Microsoft and the Parent Teacher Association enlisted the help of Super Bowl champion Jerry Rice to announce their new parental control system on the Xbox 360. The system is made up of two parts.

The first part, the program PACT, acts like an Xbox nanny by controlling things like whether the child can play games online and who against. The second program is the Xbox 360 Family Timer which can be set to weekly or daily allowed gaming time and can display time stats. Here is what PTA National CEO Warlene Gary had to say about new functions:

“As times change and technology advances, the role of the parent stays the same in raising a safe, healthy and successful child. PTA is proud to partner with Microsoft to provide parents with more resources that keep them involved in their children’s lives. Using the PACT will help parents and children talk about and agree on interactive media use.”

Jerry Rice did what he was paid to do and had these positive things to say about the steps taking by Microsoft and the PTA:

“I’m a Super Bowl champion and a ‘Dancing with the Stars’ finalist, but my most important accomplishment in life is being a father. I try to teach my kids that no matter what they do, they have to find a balance between work and fun. That’s why it’s so rewarding to join Microsoft and the PTA today to promote a healthy balance for our kids in this exciting digital age.”

For those of you reading this that are likely to see this implemented in your homes, don’t worry - your game won’t just turn off when the time is up. You will be given ample warning to save your game or make preparations to leave a game. It would be nifty if it saved the game for you just before shutting down though. Maybe in future revisions, hey Microsoft?

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This entry was posted by Andrew Cummings on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 4:07 am and is filed under Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.