The media agreement

Many families write down their rules for phones, games and videos together: a media agreement (in German often called a Mediennutzungsvertrag). obacht keeps that agreement next to the rules it enforces, in the same words, so the two can't drift apart.

How it works

Open a child, then the Agreement tab.

• Start from the current rules. obacht writes one sentence per rule the child has now: the daily screen time, each category limit, each bedtime or other time window, each app that is blocked, always allowed or limited, and asking before new apps (if that is on). Sentences are in the child's voice, for example "Bedtime: Sun–Thu from 20:30 to 06:30 my screens stay off."
• A sentence is its rule. Change the time in a sentence and the limit changes; change the limit in the Limits tab and the sentence changes. Removing a sentence keeps its rule. A sentence whose rule is gone (the limit was switched off, the time window removed) is no longer shown.
• Why. Each sentence can have a reason ("so I sleep well"). It is shown with it.
• Your own agreements. Things obacht can't enforce, such as "No phones at the dinner table, parents too.", can be added in your own words, for everyone, for the child or for the parents. obacht only shows them.
• Agreed. "We agreed today" notes the date you went through it together.

New sentences for a limit that isn't set yet start with a default (2 hours a day, 1 hour for a category, a bedtime from 20:00 to 07:00 on school nights); change it before saving.

What the child sees

On an Android phone, the child's obacht screen shows Our agreement with every sentence and its reason. When an app is blocked, the block screen quotes the sentence behind it, for example "We agreed: Games: at most 1 h a day."

Some platforms don't show the agreement yet; see Limitations.

In the API

The agreement is part of the child's policy (policy.contract in GET and PATCH /api/v1/children/{id}): a list of clauses that point at rules (total_time, category_time, app, schedule, new_apps) or carry text (agreement, with who), each with an optional because, plus agreed_on. Devices receive it with the policy.

This page is part of obacht's documentation, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source on GitHub · CC BY 4.0 · Version: main (2ab2740)