Had the same 'problem'. Solved it with an alarmclock, a big fat lock on the
door to the study and a little bit of Parental Guidance 1.0 which works very
well with Go-Play-Outside-Or-Say-Goodbye-To-The-PC-For-A-Year (any version).
To me the option of a software-solution to keep the kids from using software
felt like telling them not to eat so much junkfood with a Wh*pper stuffed up
my cheek.
I have to say that this tends to be my approach also.
I retain knowledge of the dialup password, so at the very least my
kids can't log on when I'm not there...and they know that when I say
"Time's up" I really mean it.
Of course, I appreciate that there are times when perhaps you can't be
there...but then again I think the issue falls into the category of
parenthood, and I don't think software can replace that ( yet! ).
Thing is...if a child's old enough to use chat unsupervised then I
would think there's a fair chance that they might suss out how to
disable your timer software ( kids these days can be pretty savvy
about such things ), and if they're any younger than that then
supervision is surely wise.
Kids will be kids though...and on more than one occasion I've resorted
to giving the household mains' trip switch a bit of a flick ( Parental
Guidance V1.01 ). The howls of anguish as an unsaved Unreal disappears
into oblivion are particularly satisfying
Regards,
