A Digital Helping Hand From the Sky Broadband Buddy App | AD

Who’s old enough to remember the tell tell sound of dial-up internet? It was the soundtrack to the beginning of the millennium and my teenage years. A lot has changed since then but the ‘5 more minutes’ plea hasn’t – navigating the digital landscape as parents is important and ever-changing.

Tech is a big part of our lives and in large it’s such a positive aspect of our day-to-day activity, it enhances so much of what we do and I’m a big believer in introducing children to it in a safe and managed way with parents leading the way when it comes to healthy and responsible use.

We’ve been with Sky for our TV, phone and broadband for over 4 years so were excited to try the new Sky Broadband Buddy App; launched in May as part of their new Sky Broadband Boost pack, it’s been designed to give parents ultimate control of their family’s internet usage. The app itself is super easy to set up – it took me less than 5 minutes to download and set up the parent profile. I then began adding devices for both me and Boo. Each device can have different time limits, content restrictions for age.

I’m a big advocate in being open with Boo about boundaries so when it came to setting up her profile on the app we sat together, I talked through why it’s important that we get a variety of stimulation, not just digital and how screen time can affect our concentration and interaction with each other. throughout our time testing the app Boo has really enjoyed checking in on it and seeing how much time she’s got left on specific apps and even what digital bedtime I’ve set myself!

One feature of the Sky Broadband Buddy app that I was really surprised by is that it not only works at home on wifi but when you’re out and about over 3G and 4G, meaning that even when Boo is at a friend’s or at Grandma’s I’m able to keep tabs on what she accesses online.

The app is essentially a very intelligent remote for the internet, absolutely perfect for helping manage modern family life. We all know the importance of striking a balance between screen time and family time so we were set a challenge by Sky to see how we could use the Sky Broadband Buddy App to cut down our screen time; challenge accepted.

I looked at potential ‘problem’ areas and whilst dinner time is already a screen-free time that we fiercely protect.
I have found myself subconsciously reaching for my phone during the mornings not only slowing me down but eating into quality Mummy and Boo time. So I set some limits mainly on myself to make sure I was present and to make sure that on non-school days Boo wasn’t reaching for the iPad until a time I’d specified on the Sky Broadband Buddy App – plus it was brilliant being able to pause the internet, something I’ve introduced into my working day as well. It was pleasantly surprising how such a small tweak to our screen time usage had an impact – it seems so simple but sometimes we all need to stop and take stock; it’s not about reinventing the wheel but about keeping a watching eye in a way that works for the 21st century.

The Sky Broadband Buddy App Gets a thumbs up from me – it helps me with important parent digital admin meaning I can get on with the serious business of having fun…

The Sky Broadband Buddy App is available to Sky Broadband customers with the Sky Broadband Boost pack.

Disclosure: This is a Collaboration with Sky, a fee was received for my time.