Playport
The Playport is a handheld gaming and computing device made by the Sody Media Corporation. It is marketed to and used primarily by children between 8 and 15 years old. It is extremely popular among both children and their parents because of the balance it strikes between restrictions and permissions. The Playport is a net-enabled device, but is not capable of unrestricted browsing. The primary purposes for the device's net-connection are: To purchase and download games, and social engagement in heavily moderated age-appropriate forums. This restricted net use is why the Playport (and similar competitor devices) has taken on a broad cultural role of transitioning children into net use, with a focus on safety and responsibility.
Caregiver Controls & Security
Default Security
Each Playport device's usage is limited to its registered users and it always "knows" who's using it thanks to a forward-facing camera. Disabling the camera in any way, including manually obstructing it (with one's hand, a piece of tape, etc), will immediately lock-down the device. Similarly, if someone who is not a registered user of that device is detected by the camera (a face taking up more than 30% of the camera's view for longer than 10 seconds), the device will lock-down. In a lock-down, the device will go into sleep-mode. The screen will go black and the controls will cease to work, but the forward-facing camera and mic will continue to record. The user must then reboot the device. Every time the device is powered on, including lock-down induced reboots, the camera must detect a registered user for 10 consecutive seconds before it will open any applications or menus.
Registered users - and their birthdates - are verified by photographic government documentation. The device permits users into certain games, chat rooms and forums depending on their age (and preferences, which the user can set in their account). In this way, child users are kept away from adult-oriented content and adult users are kept out of the spaces for children - yes, even the parents. Especially the parents. Parents can review transcripts and/or recordings of their child's activities only if the child has been put in Time-Out by the moderators, which could happen, for example, if the child was being hostile in chat rooms, cheating in games, or posting inappropriate pictures in the forums. Time-Outs can range in length from an hour to a week, depending on the offense. Each user is permitted 500 hours (approx. 3 weeks) per year of Time-Out. If a user has been put into Time-Out for over 500 hours in a year, that user is banned from the platform - they will lose all social access across Playport devices, but they will still be able to play single-player no-net games. Many of these people will simply move on to the next most popular handheld game device and, if they continue their offensive behavior, will eventually get banned from those platforms as well, as most competitor devices popular enough to bother with have similar restrictions.
All Playport devices have "peep-proof" screens that appear black when viewed from the sides (this does not extend to larger screens that the Playport can be cast to, unless those screens also separately have this feature).
Customized Controls
Adult users of a given device can also set customized restrictions on themselves and/or child users, and these restrictions will apply across all devices those users are registered on. These customizable restrictions include things like screen-time limits, content limits, and authorization requirements. For example, a parent might decide that their child is allowed 2 hours of screen-time per day, that the child cannot download First Person Shooter games, and that if the child wants to join any new forums or chat rooms, the parent must authorize it. The child will not be able to get around these restrictions by borrowing the device of a friend - if the child is registered on their friend's device, it will apply the same restrictions (if they are not registered on the friend's device, it just won't work).
Flexibility & Permissions
The greatest allure of the Playport device is that it is portable, but can also be easily connected to just about any compatible monitor, including televisions, via cable or wireless RedEye connection. This allows users to seamlessly transition from on-the-go play to at-home play and back again. Kids appreciate the ability to keep themselves entertained, informed, and educated while parents are carting them around on errands, on long car/plane/train rides, and during long waits. Parents appreciate that the devices keep their kids' attention, allowing the parent to focus on the task at hand. The device's easy adaptation to at-home use smoothes out the transition from "out" to "in" and vice versa.
Children also really enjoy the social elements of the device's network. The most popular chat rooms are the Homework Help rooms, where children go to discuss homework topics amongst themselves. These rooms have a special "Tutor" designation that can be given to a user who receives 10 nominations within a month; nominations are given by other users who found the nominee's assistance particularly insightful or helpful. Tutors receive a badge on their profile picture and are monitored less closely by moderators. Child users appreciate the opportunity to work things out with their peers with little to no adult involvement, aside from the removal of bullies (moderators look out for abusive or inappropriate language/content and may warn users or put them in Time-Out; moderators do not otherwise intervene in conversation). They appreciate the privacy that the system affords them; they can have difficult conversations with trusted friends, knowing that their caregivers can't read those conversations without the child's permission.
PAX Specialization
Children in the PAX School are issued a specialized "All-Access" version of the Playport which is heavily modified from the base device, though it looks identical. The PAX All-Access Playport has a different permissions structure and Lock-Down protocol, includes several different kinds of sensors, and has more "aggressive" connection capabilities.
PAX All-Access Playports do not distinguish between "child" and "adult" users, but do distinguish between organizational titles and ranks and will limit access based on that. Most students at the PAX School hold the rank of "Trainee", which includes unrestricted browsing of the vast majority of the net - far FAR more than a typical child would have access to via a Playport. A PAX All-Access Playport's front-facing camera has a wider field of view and the device will follow different Lock-Down protocols depending on the situation. If the PAX student is looking at something a typical child would not be permitted to, the device will immediately respond to the presence of an unregistered person (whether or not they have looked at the device) by opening a more age-appropriate application, such as a Homework Help chat room or a video game. The device will then proceed to execute the default Lock-Down protocol if the non-registered person looks at the device and lingers.
PAX All-Access Playports include advanced sensors such as radar, heat and infrared cameras, and audio/visual magnification. These capabilities are essential to PAX's intelligence efforts and the PAX Playports serve as introductory devices for students on the path toward becoming a PAX Intelligence Agent.
PAX All-Access Playports can also actively connect to nearly any local network, wired or RedEye. Accessing wired or well-protected RedEye networks may require more active effort on the part of the PAX user.
Extremely common (PAX variant is extremely rare)
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