with a yes, and it’s time to pull the plug:

1. Could your child play with a real person instead? Human interaction is always a better option (unless the only human in the room is making dinner).
2. Is it being used for mind-numbing? Look for the glazed eyes or the big slouch.
3. Is it unbecoming when it becomes real? Virtual characters, their actions and what they say don’t always cut it in the real world. A six-year-old SpongeBob usually isn’t funny.
4. Does

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Microsoft just announced that beginning in December, they will make Family Timer available to XBox 360 users. The download allows parents to set a limit on the amount of time a child can use the Xbox in a day or week. When that limit is approaching, a reminder will let the child know, with a reminder to save the game. The console will turn off automatically at the limit. The Family Timer will be available as a free download from the XBox Live site.