My wife and I homeschool our two young boys. There is a common misconception about homeschooled kids not getting enough interaction with their peers. Generally, this is simply not true. Most homeschooling families go to many local events and park days to ensure their children are properly socialized and create what will hopefully be lifelong friendships.
However, there is one missing aspect to this. In a typical school environment, children get LOTS of daily interaction with the same children. So, they are likely to form closer bonds. My wife and I were aware that this was just not happending for our boys.
To make matters worse, our boys' closest cousins are nearly four hours away. As my wife is from England, most of their other cousins and grandparents are even further away. We could see that they weren't really forming any strong bonds with their distant relatives.
I decided to create Kids In Touch to solve our own problem and hopefully help many other families along the way. While developing the app and doing market research, I learned some very scary facts about kids and social media. The numbers of children that are exposed to unsafe content online is simply shocking. If I didn't already have a great reason to develop a kid-friendly texting app, I sure did now.
"Although most teens and young adults who send sexually suggestive content are sending it to boyfriends/ girlfriends, others say they are sending such material to those they want to hook up with or to someone they only know online."
"Sending and posting nude or semi-nude photos or videos starts at a young age and becomes even more frequent as teens become young adults."
Teen = 13 to 19, Young Teen = 13 to 16
1 Sex And Tech Summary - The National CampaignKids in Touch is an app for parents as much as it is a fun texting app for kids. The app lets parents decide who can interact with their children. Parents have the tools they need to review their children's messages. They can ensure their kids aren't being bullied or being a bully. Parents can learn to interact with their kids via textting - something they really should get used to doing.
Kids In Touch is a learning tool. Kids learn that their parents love them and are willing to supervise them and hold them accountable for their actions. Parents learn how their kids interact with others and can get key insights into how their children will behave online. It's Training Wheels for Texting.
Kids In Touch is a fun, kid friendly, messaging app avaiable on Apple's iPod Touch, iPad, and iPhone - and soon Android devices.
