Disney Circle Review

Kids are smart. They are full of questions and wonder about the world. They are eager to learn about most things, if it is in the way they choose and always catch us off guard with the way that they process things. That's not what I mean though. Kids are smart, as in they often outsmart us. Screen time has been a constant battle in our house for quite a while now. Because our kids do a large majority of their schoolwork online, they each have access to multiple devices from which they can not only to their school work, but play games, browse the internet and watch other people play video games on YouTube (Can someone please explain this to me? Why??)

We have tried different methods to reign this in. Our kids devices aren't allowed to charge in their room. There is a specific cabinet in our classroom for charging larger devices and a cubby in the office for phones and smaller devices. I wish I could say that my kids are magical angels and that they obey us and I never find them in their rooms watching YouTube at 2 am. We have had various monitoring systems that would alert us when they were looking at content that they shouldn't be. We finally decided recently that we needed more control over what they were doing and when they were doing it.

I grew tired of telling them to shut it down and being the bad guy. I grew tired of the arguments over time limits, bed times, who used what when and whether they had used someone else's time. I grew tired of finding them sneaking devices when they had already been told no.

My kids are little sinners. I love them dearly, but they have been known to be told to shut down one device and then immediately be found in another room of the house watching Netflix under a blanket, hoping not to be found out. There had to be a better way.

So I set my husband on a mission. Find a device that would solve all my problems. No easy feat. My expectations weren't high at all...

Enter Disney Circle. There are so many different products on the market for monitoring kids screen time and online activity. This one allowed us so many options. We could pause the whole house when we are out and don't want the kids watching TV when we aren't there. We can pause a single kid, or a single device. We can limit apps and see a full history of internet searches, texts and usage.

We decided to set up our home page into 6 different categories: one for each person and a shared category for things like the TV's and gaming systems in main areas that couldn't be differentiated between people. Why put your TV's and consoles on it? If I don't want anyone watching TV first thing in the morning before school, or while we are out, we can simply pause those items and the kids are forced to do something else. You can also pause the whole house with one click right on the home screen.

At first set up, we didn't add the adult devices in the house. I wasn't sure I necessarily wanted to have my devices included in the monitoring. We ultimately decided to do this for a couple of reasons. First, we both have devices that aren't portable (like our desktop computers) that we don't really want our kids to be able to use when we aren't here. Yes, they have passwords on them but did I mention that my kids are super smart? They break past our passwords and pin numbers so fast it would make your head spin. Second, we decided that the accountability is never a bad thing. While neither of us have ever had an issue with this, it does make me feel more secure knowing that it is all recorded and view-able. Third, we can set pauses on our own devices for personal accountability. Social media fasts are a whole lot more effective when you have not only removed the app from your phone but blocked it in the Circle. You would have to re-download the app, sign in and then unblock that individual app in the circle. By the time you do all of that, you have probably rethought what you are doing and why you put that restriction in place to begin with.

Time limits can also be easily set on devices as a whole and on individual apps on a device or across devices. This works particularly well across our shared devices. For example, if our son starts playing Fortnite on one TV and burns through his time limit, he cannot simply go to another TV and play there. The Circle detects use across devices and gaming platforms to shut down all of them once the time limit has been reached. Same goes for social media, Netflix and any other app you might want to limit.

There is one unfortunate issue with this across a shared device category however. If the same son, uses all of the Fortnite time or our daughter binges Netflix and uses all the time allotment for that day, the other siblings and the adults for that matter, don't have any time left. We have had to go in and manually adjust the time limit up after one kid used all of the shared time more than once. Although it is kind of a pain, it has been a lesson in sharing and thinking of others before yourself that has been valuable and allowed for important conversations to take place. This is not necessarily a downfall of the Circle itself, but in the way we chose to set it up. I suppose until it has facial recognition software in it that recognizes which individuals are present and subtracts it from their allotment, this isn't really solvable (A girl can dream right?).








Under each picture or category on the home screen, you have a number of different options and settings for that individual or group of shared devices. This is the individual page for our youngest daughter. From here, you can set their filter level, which is also fully customizable, set their bed times, off times, time limits, view their usage and a very detailed history of what has been done across all devices.

You can also click on the "Devices" option and pause individual devices. This has been particularly helpful when the kids are getting schoolwork done. I can pause the devices that I don't want them to be able to use, like TV's, consoles or tablets, while still allowing them to use their computers to complete their schoolwork.

To go one step further, I can go into their laptop and lockout things like Youtube, for example, during school work time. This allows me the ability to know that they are only working on what they are supposed to be doing, instead of watching other people play video games (Again... Why?).

You can also see under the individual home page how many of their time limits that person has reached that day. This helps me gauge the overall usage for the day and whether it is time to just generally quit. You can also set a general usage time limit and it will automatically shut everything down. Again. because our kids do a majority of their schoolwork online, we have elected not to use that option.



I have also made good use of the reward button a the top. The ability to punish and reward the kids easily with a method that speaks to them has been so valuable and so very enforceable. In the past, we have grounded them from screens, but have had no concrete way to enforce that. The minute we leave or turn away to do something else, they are back on the screens. I'm sure this is some sort of commentary on my parenting as well, but we just struggled to enforce no screen times. There has been more than one occasion where I have taken every remote in the house with me when I leave in a feeble attempt to enforce this.

The Circle makes it so easy to enforce. Pause the whole house, and they can turn on the screens, but they will be totally useless.

The rewards button allows me to reward them for doing the right things. I have used it for chores, reading, good attitudes and a multitude of other things.

There are a few things we chose not to include in the circle. None of our "Smart Home" devices are on in the circle, as you obviously wouldn't want those paused. My husband also had a few things that weren't accessible to the kids that he didn't want shut off on a pause, like Alexa for example. Those items are easily excluded without any hassle or fuss.

At the end of the day, we have been super happy with our Disney Circle. As our kids grow, there is the option to pay a monthly fee to add in their cellular and data services onto the Circle. I'm sure when they are teenagers, this will be a great option, but we aren't quite there yet. We have found the ability to control our kids screen time so valuable, easy and life giving to our household. Honestly, it's been kind of a game changer for us. While there are a few limitations of the Circle, I have recommended it to several friends as a very cost effective way to control and monitor their family's screen time.