CES 2023: S’pore firm launches social media platform that gives parents complete safety control over young users

LAS VEGAS – Children are getting their hands on mobile devices at a younger age, but some parents hesitate to grant them access to social media apps, for fear of cyber bullying, exposure to advertisements and online harms.

With these concerns in mind, home-grown tech company myFirst has created a social media platform for children aged 4-12.

Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 in Las Vegas that was held from Jan 5 to 8, the myFirst Social Circle app allows parents to limit who can interact with their children online via a list of approved contacts, said founder and chief executive Yong G-Jay, 40.

The company is known for its line of colourful smartwatches for children. It has sold about 70,000 worldwide, including 20,000 in Singapore, said Mr Yong, who started the company in 2017.

Online safety for youngsters has been a concern for the authorities, including in Singapore, which is set to roll out its Online Safety Bill in 2023 to crack down on how social media firms operate. It will be mandatory for social media platforms to give tools for parents to manage the content that a young user can encounter online and limit any unwanted interactions.

myFirst’s approach to social media essentially gives parents complete control over who gets to interact with their children and take action to remove posts if they find that their child has posted something inappropriate online.

Addressing concerns of social media today, Mr Yong said it is a matter of time before children go online. “We can train them early so that when they join the main channels, they are prepared and know how to use it safely.”

The app’s measures are one up on current parental controls on most platforms for users under 18.

On Instagram, for instance, parents can opt to oversee their teen’s activities online under the “supervision” setting, allowing them to determine how much time a teenager spends online and get notified about who follows their teen. But the teens still own their account, said Instagram, and parents cannot see the teens’ search history and cannot see what they post unless they follow them or have a public account.

Mr Yong said the idea for the social media platform for children came to him during the pandemic, when his only child, seven-year-old Ru Faye, lost touch with many friends while cooped up at home due to Covid-19 restrictions.

“She lost touch with a lot of friends and would always come to my wife to ask her to help ring some of them,” Mr Yong said.

“Some parents do give kids a phone, but most don’t want them to use Facebook, Instagram or other apps,” he said, adding that most of these platforms are restricted to users 13 years old and above.

“These apps can be scary for children. I’ve read about incidents where children meet strangers online or read about fake news, or come across content about suicide.”

In spite of these risks, Mr Yong said there is still a place for children on social media as a means of connecting with friends from school and discovering new interests.

Using the myFirst Social Circle app, children can keep in touch with family, friends from school and relatives.

These contacts will first have to be approved by parents or guardians before the child can make any interaction, such as commenting on or reacting to another child’s posts, or having his posts seen by the other child. The restrictions do not apply to users aged above 13.

Once a friend request is accepted, parents will be prompted to tag the contact to one of four groups of relationships, comprising family, besties, friends and acquaintances.

Parents can then check on any posts uploaded by their child, such as a selfie with friends at school, and decide who gets to see it.