Today marks the beginning of a significant shift in the positioning of Circle with Disney's iconic family Internet device with the launch of Circle Connections, a new platform that allows Circle to connect with an ecosystem of apps and services to help augment and add value to their already-stellar product.

At its core this feature is all about deepening the ways parents can utilize technology as a tool to help engage the conversation with their children around Internet usage, content consumption, screen time, and finding balance in their lives.

Chores

The first connection that Circle launched with today is Chores, an integration that allows parents to award extra screen time by tackling their chores in ChoreMonster.

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An Alexa Skills connection is on its way, as are safe driving, activity trackers, and social media monitoring.

If you haven't heard of Circle or if you have heard of it but haven't bought into the hype, I will leave you with this sublime quote by Rick Klau, partner at Google Ventures:

...it was less that the Circle had prohibited an activity, it was that my kid had thought deliberately about what was important to them when reminded of the boundaries that we had agreed on. In the past, this rarely happened. This kind of maturity — aided by the Circle, yes, but still theirs — is exactly the kind of growth we’d hoped to see.

Circle's beauty is that it is helping families shift the conversation by allowing children to develop a responsible approach to the Internet, content consumption, and social media as they enter the brave new horizon of a technology-driven grown-up world.

Check out Circle Connections today.