His children have a 45 minute time limit of ‘total screen time’ for games on weekdays, 1 hour on weekends and whatever extra time is needed for completing homework.

While Bill Gates didn’t specifically confirm it, he’s likely using the parental controls found in the latest version of Microsoft operating system, Windows Vista, to set limits on the times different activities can be undertaken on a set PC, such as game playing, instant messaging and more. Vista can also alert parents to the contents of every instant message sent and received by their child.

Reuters reported Gates telling an Ottawa business crowd that “Up to some age, to be determined, it's very appropriate for a parent to get a sense of what they're seeing out there and be able to have conversations about it.”

His daughter uses a Tablet PC, and enjoys playing the Xbox 360 game ‘Viva Pinata’ – something previously reported as being a big hit in the Gates’ household.

Gates also said that his daughter “became very avid and discovered a lot of computer games, including one that runs on the Xbox 360 called Viva Pinata, where you take care of your garden. She could spend two or three hours a day on this Viva Pinata, because it's kind of engaging and fun.”

So, given Microsoft’s strong emphasis with Vista and the Xbox 360 on giving parents control back over the activities and digital lives of their children, it’s nice to see Bill and Melinda Gates applying the technologies themselves for their own family.

After all, this shows other parents out there that the computer shouldn’t be in control of your children’s lives, but rather that you should instead – until your children are old enough to earn your trust to play games, surf the Internet and use their computers in a safe and responsible manner.
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