iKydz was first announced in 2015 as part of a crowd-funding campaign pledging to put parents back in control of children’s digital lifestyles. After raising over €30,000 from the campaign, iKydz launched today in the U.K.
Created by founder John Molloy based on his own experiences of managing family internet usage, iKydz aims to solve the problems faced by parents every day. With many teens able to more effectively use smartphones than older generations, it can be difficult to understand how children are using the internet and what they are seeing.
iKydz is a hardware product that connects to the primary Wi-Fi router in the house. It creates a secondary Wi-Fi network for devices owned by children. Parents can monitor traffic on the network and easily restrict access to certain websites, assign browsing time limits and temporarily disable individual connections.
iKydz is designed to be easy to use, reflecting the difficulties parents often face with other technologies. According to the company, the average first use set-up time is three minutes. If support is required, a dedicated phone line is available to help customers through getting iKydz online.
Once installed, the device can be used to control internet access on any device. Smartphones, tablets, laptops and games consoles are all compatible, irrespective of manufacturer or platform. The app is used as a single surface to control iKydz’s features, exposing options to block, restrict or schedule access to certain sites, disallow specific kinds of content and view recent browsing history.
The device isn’t the first to try and protect children online. It does bring a new simplicity to the market though, something parents are likely to appreciate. It can be controlled entirely from a mobile app and includes safeguards to prevent children bypassing its restrictions.
“Having a background in IT, iKydz was created from my personal experience of trying to manage my children’s internet usage,” said Molloy. “There was no hardware on the market sophisticated enough to be effective and that my own children could not outsmart! Children’s safety online has been described by the ISPCC (Irish Association of Protection of Cruelty to Children) as the child-protection issue of our time and I would wholeheartedly agree with this.”
iKydz’s launch comes as concern around children’s online safety reaches all-time highs. According to one recent study, one in three children have reported being a victim of cyberbullying. Parents are likely to experience resistance if internet access is restricted but experts have stressed more control is necessary to protect young web users.
iKydz is available in the UK from today. It retails at £99 and can be purchased from iKydz’s website and Staples stores. Once the device has been purchased, there are no ongoing app subscription costs, providing control over children’s devices for a single one-off fee.
