Comcast gives kids great new way to decimate family data plans

The great parents vs. kids screen time battle is heating up.

Comcast announced Tuesday that it is releasing new parental controls to manage kids' access to WiFi. Parents who are XFinity WiFi (or xFi) users can set WiFi time limits for all of their kids' devices at once. When the child reaches their limit, xFi will boot them and all of their gadgets off the network. Sorry, kids!

Previously, xFi users could exert control by turning off the WiFi in the xFi app (which was perhaps easier than the ol' unplug method). But that cut everyone off from the world wide web.... and momma's gotta surf Pinterest! Plus, the ability to automatically pause, and then resume access the next day, seems convenient.

Grappling with how to control kids' internet access and screen time has become a ubiquitous parenting issue. Google, Apple, and Facebook have all released features that enable parental control over how much time kids spend on their devices. But kids are finding increasingly ingenious ways to skirt parental and tech industry restrictions.

That should be no different with the latest Comcast move. Once xFi kicks the kid off WiFi, surely, won't they just... switch to their cellular network, and eat up their parents' data plans?

Of course, parents can set controls for which apps have access to cellular networks. But, where there is a parental control, there is a Gen Z-er with a way around it.