Families Overwhelmingly Want Dinnertime to be Screen-Free, Comcast Study Shows

A recently released Comcast survey shows parents and children alike have to be reminded to put away their device during dinnertime. According to the survey, nearly half (42 percent) of parents surveyed are not able to remember the last time their family had a device-free meal and some going so far as to disconnect their modems to stop their children’s Wi-Fi usage.

For these reasons and more, Comcast’s “pause device” is the most popular feature of the Xfinity xFi platform with about five million users “pausing” the internet since its launch. The “pause” function provides a way for families to spend time together with fewer online distractions by allowing customers to instantly pause Wi-Fi by user or device.

The nationwide study also found:

• Dinnertime is bonding time – Nearly every (98 percent) parent surveyed agrees that disconnecting from devices during mealtime improves family bonding.

• Parents can set an example – More than half (52 percent) of parents have been told by their children to put their device away during meals.

• Device-free meals are rare – More than two in five parents (42 percent) can’t remember the last time their family had a device-free meal.  And Millennial parents have an especially hard time remembering the last time they broke bread without a device at the table (49 percent), compared to Gen Xers (37 percent) and Boomers (33 percent).

• Sneaking screen time – Parents admit to taking away their children’s devices an average of once per week. More than half (56 percent) catch their children trying to sneak their devices when they were banned from them.

• Going to extremes to disconnect – nearly one-third (31 percent) of parents make their children leave their devices in a basket before bedtime, while 14 percent go so far as to disconnect their modems to stop Wi-Fi usage.

In addition to the popular pause function, Xfinity xFi gives users a simple digital dashboard to set up their home Wi-Fi network, find their password, see what devices are connected, troubleshoot issues, and set parental controls. Additional family-friendly xFi features include:

• Timed Pause: parents can pause devices for a set amount of time – 30 minutes, one hour, or two hours.

• Safer Searching: parents can control search settings for Google, Bing and YouTube.

• Notification Center: customers get real-time notifications about activity on their Wi-Fi network, so when their children have friends over and a new tablet or phone logs on, the parent receives a text message and can decide whether to allow connectivity and even set parental controls remotely.

To learn more about Xfinity xFi, visit www.xfinity.com/myxfi.