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With more connected devices coming into our homes every day, monitoring and managing screen time can be challenging — especially for those parents who want to keep an eye on their child’s screen time across multiple devices.
With these needs in mind, Shaw Communications recently launched BlueCurve, a new Wi-Fi experience that gives families a way to monitor and control their in-home connectivity.
With the Shaw BlueCurve Home app families get what they’re looking for — a way to organize their connected devices in the home and a healthy balance between screen time and quality time. With the BlueCurve Home app, you can see which devices are connected to Wi-Fi, set parental controls, and even pause access to Wi-Fi with one tap.
“Only 49% of Canadians say they currently have an easy way to manage connected devices in their homes”
To get a better sense of how well the new BlueCurve Home app controls Wi-Fi in the home, we sat down with Jill Amery, a mother of two boys (aged 11 and 13), and CEO and Publisher of UrbanMommies Media. Jill has tried many screen time control options over the years to manage Internet usage in her home, and she shared with us why Shaw’s BlueCurve checks all the boxes for her family.
“Managing screen time in the past has been time consuming and frustrating for me and my family. It began with setting up parental controls on individual devices and unplugging the modem at certain times, which affects the smart home devices and meant that my own cell bills just got larger,” said Jill, sharing some of her frustrations with the other options that she had tried.
When asked about BlueCurve, Jill gives a very different answer.
“I use BlueCurve to manage everything and I am hopelessly in love with it,” said Jill. “The app on my phone is clean and incredibly easy to set up. There are different ways to organize profiles, but I have done it based on the person. I also have a profile for ‘Home’ and don’t put any restrictions on my smart devices, so their connectivity is never interrupted.”
When asked what her favourite feature is of the app, Jill explained that there are many, but that “being able to pause Wi-Fi on individual devices is high on the list.”
Another huge benefit is that the family can clearly see usage based on personal profiles, device and time of day. The discussions about screen usage have been so valuable for Jill and her family, and they are all — parents included — trying to go on a screen “diet” as a result.
In Jill’s home, screen time rules are used as a positive tool to encourage responsible Internet use. Speaking as a trusted source for parenting tips, Jill acknowledges there’s no one-size-fits approach when it comes to managing connectivity.
“The key with having all of the information that the app provides is that it facilitates conversations based on actual data,” she shares.
When asked how the boys have responded to the new network management experience in their home, Jill explains, “With all the other systems we have tried, they could outsmart them! Similar to every aspect of parenting, though, kids seem to thrive with clear limits and follow through. They are honest about how much time they need for schoolwork, and I can add extra ‘fun’ time easily.”
One bonus for Jill, whose West Vancouver home was built around rock which created Wi-Fi instability, was another product in the BlueCurve technology suite, the Shaw BlueCurve Pods.
Once installed through the app, the elegant, hexagon-shaped Shaw BlueCurve Pods help create a mesh Wi-Fi network that blanketed the home to eliminate dead spots and extend coverage to places like her patio.
“It’s like throwing a warm blanket of Wi-Fi over everywhere in your house you want to be,” Jill shares.
For more information on the technology suite, including the Shaw BlueCurve Gateway modem, visit shaw.ca/bluecurve.
The Need for Wi-Fi Connectivity Control – In Numbers
- 89% of adults agreed that it is important to put away their connected devices and disconnect at a certain point every day, though Canadians clearly enjoy the benefits of connectivity
- 96% of those polled said it is important for parents and caregivers to be able to manage the amount of time children are connected, what type of content kids can access and when they can access it
- Only 49% of Canadians say they currently have an easy way to manage connected devices in their homes
*According to an Abacus Data Poll (commissioned by Shaw Communications, February 2019)
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