ChildCentre
by SimTec Laboratory

  The program was designed for automatic control of the time children spend playing their games during a day. Every child (as user of a particular user account) will have particular program settings and will be able to use the program independently of other users in this computer. Even if an adult is not near the child, ChildCentre controls the total time and closes the program that is running (or Windows depending on the defined mode) if the time limit is expired. Then ChildCentre does not allow to start dedicated programs (or to work with Windows) during the rest of the day.
There are two ways to organize control of the time a child spends using the computer.
1. For smaller children (3 – 5 y.o.) we propose dedicated programs mode. It this mode ChildCentre counts time only while a dedicated program is run. Before using the program, an adult enters in ChildCentre the list of programs to be run.
2. For older children (5 – 7 y.o.) we propose absolute time counting mode. In this mode ChildCentre counts time when Windows is running.
In the both modes the adult defines total time. The child can spend only that time, not more during a day.
When there is 10 minutes left to the end of limited time, ChildCentre sounds 4 signals with intervals of 1 second. When there is 5 minutes left, it sounds 5 signals. When there is 1 minute left, it sounds 6 signals. The last 10 seconds are followed with 10 signals.
The child has to finish the current game before time is out. If he does not do this, the game is closed by ChildCentre. Then the child does not have access to the games up to the end of the current day.

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