TechDen The Home To Healthier Screen Habits | Review

Disclosure - We were gifted TechDen for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our own. 

Screen time for your children. Is it a problem?  There are clearly some different thoughts out there when you have a look at some of the recent press around screen time. One thing is for certain though, only you the parent can really decide how much screen time you want your child to have.

We limit Little J's screen time to an amount we feel is appropriate depending on what his day has been like. We look at what time he got up, what he has done before and after breakfast and what activities he has done during the day. Some days he is more tired than others and he may have more screen time that day.  For us, that makes sense, but for him, its difficult to understand how it works!

This is where TechDen comes in. TechDen is the first ever combined physical storage and charging device with its own app to give the user the ability to control screen time on each device. Once the device is in the Den, it's locked away with an "out of sight, out of mind" approach to support parents decisions around screen time restrictions.

The TechDen App is what makes the device so unique. TechDen works with the main app being installed on the parents device and the childs versions of the apps being installed on their devices. The parent is able to predetermine the amount of time available to the child and also how many sessions are available throughout the day.  The system works by requiring the devices be returned to the Den before the end of the allocated time.  Before time is up, the child will get countdown reminders so they are ready to return the device rather than have a "2 minute warning", and they can also request extra time through the app. The parent device will receive all notifications of requests, with the ability to approve or deny requests straight away.

At the end of the session, if the device isn't returned to the Den the parental device will receive notification so that intervention can take place if needs be.

The TechDen app also can operate on a rewards system which can support the child with habits and a sense of achievement.

The Den itself is simple enough to use, and a really great feature is that once the device is away and charging, the doors wont open to the childs request for the device unless it's in one of the predetermined sessions of availability. To make it simple for the child, if the light is green they can use the device and if the light is red they can't. The Den was bigger than we expected, however if you think about a unit that would house and charge two tablets then its easy to see why the size is as it is.

I could see that TechDen could be really useful in cutting down on arguments around device time, as often these can be a result of lack of time planning or parameters set to begin with.  TechDen can support by ensuring that everyone knows the rules to start with and offering simple but effective techniques towards device access.

If you want to know more about TechDen then visit their website here for parental views and guides on how it may work for your family.

John