’90s Technology Is Making A Comeback To Annoy Kids Off Your Computer

Parents, troll your kids with a router that slows their internet connection down so they'll finally do their chores.

Take a minute and think back to the mid to late 1990s, when the world wide web was just starting to really take off and it took about three whole days to view one of those cute cat photos online. Remember how painful it was to use that dial up connection?  You'd fire up the computer, click on the AOL icon, and patiently wait minutes maybe even hours until you were connected. The only thing getting you off that computer once you were connected -  a very important phone call that was scheduled three days prior.

Now, try to imagine your kids appreciating that same 56k dial up speed when they're trying to Facebook, Snapchat and Kick their friends online.  It's almost a certainty that within minutes they're going to give up and have no choice but to do something else, like homework or chores.

That's what Sean O'Riordan was trying to accomplish when he created the Vexbox. The device is meant to slow your internet connection down to 56k, the speed of the old dial-up connection.  He came up with the idea after he noticed his son would just find something else to do if the internet connection was too slow.

Vexbox is still a work in progress but O'Riordan has a working prototype and a crowdfunding campaign started to fund his product.