Screenblock™
rations your children's screen time.

News Room

6th April 2006
Screenblock now includes a watchprox tag, developed to make parents' life easier. It has the same function as the fob but is fitted to your watch rather than your key ring.

15th June 2005
Screenblock is to be featured in the TV series "Honey we're killing the kids".

23rd December 2004
Screenblock sales rising as more problems associated with children watching too much TV are published. Screenblock allows TV to be rationed rather than banned.   Many users report that Screenblock is most useful on children's bedroom TV.

13th January 2003
Screenblock will be appearing next month in the 'Innovations' catalogue.  ARD electronics are also selling it as are 'The Gadget Shop' at the end of this month.

22nd October 2002
Screenblock is launched in a blaze of publicity. On TV, Richard & Judy featured Screenblock and many news programs including Sky News took up the story. Radio & newspapers are also covering the new product.  The launch coincided with a number of surveys released during the month, one of which revealed that children in the UK spend on average more time in front of the TV than in front of their teachers.  Another reported back problems in children due to excessive TV & computer time.  Screenblock is now officially for sale from our web site.

18th June 2002
Screenblock works even better than we could have hoped for! 
The South East trials are now over and our testers have given Screenblock an overwhelming 'thumbs up'.  In some homes it was called a 'miracle product'!  It had a hugely beneficial effect on the testers' children at very little emotional cost to the parents. 

28th March 2002

22nd March 2002
• All going very well with the testers.  We are very pleased that it is having a real effect on the testers children who quickly find other things to do if television is not an option. We did think that children would cause their parents a real headache if the TV was limited but what we are hearing from our testers is that their children do accept Screenblock and are very resourceful in finding other things to do.
• Two of our 44 testers encountered a problem where Screenblock was not counting the allowance notwithstanding that the TV was On.  The reason for this is that Screenblock could not work out for itself whether the TV was On or in Standby.  Both families have successfully fixed this problem with the procedure set out on the Problems web page.  We have also today made some changes to Screenblock that will reduce the likelihood of this happening in future.  We will be unable to prevent this completely for all TVs as some older TVs appear to have a wild secret life of erratic power consumption - even when in Standby.  For these very rare cases where Screenblock is unable to understand whether the TV is On or in Standby, users will have to resort to the manual override (as set out on the Problems web page) which will cure the problem completely.
• The buy accessories web page is now completed.

15th March 2002
More feedback from testers.  A few testers have children who use the TV to play games such as Nintendo and Playstation.  Screenblock has cut down on the excessive use of the TV for this purpose.  These testers make the point that we don't really say this in our literature; it's a very important and unsung aspect of Screenblock.

14th March 2002
Nearly all of our 44 testers are very happy with Screenblock. 
• One family has had 'husband resistance' and passed it on to a friend!
• Another family running a shop agreed to change the allowance when their children pleaded with them to watch TV after school.  However, after spending 5 minutes with a customer, the father found that the children had got bored of waiting for the TV and had gone out to play for the rest of the afternoon!
• Another family installed a Screenblock in one child's bedroom TV only to be confronted by a furious younger brother who wanted one on his bedroom TV as well!
• However, there is some serious feedback from the testers which we are most grateful for.  It focuses mainly on the preset allowances being inadequate.  As a result we are implementing the following three changes to Screenblock.  These changes will be present in the first Screenblocks to be sent out on 4th April.
1. Adjustable allowances 31-39 have been added.  These are changeable allowances in addition to the set allowances.  Parents may adjust these allowances to their exact requirements. This is a bit like programming a time clock or VCR, so for those who do not wish to do this, we are implementing an alternative procedure for personalised allowances (see 2 below).
2. If parents do not wish to program their individual allowances themselves (as above), they may telephone our sales line and order one or more personalised cards which when presented to the Screenblock will automatically implement their requested allowance.  The card will come complete with the times and allowances printed on the front, together with a 30 digit description selected by the parent.  Up to 64 of these cards may be used with Screenblock.  We imagine that parents who would rather not press buttons, may have say three of these cards and change from school days to holiday days and weekend days, simply by presenting the cards.
3. For the children, they may now scroll round the allowance that is currently set in the Screenblock and see exactly what their daily quota is and the on/off times.  Previously, they could only see their allowance number.

7th March 2002

1st March 2002
We now have 37 families about to start testing 43 Screenblocks in the South East.  The Screenblocks will be sent out to the testers on Wednesday 6th March.  We have recruited the testers through schools and newspaper advertisements; some have agreed to be interviewed by Press/Radio/TV. For information on this, please contact sales@screenblock.com.