Yellow buses, No. 2 pencils and homework assignments: it’s back-to-school season and we’re in the spirit. Many of us here at Comcast are parents ourselves and work year-round to support students and families through our volunteerism and corporate giving. For instance, for Comcast Cares Day, we cleaned, painted and landscaped at 13 schools throughout the Beltway Region, including Eastern Senior High School in Washington, D.C., James Wood Middle School in Winchester, Va. and Seabrook Elementary School in Prince George’s County, Md., among others. And this month, we held school supply drives in our offices to collect notebooks, pens, binders and more for students in need. We also connected more than 560,000 low-income Americans in the Beltway Region to affordable internet through our Internet Essentials program, which we recently expanded to even more homes in our region. And, we’re excited to see all the great things this year’s 80 local Leaders and Achievers Scholarship recipients will do when they attend college this fall.
This is an exciting and busy time for our customers. And, we have the technology, tools and tips to make it simpler and easier for parents and students — whether you’re zipping up their backpack or packing their car for college.
Off the School Bus
For those with small children, tweens and teens at home, we have TV, internet and home automation and security features that help ensure kids are watching approved shows, surfing with boundaries and getting home from school safely.
With Xfinity xFi — a simple, digital dashboard for personalizing, troubleshooting, monitoring and controlling your home WiFi network — customers can access a number of parental control features. Instantly pause WiFi connectivity by user or device, automatically pause home WiFi every night at bedtime and set a filter that ensures younger children only can access age-appropriate websites, apps and other content online. xFi users also can receive real-time, WiFi-related push notifications and be alerted when a new device connects to their home WiFi network — so you’ll know if your teen brought home friends to play online games when he or she was supposed to be doing homework.
Xfinity Home helps ensure your kids arrive home as expected with features like remote access, video monitoring, rules and alerts. With a door sensor or smart door lock, a camera and the Xfinity Home app, you can receive a text or email when the front door opens, then access your home camera footage remotely to ensure it was your teen coming in from school.
Later, on the couch, parents can give younger children more freedom with the remote with the help of Xfinity TV and parental controls on Xfinity X1. You can set up, purchase and lock PINs, TV and movie locks and even block certain channels while your child watches TV. (Remember, you must manage these settings independently on each device.) Use Quick Setup to easily set controls based on your child’s age or, for advice on kid-friendly entertainment, you can review the “Common Sense Media” and “Parental Guide” scores for any content on X1. Finally, go to X1’s Kids Zone to find appropriate shows and movies all in one place. (For a laugh, watch as kids from Xfinity households try to explain the plots of various movies meant for more mature audiences.)
For more, just say “KIDS” into your Xfinity X1 Voice Remote to access the X1 destination for curated kids content, resources for parents and parental controls on your TV, or visit https://www.xfinity.com/hub/parental-controls online.
On Campus
They may have left the nest, but your college kids can stay connected and entertained with help from you and Xfinity.
Families can customize mobile plans based on their unique needs with our Xfinity Mobile wireless service. For instance, the new By the Gig Shared Data option allows you to share data across all lines on your account. So, your on-campus kid’s device is covered. Also, we introduced iPad and Apple Watch to our plans, as well as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) for Android — giving you the best devices to choose from.
For your college student’s down time, schools like Delaware State University, Loyola University and Randolph-Macon College offer Xfinity On Campus, which brings students live TV, On Demand and recorded content on their IP-enabled devices, including laptops, tablets and smartphones. To keep things simple, the service is included with room and board for students living in on-campus housing.
As usual this fall, we’ll be out and about at local colleges and universities to answer your questions and help you and your students get settled in with all the technology they need. Here are some of the places you’ll find us:
- George Washington University: Wednesday, August 28, at 6 p.m.
- Virginia Commonwealth University: Wednesday, August 28, at 1 p.m.
- Loyola University: Tuesday, September 3, through Thursday, September 5, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. daily
- Washington and Lee University: Wednesday, September 4, at noon
- McDaniel College: Thursday, September 5, at 5 p.m.
- Goucher College: Monday, September 9, through Wednesday, September 11, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. daily
To learn more about how we can help make your family’s transition back to school smooth and easy, go to www.xfinity.com, call us at 1-800-XFINITY or visit us at one of our Xfinity Stores, including locations at https://beltway.comcast.com/xfinity-stores/.
