(WSVN) — Parents, kids are younger and younger when they ask to get on social media sites, but for many parents this is a big red flag. So, a teenager came up with a networking site he says is safe, fun and parent approved. 7’s Lynn Martinez shows us in today’s Parent to Parent.
From Facebook to Instagram kids love popular social media sites parents well not so much.
Darren Marks: “It was a big problem in my house quite frankly, we were scared to death.”
Darren Marks has six children. When he discovered his son, Zach, had a Facebook page at the age of 10 he freaked out.
Darren Marks: “A good friend of mine called me and said, ‘Zach’s got 700 friends.’ So, I deleted the account, which I think any parent would have done at that point.”
But Zach managed to sign on again the next day under an alias. His dad found out and challenged him to find a safe site for kids that he could join. When he couldn’t find one, Zach created his own. It’s called Grom Social.
Zach Marks: “It’s Facebook for kids. Same features, chat post, share videos look at cool stories, but it’s a whole lot safer.”
Grom Social is geared towards kids ages seven to 14 and allows them to post messages and share videos in a safe environment.
Zach Marks: “That’s my goal to make parents feel safe and to let kids use social networking.”
A child can only sign up with their parent. Plus, while kids can ban parents from their Facebook page, on this site mom and dad can see everything their child is doing, from who they friend to what they’re viewing.
Zach Marks: “We send them out a Grom Social report card to the parent. It breaks down the chats that they’re doing, what part of the website they checked out.”
Also, graphic or questionable posts are not allowed.
Zach Marks: “No cursing. There’s 24/7 live monitoring on the website, so there’s a lot of safety features.”
And the best part is , teens and tweens are giving Grom Social a big thumbs up.
Zach Marks: “We produce our own content and it’s just kids doing fun things and kids want to see that. And I think that’s why we have all these kids coming to our site as opposed to other sites out there.”
Zach’s dad says young people don’t realize the internet can be a dangerous place.
Darren Marks: “They don’t understand that by putting in a address or where I go to school and you get the wrong person on social media, can track their every move.”
He says no parent can keep their kid off social media but you can help keep them safe.
Lynn Martinez: Grom Social has been on-line for two years now and has about $800,000 members.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.GromSocial.com
Darren@GromSocial.com