It's not for the phone: the app that will protect our children

Pornography, violent content and bullying: the average age in Israel to receive a smart phone from parents is eight.

With the smart device, a world of dangers also opens up to the children.

How do you manage to keep them connected and at the same time protect them from the dangers of inappropriate content?

Talia Levin

09/29/2022

Thursday, September 29, 2022, 11:17 a.m. Updated: Saturday, October 01, 2022, 08:14 a.m.

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When the children are in the yard, we keep a close eye on them, but who watches over our children when they play in the virtual yard? (Photo: ShutterStock)

Online bullying has become an all too common phenomenon and parents stand helpless in the face of it.

But this is not the only trouble of living in a digital world: a survey conducted by the "New Wave" research institute several months ago found that 77% of teenagers are exposed to inappropriate content online before they reach the age of 15. These are pornographic and violent content, the overwhelming majority of which are girls And the boys who were exposed to them, did not intend to go there at all, but were exposed to it by accident.

If in the past the parents thought that denying screen time from the children or only getting a cell phone from a certain age would solve the problem, they ran into the school's wall.

Today, many classes conduct themselves with a WhatsApp group, and it seems that even in lower grades there is no choice but to equip the child with a mobile device.

The average age to use a cell phone is eight, and it's only going down.

In preparation for the return to school, there is an increase in the purchase of mobile devices and tablets, sometimes for the first time, and the concern among parents is growing when it comes to protecting their children in the use of mobile phones and limiting the hours of use - especially on social networks and instant messaging programs.

It is true that we are in the start-up nation and solutions already exist, but the market for child protection software is huge - and the parents, the children, often get lost in it, and sometimes even give up in advance, thereby opening the door to danger in the digital world in which the children live - which has an immediate and clear impact on their lives The children and families.

Roi Cohen and Oz Kornblum, Pyrosite (Photo: Public Relations)

A real epidemic

"Children are exposed to offensive and dangerous content because they are in front of screens for many hours a day. Often times, more than we are aware of, the parents are not even aware of what the children are seeing or what they are exposed to when they are closed in the room. It has become a real epidemic," says

, which developed a unique application that provides parents with the ability to monitor toxic online content and chats with signs of violence from their personal phone, and also provides parental control regarding the times of use of cell phones and certain applications according to the wishes and world view of each parent.

"When we were the age of our children, neither we nor our parents had these struggles" adds

, "This is actually the first generation of parents that is faced with looking after children not only in the physical world, but also in the digital world and this is a big challenge. And we are trying to respond to the parents' daily needs."

Cohen: "I always compare our virtual world to a road. The road is an essential thing on the one hand, but it also has dangers. I can't exclude them from my children, but I behave with each child according to their age. For any age There is the need for appropriate guidance for him. As in everything in life. We want to give tools in order to be able to guide and educate and sometimes protect the children."

"This is an application that is installed on both phones. The customer is the same parent who signed up for the service. He receives a link to download the application and from there he knows how to activate the service for his children, and he receives daily tools to also limit exposure to content, control the child's screen time, and receive a report about what is done on social networks without harming the privacy of the child or teenager."

The smart algorithm knows how to locate conversations of pedophiles online, dangerous trends and bullying.

"There are parents who check their device after the child goes to sleep. But at a certain age they already have a password and we don't always know it. In addition, apps like Tik Tok have like mini features that we as parents are not exactly familiar with and won't know where to look.

The service knows how to analyze all the conversations on all social networks and through a smart engine that we have developed, it knows how to diagnose the events that need to be given a red light to the parent, such as online violence, or an adult trying to talk to the boy or girl, and even a challenge like the courage challenge that already killed an 11-year-old boy in Israel a few days ago years

of teenagers, said plainly that if she had known that such a dangerous trend existed, she would have put an end to it in the first place.

"Exactly. The role of parents is first of all to educate, but if we need to protect and guide, without this information I will not be able to fulfill my responsibility as a parent in this day and age. In the end we have to flatter our children and neither surveillance software nor firewalls will replace that. But the service Definitely gives me indications to get to know and see what is happening with my child in the virtual world. We only know them in the physical world, but there is another half of the world they live in."

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A startup for every pocket

The company has existed since 2005 as a start-up, when the first products came out in 2008, which they provided to PC, ICQ, and Messenger users.

Over the years, not only the social networks have undergone a transformation, but also the mobile devices and the algorithm that had to deal with new threats in a short period of time.

"We also market the application through our website and it also appears in all the application stores and our business partners in the telecom companies even provide it as features that can be added, at a price of NIS 25 per family," says Kornblum.

"And yet," adds Cohen, "there is still a lack of awareness among the parent population that there are tools that can help them."

how is it possible?

Kornblum also explains that this is just starting to gain momentum.

"Not only our company, but look at what's happening in the market. If you try to purchase cyber insurance, you'll see that they provide financial compensation in the case of a child's exposure to online bullying. This means that we know how to prove damage caused as a result of something that happened in the virtual world. Think of that parent who sees the coverage of Protection against online bullying, I don't understand what this protection is. But after the child is injured, and after the treatment he will have to go through, the insurance company will allocate a certain amount to this thing.

We have a very high filtering capacity. Identify it in advance and give the parent a warning of activities when it is still small."

A few weeks ago, the company entered into an innovative joint venture, for the first time in Israel, with the "Toys R Us" company

Kornblum: "We are the first to come out with phones for children. From a business point of view, this is a niche like having a kosher phone, or a phone for older people, we are bringing the news of a phone adapted for children. Until today, Toys R Us has not sold phones and tablets, it is something that is only sold in phone stores. And in fact, this cooperation removes from parents all the fears and doubts before buying the first phone."

Cohen: "The age of use of these devices is only going down. We are definitely seeing an increase in products that previously only received a cell phone at age 13, already at younger ages. And our collaborations are already penetrating schools that are interested in introducing it to every classroom."

Sigal Caspi, CEO of the Toys R Us chain (Photo: Elad Gutman)

Intermediate: protected environment

"In the digital world where our children start using smart phones and tablets at a young age,

and parents get lost in the abundance of existing software and devices. We decided to initiate the collaboration with the PureSight company in order to make the smart phone accessible to parents without worries, including the Israeli software surfie, also to protect the child, And to make it easier for the parents," says

about the decision to also enter the children's cell phone market.

"The built-in protection software in the Samsung phones that will be sold online basically allows the parent to buy a high-quality and secure phone for the child in order to give the child a protected Internet environment," Caspi explains.

By the way, not only for first phones, the software can also be purchased separately online for those who are interested and installed on existing phones, and this includes a license to use up to five devices per year.

Cohen explains that after the Corona years, there was an acceleration in regards to the purchase of devices for children and teenagers, as well as exposure to violent content and online bullying.

"The adjustment of the software is done in eight languages. We are constantly entering new markets overseas as well and making the necessary adjustments. In the devices adapted for children, the service that is already installed on the new phone actually makes it easier for the parents with the first purchase, and will give them the ability to set house rules for using the phone. If I'm doing this for a 15-year-old boy who has already had a phone for 7 years on which I want to install software, it's a bit more problematic. It's important to do this from the first phone, and it definitely helps the parent's peace of mind."

Kornblum adds that for the purpose of development there is a research laboratory that works frequently all over the world to identify dangerous trends.

"How does a trend start? Leaders of public opinion speak messages, and in their wake there are lots of challenges and videos. And our job is to catch it in time, and not like what happens today when the parents discover it last in the chain. In addition, the research laboratory follows the updates of the virtual language which is the slang of the network which is updated frequently. It is not enough to know what abbreviations are used today, but to update them on a monthly basis, and we publish this data every month together with the Israeli Internet Association."

The innovative software and the marketing of phones adapted to children and teenagers are something that is already being looked at with curious eyes overseas.

"Our system today also knows how to filter content that is adapted to each surfer personally, such as on Facebook. The content you are exposed to is not the content I am exposed to, and it is a very advanced level of development. We see interest from Google and Apple. Google switched to operating the family system, which provides a service There is a certain basic when it comes to content filtering, and any large company joining the move raises awareness significantly, and may also save lives."

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• application

• Toys 'R' Us

• Children