Back in 2013, a man by the name of Jelani Memory tried to crowdfund a device that would enable parents to manage the online content on all of the devices connected to their home network, which would allow them to control the content that their kids consumed on the Internet. It’s a good thing the Kickstarter campaign ended up failing, because Memory ended up securing a partnership with Disney to bring the device, known as Circle, to consumers. Now, two years after the failed Kickstarter campaign, Circle with Disney has launched for $99.99, and there have been a number of improvements made to the device in the time since the campaign failed.
When Kickstarter campaigns are unsuccessful, we assume those products never get to see the light of day. In 2013, Circle, a device that lets parents manage online content on all devices in their home network, failed to meet its funding goal. Two years later, the smart device is now available, and not just that, but it has a partnership with Disney, too. Circle with Disney launched Wednesday for $99. Kids probably won’t be the biggest fans, but it’s a simple, stress-free device that parents can use without the fuss of a complicated router. The small white cube connects to Wi-Fi and lets you manage everything with the Circle app. There are a ton of features. You can set a time limit on specific sites and devices or for whole categories, such as games, social media or blogs. The app will add up the time one of your kids spends on each of her devices and cuts her off when she’s reached her limit. It also doesn’t make a difference between, say, the Facebook mobile app versus the desktop website. Time spent across platforms will add up to one total time for that website. You can set filter profiles by age so that it’s easy to customize by app and category. You can pause the Internet for specific devices, individual people or everyone in the house. There’s even a bedtime feature that lets you set sleep and awake times for devices, so “lights out” literally means lights out.
