Protect Your Family Online

I don’t normally fire off time-sensitive weekly emails…but the last one was an exception. Which, by the way, is why you should join my email list.

“What time-sensitive info did you pass along to your peeps?”, you ask. Great question. I told them to snag Circle for their family for $79 from Amazon!

“Ok…great”, you say. “What is that and why should I care?”

“Circle” Your Wagons

If you’ve ever felt the tension of trying to tame your kids’ screen time—read on.

If you have internet access at home and kids from the age of 2–18, then you should get Circle for $79—$20 off the usual price of $99.

Circle makes it drop-dead simple to protect your family and take control of the internet usage streaming into your home. I bit the bullet a while back and got one for my family and I love it.

Sure, my kids hate me and hate it…but that’s just proof it does what is supposed to do. It enables my wife and I to control…

1. WHAT streams into our home;
2. And HOW MUCH time our kids spend drinking from that stream.

If you are a parent, you know the struggle. It is REAL! Can I get an amen? Our children’s faces are lit, NOT with the shekinah glory of God, but the light of a screen. A smartphone. A tablet. A laptop. Or better yet, all of those at once…while the TV is on.

3 Things I Like About Circle for My Family

1. I set filters on what kind of content my kids have access to on a ‘per-kid’ basis.

I’ve got to teens and one who just broke into double digits (that’s 10 in case you’re not good with numbers). Some of the content appropriate for my teens are not appropriate for my youngest. The same is true of certain apps. (Yes, can turn on/off access to specific apps with Circle). Circle lets me easily filter what my wife and I deem appropriate for each kid. I can begin with Circle’s built-in filters like “Teen” and “Kid”and then customize from there. Beautiful.

2. I set time-limits for my kids’ internet access.

With Circle, I can set awake and sleep times so my teens don’t stay up till 2am liking Instagram posts of cat pictures. Again, I can do this on a ‘per-kid’ basis. So my youngest shuts down at one time, and my teens at another. In addition, it’s summer time, so I can adjust those times once school kicks back in.

I can also set a daily limit (like 6 hours of total internet time) and app limits (like 2 hours on Netflix). Brilliant.

3. I set the internet rules for my kids’ friends when they come to my house and use my access.

The minute a friend walks through the door with his or her iPhone, Circle lets me know a new device is on the network. I can easily set the phone to a profile of “Teen” or “Kid” and know he or she won’t accidentally access something inappropriate (at least not via my wifi).

Add to that, all of the above applies too. I can set awake/sleep times, or even “pause” access for a device.

Summary

If you’ve ever felt frustrated or helpless in your attempt to manage and control the internet usage of your family, then I highly recommend Circle. It won’t replace your family’s need for Jesus, but it will help you lead your family with wisdom.

Next time I’ll post another article on a few of the things I’ve learned about setting up Circle and dealing with the revolts of your kids who are more convinced than ever of your insanity.

PS Don’t be fooled. My family is not ‘super-holy’ and I’m not a ‘super-parent.’ Just a dad struggling like you!