One of the foremost concerns for parents is the amount of time screens take up in their children’s lives. With smartphones, tablets, computers, consoles, and television all vying loudly for their time, it’s easy to see how most kids can forget about the outside world.
box&rox is a multi-layered system to ensure that children get the required amount of physical activity each day, with a goal of supporting healthy habits young to develop a solid foundation as they grow into adulthood. The system is comprised of three parts. The rox is a wristwatch that comes in a variety of colors that tracks a child’s physical activity throughout the day, earning sparkies as a reward. The box portion of the system connects to a television or a console’s power supply and meters the electricity available for use depending on how many sparkies were earned on a connected rox. The final of this system is an online world that serves as a place to use sparkies to gain more access to it, although the campaign didn’t do a great job at explaining why a child would interact with the world. The box&rox system serves as a warden of sorts that encourages physical activity and rewards it accordingly, taking the worry off the parent’s shoulder. The core system is going for £125 (~$198), while the campaign itself is looking for £10,000 (~$15,900) in funding.
The box&rox system is similar to what the Kudoso is doing for Internet access, and continues an overall trend of gamifying access to entertainment for younger children. Combining both in one household would lock down overuse for sure, but who’s to say kids won’t figure out a way to game the system itself? They usually always do, but I suppose an all night binge in Mario Kart could be viewed as an exercise in problem solving.
Getting kids to unplug from their devices and go outside or study is one of the great struggles of the 21st century. Existing blocking or limiting solutions are inflexible and often require a parent on call in order to work correctly.