March 13, 2025 • 52 mins
Brock Murphy, co-founder of Parent ProTech, shares critical insights about helping families navigate the challenging digital landscape that's targeting our children. He draws on his unique background spanning government work and SpaceX to offer practical strategies for protecting kids while building healthy relationships with technology. In this episode, we cover...
• Building on relationships as the foundation for digital safety conversations rather than leading with restrictions
• Understanding the neuroscience behind teen technology use - "overdeveloped accelerators and underdeveloped brake systems"
• Creating community standards around technology use to combat the "everyone else has it" pressure
• Recognizing that content previously considered extreme has become normalized and easily accessible
• Looking at technology access holistically rather than just focusing on phones
• Partnering with schools to create consistent approaches to technology both in and out of the classroom
• Staying informed about platform changes and understanding the social features hidden within educational apps
• Getting involved in your child's digital world by participating in their online activities
• Finding resources to help navigate the constantly evolving digital landscape
More about our guest
Brock Murphy is a graduate of Texas A&M University with time spent in the agriculture industry, at the White House, and at SpaceX. After being approached by parents and teachers to solve various problems about new technology and applications, he co-founded Parent ProTech to help empower families and educators with the tools and knowledge needed to safely navigate technology.
Connect with Brock
Visit ParentProTech.com for resources to help your family navigate technology safely or sign up for their newsletter to stay informed about changes in the digital landscape.
Got a story to share or question you want us to answer? Send us a message!
About the podcast
The KindlED Podcast explores the science of nurturing children's potential and creating empowering learning environments.
Powered by Prenda Microschools, each episode offers actionable insights to help you ignite your child's love of learning. We'll dive into evidence-based tools and techniques that kindle young learners' curiosity, motivation, and well-being.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
we're becoming numb to graphic and extreme content
and then kind of combining thatwith kids having access to
devices at younger and youngerages.
And I know the debate is alsolike let's delay the phone, but
then we give an iPad, um, thathas a lot of the same
capabilities, and so I think Ithink we have to be looking at
(00:23):
the accessibility across theboard, not just like I'm not
going to give the phone, buthere's everything else on the
kitchen table.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi and welcome to the Kindle podcast where we dig
into the art and science behindkindling the motivation,
curiosity and mental wellbeingof the young humans in our lives
.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Together, we'll discover practical tools and
strategies you can use to helpkids unlock their full potential
and become the strongestversion of their future selves.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Welcome to the Kindle podcast.
Today we're talking abouttechnology and kids and social
media and screens and all ofthat.
We have a really cool guest,Adrienne.
Tell us who we're talking totoday.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
We're talking to Brock Murphy.
He's a graduate of Texas A&MUniversity, with time spent in
the agriculture industry, at theWhite House and at SpaceX.
After being approached byparents and teachers to solve
various problems about newtechnology and applications, he
co-founded Parent ProTech tohelp empower families and
(01:38):
educators with the tools andknowledge needed to safely
navigate technology, and this issomething that I think is so
important and top of mind for somany people, because it feels
like the robots are taking over.
We're not going to talk aboutrobots, but we're going to talk
about social media and phonesand, yes, that's a different
(01:59):
episode, but the technology istaking over and it seems like
they are targeting our kids.
So what can we, as parents andeducators do?
Well, there's so much that wecan do, and Parent Pro Tech is
there to help us.
Let's go talk to Brock.
Brock, welcome to the Kindledpodcast.
(02:20):
We are so excited to have youhere today.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Thank you so much, excited to be here, awesome.
Okay, so let's.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Excited to be here, awesome, okay, so let's dive in.
Tell us about who are you.
Give us a little bit about yourbackground, how you came to the
work that you're doing today.
I find your story to be superfascinating and I'd love to
share it with our listeners.
And then also, can you tell uswhat is your big, why?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, no, so my background is heavier on the
government side.
I spent time on Capitol Hillfor a little bit and then was at
the White House.
While at the White House,worked in the Office of
Management and Budget and reallylooked at federal financial
management and federalprocurement policy and then kind
(03:03):
of created a niche, looking atadversarial nations and their
impact on our education system.
So love my time doing that.
But then kind of got a littlebit tired of the polarization
that DC shockingly hadshockingly had uh, I know big
(03:31):
shock and uh made my way down tosouth texas and started to work
for elon musk at spacex for alittle bit, um, and learned so
much being around the topengineering brains in the entire
world.
Uh, got to work on a reallycool project.
And then, early 2021, kept beingapproached by parents and
(03:51):
teachers and administrators withquestions that they had about
technology and really reallyquickly realized that there was
a big disconnect between whatpeople kind of hoped they knew
about, all of the platforms thatour kids are surrounded by, the
type of content that they canbe so easily exposed to, and
even who they could becommunicating with online.
(04:13):
And so I launched Parent ProTechout of that realization with
the big goal of how do weempower families to be more
active, be more engaged in whattheir kids are doing online and
make it really easy.
So I'll transition from thatbackground to, like, my why.
I think I think for me likecoming from the government and
(04:36):
the space realm and then grew upon a ranch in in Missouri and
Texas and so a lot of likedifferent industries that I've
been blessed to be a part of andto be, uh, to be in, but I feel
like the the parent pro tech,like online safety piece has
(04:56):
really felt like a calling umand, like we always say, our
mission really is, at the end ofthe day, if we can prevent just
one kid from being cyberbullied, or if we can help prevent just
one kid from being trafficked,or if we can help prevent just
one kid from getting addicted toa screen, then we've won, and
so I'd say that's my why andthat's the team of Parent
(05:20):
Protect's why as well.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's a really profound why, and so I'm curious
rewind a little bit.
The team of parent protects whyas well.
It's a really profound why, andso I'm curious rewind a little
bit.
So why were parents coming toyou Like, did you have a
background in this or were youjust really fascinated about it?
Like, why were theadministrators and parents
asking you about technology?
Speaker 1 (05:41):
No, that's a good, good question, I mean.
I mean, I have a veryentrepreneurial background and
so, like, developed an app whenI was in college and then the
(06:01):
government piece, I think, addedsome trust and like validity to
the work that I do, and so Iguess it was a combination of
that with being open andapproachable and being tech
techie to help answer questions.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
And probably being younger.
I'm going to guess that youwere younger than some of the
parents too, so, like you're,you're more aware of what's
going on.
I just feel so old, I'm justlike I don't even know what this
thing is Like a little bityounger, I'd say, from, from the
people that were reaching out.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Um, yeah, and I guess , on that too, like myself and
most of the team, like we grewup in this kind of tech boom and
so a lot of these issues,though it's dramatically changed
since I was in grade school, inhigh school, all of that.
We were kind of that firstgeneration of living through it,
(07:02):
which I think helps with withthe conversation and perspective
through it all too.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Absolutely so.
Can you explain what parent protech is?
And you kind of talked aboutwhat motivated you to start it,
start it, but you didn't reallyexplain what it is and what you
guys are doing.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
True, true, yes, we'd love to.
So parent pro tech.
We've taken a very preventative, very education approach to
tackling the online safety piece.
And so when I say that we'vereally identified the key
stakeholders in the entireequation, so for us we think
(07:41):
that's the parent or caregiver,we think that's the student
themselves, and then we thinkit's like the educator or the
youth pastor, that other adultleader in their life, whoever it
might be.
We've built a platform toreally hone in and support all
(08:04):
three of those differentstakeholders.
And so we've got an on-demandfamily library, family dashboard
, really trying to meet familieswhere they are on the tech
journey, so whether they havequestions on whatever phase
they're in, whether it's whatdevice they should get their kid
, which we view as such animportant milestone and kind of
(08:28):
critical moment in the child'sonline safety relationship, or
it's, you know, diving into thesocial media platforms that kids
are surrounded by and throwninto at such young ages, and so
we've got all of those resourcesthat we make available to
families.
And then we've also got a fullK-12 digital citizenship
(08:53):
curriculum that's being utilizedin the classroom, so really
trying to build on thefoundations of digital footprint
.
What you post today could comeback and haunt you when you
apply to your dream job ormedical school or in an election
year, like deciphering factfrom fiction online, which I
think that would be applicableto more than just kids today.
(09:15):
Um, I always laugh because mygrandma I always say, like,
don't believe everything youview on Facebook, don't click
links.
Um, and she believes it.
And then she clicks the link.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Um, so uh well, cause she didn't grow up Like when we
talked about it, like shedidn't grow up with technology
and and I notice at least someof my friends that have their
parents really involved in theirkids.
We live across the country fromour parents, so my kids don't
have grandparents close by, butI noticed that they tend to be
(09:49):
the first ones that are handingover these devices because they
didn't have it growing up andthey're like, oh my gosh, this
is so much easier.
But then we have to starteducating.
You know what it's doing tobrain development, what it's
doing to you know all sorts ofthings happening.
So where are you getting all ofyour information from, as, like
you're building this on demand.
(10:10):
You know platform I'm currentlyreading anxious generation by
Jonathan Haidt and the data, andthat is just crazy.
So are you looking at this samesort of things?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yes, we, we are and and and so, like we, big fans of
Jonathan Haidt and the AnxiousGeneration book, everyone should
buy it and read it.
If they get that, regardless,they should do it.
And so we look at like expertslike Jonathan, but then we also,
(10:41):
having the governmentbackground too, we try to keep
an eye on different reports,like the US Surgeon General came
out with a report early 2023 ononline safety and impacts on
mental health.
The big stat, one of the bigstats in that was kids who spend
three or more hours per day onsocial media face double the
(11:02):
risk of depression and anxiety.
Three or more hours per day onsocial media face double the
risk of depression, anxiety.
And so definitely trying to.
And then FBI reports and moreof those really trusted,
credible sources, and then we'realso to the point now, though,
where we're in a couple ofhundred communities across the
(11:22):
country and starting to supportmore global institutions, but
really trying to leverage kindof the feedback that we're
getting from educators, fromteachers, from parents, from our
interactions in the classroomtoo?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, totally.
What do you feel like are themost significant challenges that
parents are facing when itcomes to kids and technology
Like?
What are we up against here?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, no, that's a great question.
I feel like one of the first bigthings is like how much tech
has changed since like 2007, Iguess, when the iPhone was first
released, and just how muchaccess and like content,
entertainment, everything isjust at the fingertips of
(12:14):
everyone today, and so all theresponsibility that lies in that
.
I think another challenge islike some of the brightest minds
in the world are working ondesigning platforms that are
like sticky and so to capturethe click, the view, all of
these different things, and sothe addiction component is so
(12:40):
easy to fall, fall into thattrap.
I also want to say that I feellike even content that would
have been posted like five yearsago and deemed like really
graphic and horrible is just soeasily available, even on like
Netflix today, and so there'skind of this um, we're becoming
(13:02):
numb to graphic and extremecontent, and then kind of
combining that with kids havingaccess to devices at younger and
younger ages, and I know thedebate is also like let's delay
the phone, but then we give aniPad that has a lot of the same
(13:22):
capabilities, and so I think Ithink we have to be looking at
the accessibility across theboard, not just like I'm not
going to give the phone, buthere's everything else on the
kitchen table.
You know what I mean.
Um, so I'd say those are kindof the major challenges that
we've been looking at and reallytrying to focus in on.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
You mentioned several kind of like shifts in you know
over time, like are there anyother kind of significant shifts
that like demonstrate that thedigital landscape has kind of
evolved?
And I think sometimes asparents we're like, okay, I've
got a handle on this, I have anapp on my phone that's like
monitoring things.
Like we're good, like this isno longer a problem, but then
things change rapidly, right,and if you're not constantly
(14:09):
vigilant about it?
So talk about what kind ofchanges have happened, what
parents might not know.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
No, I mean, I think it's easy to fall in the trap of
, like we've we've downloadedthe app and so we can have our
hands off and not worry about it.
But, as you mentioned, theseplatforms are constantly being
changed and also, like appledoesn't really like giving up
their like api tied to screentime, and so the data that some
(14:43):
of these monitoring platformsare getting, if it's like an app
on an iPhone, is maybe workingfine, but if Apple launches an
update, like iOS 18 coming up,they're going to be scrambling
to figure out how they can shiftall of their platform too.
In other words, it's definitelynot like a set it up and forget
(15:08):
about it and think everything'sfine, because a lot of these
platforms, too that we can see,or some of them, have a lot of
holes that that are able to beexposed and taken advantage of
by the, the child, um, and alsoso kind of.
Wrapping back around to youryour question, though, I think I
think that I think that Ourphilosophy really is like, if
(15:33):
you're looking at the pyramid,the base of the pyramid has to
be the relationship that aparent builds with their child
and the conversations they havewith their child around
technology, the dangers, all ofthat, or the app that you think
handles everything.
It creates a relationship wherethey're going to either.
(16:00):
We've seen a rise in the amountof kids getting burner phones.
There are a lot of ways topower.
I know, I know Powering off thedevice to get it to reset.
There are a ton of differentthings that can be done where we
think if we can build thishealthy relationship, then if
the child comes across contentand they rush back to the parent
(16:22):
or the caregiver, whereas ifyou lead with like the
restriction and like danger andthe scare tactic which I think
we have to also live in realityof the situation but I think we
can see some changes and shiftshappening in that regard of like
(16:43):
making sure that we know thatthat better relationship is like
really building the foundationthrough having the conversation,
all that.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Do you provide any neuroscience or like helping
parents understand what'shappening from that level?
As you're talking, I'm thinkingof super normal stimuli and so
basically, our brains haveevolved to need certain things,
(17:19):
so communication is one of those, and having relationships with
others, and so Facebook andInstagram.
It's by million, fold I wantedto say tenfold, but it's like
causing this need and then soevery time there's a ding, every
time we've been trained likepsychological conditioning is
happening.
So are you educating parents onthose types of things and
(17:41):
helping them make sense of it,or are you trying to stay
surface level, like where howdeep do you get?
Because for me, that's how thatreally motivates me to go.
Okay, we do need to have someboundaries, we do need to forge
our own path instead of justdoing what every other parent is
doing or every other kid isdoing, because I'm really
(18:02):
understanding the neurobiologybehind it, the neuroscience
behind it, the shifting and whatyou know Jonathan Haidt calls
like having a phone-basededucation versus a play-based
education, and he even reallygoes into being in defensive
mode versus discovery mode.
So I have all these things inmy mind to help motivate me to
make these decisions.
(18:23):
So I'm curious where you fit inthat.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, so I think one of the biggest, like you've said
, impacts of technology on allof us, not just tech in the
brain, which was really, reallyfascinating.
(19:01):
So we've got kind of thatseries on our platform that
families can dive into the bigthing.
I think that one of the largetakeaways from our conversation
with her was for teens.
She always says that they havea overdeveloped accelerator and
(19:21):
an underdeveloped brake system,and so when you combine that
with the full access to theinternet and everything that
comes with it, it kind ofcreates a recipe for disaster.
And then it's no, no surprisethat we're dealing with all the
large impacts that we are, andso we've got the approach of
(19:44):
like I definitely am not aneuroscientist and I struggle
enough with saying the wordneuroscientist that that's as
close as I'm going to get, thatthat's as close as I'm going to
get.
But we're very lucky to have anetwork and a team that has the
expertise, and so we try tobring subject matter experts
(20:05):
within our fold, especially inareas where we really want
families and educators to knowand administrators to know the
impacts that all that can have.
Because, especially today whenschools, micro schools, are all
having the conversation ofdevice access and should phones
(20:29):
be allowed, not allowed lockthem up, not to lock them up,
all of that allowed lock them up, not to lock them up, all of
that.
And then, looking at kind oftying in, what you were talking
about is the average amount.
A common sense media stat saidthat teens in the US today get
an average of 237 notificationsa day, which, when you take out
(20:52):
time they're sleeping, itaverages out to a notification
every four minutes, and so ifthat's happening all day during
the school day, their focus isgoing to be on that, not on the
teacher.
I mean, I'm even wondering myphone's over here how many
(21:12):
notifications I'm gonna have andemails that I'm gonna have to
read later tonight after workeven just yeah, the phone being
present, yeah being in the roomdistracted, or even, yeah, you
have to like turn it completelyoff, to like really be free of
it, because you're alwayswondering totally
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I want to circle back to what you said, though you
this was.
I really like the way this wasframed the overdeveloped
accelerator and underdevelopedbrakes.
I think that right there aloneis so important for us to
understand.
I was just at the eye doctoryesterday with all three of my
boys.
I have a 14 year old, 12 yearold, seven year old and the eye
(21:51):
doctor I could tell we weren'tin alignment with education,
with all the things.
Because he's like so can youguys see the board?
And my kids are looking at himlike what board are you talking
about?
Because they don't go to normalschools.
And then with my little one, hehasn't even started his micro
school.
He starts soon.
And he was like you should bein school, you are seven.
(22:13):
And then he looked at me andsaid well, how are they getting
instruction then if they don'thave a board to look at?
So I could already tell hisparadigm around education is
very differently than mine.
And then his paradigm aroundcomputers and technology.
And he's an eye doctor, so Ican only imagine how he's seen
eye strain and all kinds ofthings come from, you know, blue
(22:38):
light and and technology.
And but he said to me he waslike well, you know, I get that
you're trying to keep your kidsoff of computers, he said.
But you know every singleperson.
They're growing up with thesecomputers.
They have to be on them.
And even my landscaper uses acomputer.
And I wanted to say to him youshould know you're a doctor that
they have overdevelopedaccelerators right now and
(23:00):
underdeveloped brakes untilthey're fully developed.
Yes, they're going to have tobe on a computer, they're going
to need to use technology.
Yes, but their brains are stillso underdeveloped and I can
only imagine the impact thatit's having on their brains.
So I was just sitting therelike taking deep breaths.
I'm not going to get into anargument with him about it right
now, but I think what you saidthere is really, really
(23:21):
important for us to understand.
Yes, technology is ubiquitous,it is everywhere.
Our kids are going to need touse it, but we do kind of need
to look at where they aredevelopmentally.
And then self-control andimpulse control and and or
(23:42):
you're saying all thosenotifications not only, I would
guess, not only can they notfocus on what they're learning,
but I would think that the brainis also in this survival state.
This hyper arousal or hypervigilance is probably happening
as well, and my son's school didread Anxious Generation and
they are following it and theybought little lock boxes for all
the classrooms and they've beendoing a lot of trial and error.
It's a middle school and a highschool.
(24:02):
It's a very non-traditional,progressive school.
And they said they started outwith okay, they can have them on
breaks, they go outside a lot,they're on breaks, let's see how
that goes.
And they started out by puttingthem in the box before the
class, getting them out after.
Well, some kids would forget.
And then they didn't know whatbox they were in and so it kind
(24:22):
of caused a little bit of chaos.
And then they said we're goingto do a test and they emailed
all the parents, they told allthe students and said today you
can't have a phone out If we seeit out, it goes in the box if
you want it, but it can't be onyour person.
You know it needs to be putaway from the beginning of
school to the end of school.
Let's just see what happens.
(24:42):
And they said, just from thatone day, social engagement went
up, Engagement in the class wentup.
I'm like you guys need to bepart of a research study or
something.
I was like this is amazing.
So I think it's reallyimportant to go, and what my son
told me was he is convinced toget kids to do anything, you
have to have them all do it atone time, Cause, he said, not a
(25:05):
single student has complainedbecause they're all having to do
it and they're actually likingto, not, they're enjoying not
having a phone and having thisalmost like social pressure that
you have to be, you know, on aphone good.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Well, I will say I have heard one drawback of the
whole, like locking up the phoneduring the school day and it.
It's created um, and we've itin a few of our partner schools,
but that it creates a closerlike.
They use the platform or thedevice way more when they're out
(25:43):
of school than that attachmentis a lot stronger outside of
school hours because they're notgetting to check it all through
the day.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
They're not getting those dopamine hits throughout
the day.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, that's a good point.
I did want to touch up on onething that you mentioned and
it's kind of like like with the.
The eye doctor is like, well,everyone else does it, but that
doesn't mean it's right, rightand that we should all continue,
but we've not always it kind oflike you said we become numb,
you go on Netflix.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
you don't even have to go to the actual shows.
It's showing up on the top.
You know of some really graphicimages and I'm just trying to
go find a bluey show orsomething for a little kid.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Whenever I'm doing, whenever we're on Amazon, prime
search or something, like mykids know, like I'm like, okay,
I'm going to search something,they all just look away because
they have no idea what's goingto be.
Like put on the screen, I'mlike I think we need to change
this, and something thatJonathan Haidt talks about in
that book is that it does needto be like a societal change and
something that um like it isvery hard for parents to
(26:50):
withstand the, but everyone elsehas it kind of argument from
their kids, the but everyoneelse has it kind of argument
from their kids.
And so he he points to thingslike alcohol and, um, smoking,
like we have.
Like these things are bad,they're unhealthy for all of us,
obviously, but like they'reparticularly bad for the
developing brain, right, and sowe have um expectations and laws
in place, and he talks aboutthe age of internet, adulthood,
(27:13):
being 13 and how that was likeset by some law in like 1997,
before any of this happened.
And no one's policing it.
No one's like you know, youhave to be 13 to you have to
click a box that says you're 13to make a Google account or
something where you can, likeyou know, make all these
accounts and no one checks it,and it's not verified, it's not
verified, so it's like there'sreally
(27:33):
no controls on this and I'veheard people say like well, the
genie's out of the bottle.
Like you can't put the genieback in the bottle, like it's
too late now, and he goes backthrough history a little bit and
he's like nope, the genie wasback in the bottle here and we
successfully like put it back in, like we have done this there
for pulling things back likethis.
But it's going to take all ofus as parents to say like, yeah,
(27:54):
like the new social media ageis 16.
And like every like nobody,none of your 14 year old friends
have Instagram or Tik TOK orwhatever and like make that the
new norm.
I think it's going to take along time.
Um, I was just having aconversation with some kids at
my house and my oldest is 11.
And I've told my kids, like ourphone age is like 20, because I
know like by the time they're14, 15, 16, they'll have talked
(28:16):
me down to 16 or 17.
Whereas like that's like I'mvery super conservative and all
of this stuff, so don't followmy example.
I think I'm a crazy head.
Whatever, it's fine.
Um, but like, all of my embracethat to all of the kids in my
house were like oh, our phoneage is 11.
Our phone age is 12.
I'm like, well, I'm about toshare a book with your parents
(28:37):
and your phone age is about tochange because your parents just
don't know yet that, like, thisis not going to be a good thing
for you and I'm going to helpeducate them, even if it's going
to be really annoying andpassive, aggressive maybe.
But like I, I, but we have todo it like a social, like, yeah,
well, brock, like we have to doit together is what I'm
promoting here.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
But you, brock, you said that you've seen in some of
these schools that then theyget home.
I'm curious are those schoolsdoing education with the parents
?
What this school is doing isthey already are having meetings
with parents, they'rerecommending that everyone reads
anxious generation.
So they are doing it as acollective whole, not just, oh,
at school, this is what we'redoing.
(29:19):
You go home and do whatever youwant, and obviously it's not
going to be with every singleparent, every single child, but
they're doing a really.
Uh, I think they're comingalongside the parents, cause
that's what school should bedoing anyways.
Right, it should be arelationship, and that's what
you said is that foundation isrelationship, I think,
parent-child, but then alsoparent to school, school to
(29:41):
child.
There's lots of relationshipshere, not just one.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, and in the ones that I have looked at having
that really negative impact atthe end of the school day.
Those are ones that like we'renot working with, but when we
pair up with, like a not not tobe that guy, but when we pair up
with like the yonder pouchgroup at a school and then we
(30:09):
can hit it on.
All cylinders from like devicesare locked up, but we're also
educating the kids on theimpacts of tech and how they can
use it for good and minimizethe bad and the ugly impacts.
And then also kind of beingthat really big education
partner to direct two familieslike that, that's where I feel
like, yeah, the perfect scenarioplays and student education I
(30:35):
think is huge in this.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
But not just telling them Modeling, I think is really
huge.
And then also, what they'redoing is they're partnering with
Let Grow as well, and they'redoing Let Grow projects and so
giving them to do actual realindependent things.
So almost saying, okay, we'renot just taking your phone away,
(30:58):
but we're going to do reallyfun projects in the classroom
and then also outside ofclassroom.
We're going to ask your parentsto partner with us to let you
go to the park and let you makedinner.
And I mean that still blows mymind that 12 to 18 year olds are
not doing that becauseobviously, or apparently we're
not the norm.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
But I think we need that.
I think we've known that.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
So they're also yeah, we're not the norm, Um, but
they're bringing to light like,hey, this is not just what the
research is saying, but thatwe're seeing this in your own
child, and how they're justlighting up.
And so, hey, will you partnerwith us and let's give them
other things to do than just tobe on a phone and constantly
stimulating their brains.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
No, I love that, and that directly ties into Jonathan
and the play-based childhoodrather than the phone-based.
So yeah, so much value in that.
I do think, though, likeschools and like parents, need
to think about like, uh, justlocking up the device is only
(32:00):
one part of the equation, um,and so the education can't be
overlooked.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
So what are some common mistakes parents make in
regards to their kids usingsocial media?
So we're talking about justlocking up their phone is not
good enough, so what else shouldparents be looking at?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I think it ties into exactly what we were talking
about of like.
Just because everyone isallowing it or giving access to
it doesn't mean that everyoneshould.
But I also think the power ofcommunity really comes into play
here as well, and I'd say forsure for like micro school
(32:39):
communities as well as like,banding together to either delay
the phone in general or to picka family friendly, kid friendly
phone like Pinwheel or Gab orTrumi or Vark, instead of
Russian.
They just give an iPhone.
But I think the easiest andmost impactful thing is
(33:04):
obviously trying to catch itbefore access is already given
and to band together as acommunity to say we're going to
wait until eighth grade or aftereighth grade or until 20.
To say we're going to wait tilleighth grade or after eighth
grade or till 20.
And then from there kind ofreally sticking to that plan.
(33:25):
But yeah, it completely tiesback into like just because
everyone else does, it doesn'tmean we all should.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
So what is your advice for setting boundaries
and what kind of conversationsshould parents be having with
kids about social media andonline safety?
It really didn't hit my kidsuntil we have a friend's
daughter who was going throughthe police academy and then that
was what she was responsiblefor and she was sharing some
(33:54):
stories and they were like, oh,this is real.
It's not just my parentstelling me that these things
happen online, and not just withgirls, but with boys too, and
so I'm curious, like, how do youeducate parents on that and
what are?
What is your advice aboutboundaries?
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I feel like it.
It it kind of comes down to theconversation, for sure, the
conversations, and like loopingit in, if age appropriate, like
those stories that we hear aboutway too often, um, and kind of
like on a general, kind of uhacross the board, just
(34:32):
highlighting like don't takeeverything online as like face
value and like, if you ever geta weird feeling, if you are on
the platform when that timecomes, like investigate, like
tell mom and dad, tell trusted,trusted adult, um on like the
(34:52):
misinformation piece, like lookfor multiple sources to validate
whether something is true orwhether it's false, like kind of
more along those types ofconversations.
But then also like generalsafety advice of like protect
your passwords and protect yourpersonal information and like
(35:14):
who is fine to tell your homeaddress, protect your personal
information and, um, like who isfine to tell your home address
or your personal phone number oremail or whatever.
It might be like really tryingto to have those conversations
and that dialogue beforeanything comes up and then kind
of reinforcing, kind of thefoundations, like over
(35:37):
emphasizing and over sharing,rather than just doing it once
and forgetting about it.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Make it a conversation.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah, but I do think it ties in like that kids, kids
notice, sorry, like kids noticethe habits of parents and those
around them have with technologytoo and so kind of that
modeling healthy tech behaviortoo.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
For sure, something that I've noticed recently and
my kids, like with Prenda, weuse a lot of app-based education
and tech tools, so my kids areon computers quite a bit and
they're like doing things likeduolingo or scratch, like things
that I would deem as like veryhigh value educational
(36:26):
experiences.
I think something that parentsshould be aware of is that these
platforms, even though they'reeducational, like they have
social, like the social aspectbuilt into them, and so it's
like it's not Instagram, it'snot TikTok, it's like we're safe
, like you're not, it's not, itreally isn't.
And like the other day, like my, my daughter, was doing
something on Duolingo and I wasjust watching her and she was
(36:49):
there was there's like you cando friend request, like there's
all sorts of like little thingsbuilt in.
I'm like, oh, we got, we got toshut this down.
Like I thought you were just onDuolingo and I didn't even know
that there were ways that youcould connect with strangers on
Duolingo.
Or like on scratch, you canlike talk to their kids and it's
like, oh, we, we need to bereally every single thing.
Yeah, yeah.
Like all of these things, theycan talk to people and, um, even
(37:11):
though it's not a social mediaplatform or you think your kids
don't have social media they'retalking to people on the
internet and that is social andit's media.
So, expanding our definition ofsocial media maybe.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yeah, I feel like one of the big shocking stories I
heard about a year ago was therewas a loophole on the Bible app
that kids were leveraging tolike send pictures or like
something like that, which whichit's been they've, they've.
They fixed the issue now, butif there's a way, On the
(37:46):
pinwheel.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
it had it as red, so pinwheel is a.
Can you explain what that is ina better way than I will?
Speaker 1 (37:57):
I don't know if I'll be able to better than you, but
a phone built for kids gives alot of controls to parents on
what apps that they can use, butthey also have um uh, they code
uh the different, the differentapps into like um red being bad
(38:20):
, which I think is, or likecaution, I guess.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
It says it violates their whatever, because they do
all this research and they workwith psychologists, and so they
have a red, a yellow and green,and Bible app was red and I was
wondering why it was red.
But my son was using Cash Appto get onto YouTube and I'm like
, why?
How in the world is he able touse Cash App?
Should just be able to give himmoney.
(38:46):
So that's where we give him hisallowance, so that he has
access to it and he has a cardattached to it, and he was using
that to get to other socialmedia platforms.
And because they have, you cango and shop.
So there's all these loopholesand things.
So is that Are these things onParent Pro protect, so the
(39:06):
parents know, like duolingo, youcan connect with other people.
Like, um, cash app or like, howmuch do you get into the that
thing?
Speaker 1 (39:13):
those types of things yeah, we, we try to try to dive
completely in and find thoseloopholes that kids like to to
exploit, um, and we also realize, like I, I'm getting older and
older, obviously, and so I'm notone of the the cool kids
anymore that is in the know.
Even our creative team, they'vebeen doing a lot more like
(39:37):
trends lately, and the pastcouple that they've been sending
to me I'm like this makes nosense, it doesn't like it's not
funny, but supposedly it was atrend, um, and so we're trying
to.
We've got like interns and kids, um, who are kind of like
spotters for us, looking forlike the loopholes that others
(39:59):
are exploiting or, um, kind ofsharing conversations that
they're having, uh, at schooland at practice and all of that.
That way we can stay in theknow and then communicate all
that out to our users.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
That's so smart.
You call them spotters.
Is that their official title?
No, I guess you just label itas like intern or something, but
spotters would be better.
That's so smart.
So what tips do you have to forparents who want to
(40:39):
continuously educate themselvesabout technology but also not
get overwhelmed?
Because I have gotten to thatplace where it is just too much
at times.
I rather just no phones, nocomputers, no anything.
It's just so much easier.
So what?
Speaker 1 (40:56):
tips do you have for?
Speaker 3 (40:56):
parents.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
No, I, I.
It's funny because my mind wentstraight to like follow
accounts on social media thatare like tracking all of this,
but then I feel weird aboutsocial media yeah yes, I know
same thing exactly.
I feel that way a lot too now Ithink I think the big thing that
(41:19):
I'd say is, um, like starting.
We have to kind of ground orlike start our conversation
somewhere, and so I think partof it is like investing in
figuring out what platforms anddevices like our kids are using,
(41:39):
want to use, that their friendsare using.
It might be because from there,I think, it's easier to know
and to kind of have theconversation of like, um, how we
can make those platforms safer,or at least you as a parent
know, like what, what debate orchallenge is going to come up as
(42:02):
I get closer to to the age thateveryone else is getting, uh,
social media, um, and so I Ithink that's kind of where I
recommend that we start.
And then from there, um, likeI've got tons of different media
alerts on the top, topplatforms and kind of top tech
(42:24):
uh, uh companies that are outthere to keep up with all of the
changes that are happening.
And then, like, apple makes itreally easy that as they update,
you can go in and take a readthe patch notes, so, like what
changes they've made or what newfeature they've added, stuff
like that.
(42:44):
Um of that, though, I thinkrequires quite a bit of time on
the parent angle.
So that's where I feel likefinding a tool that helps with
making that education pieceeasier and staying up to date on
all the changes is veryimportant and staying up to date
(43:08):
on all the changes beingimportant, but also I think if
we don't know what platformsthat our kids are on and at
least take that first step, thenthe net's going to be so spread
out that you're going to failkind of across the board.
Or we can get really targetedum on on the specific issues.
But then also like reallyinvesting time with your child
(43:33):
and like if they like playingvideo games, like hop, hop on
the beanbag and play a round offortnight or whatever it is, and
they're gonna laugh and makefun of you but you'll have a
better idea of, like what theplatform in the game even is.
They're gonna notice thatyou're invested in them and want
(43:53):
to meet them where they enjoyum and it's just a good kind of
strengthening of of thatrelationship and bond yeah, or
the approach.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
I just don't let my kids play fortnite.
But what I'm hearing too is youcan't take a back seat if
you're allowing your kids tohave technology, if you're
handing them over a device.
Again, the refer referencejonathan height.
He opens up the book aboutsending kids to mars and how
we've seen that would be crazyto do that, but yet we're
(44:25):
handing them these devices thatthey have access to who knows
what, and so we really can'ttake a backseat approach if
we're allowing our kids to haveaccess to computers, video games
, social media.
You know any kind of technology.
You said about getting on theapps or being aware of what apps
(44:46):
they are using, and hopefullyyou have a good enough
relationship with your childthat they are sharing that.
So if they're not, there mightneed you know again,
relationship first We've talkedabout that multiple times.
I recall when I was a highschool senior photographer, I
had a team of girls they're, allyou know, 17, 18.
And this was back in 2013, 14.
(45:10):
Snapchat was still fairlynew-ish, I think it came out in
like 11 or 12.
And all the girls were using itin school.
I would, and I only joined itto connect with them.
I wasn't even their parent.
But I was like, okay, this iswhat they're on.
This is really new to me.
It's kind of scary.
I don't know what this is.
It disappears.
(45:30):
What is this?
Uh?
And they were just snapping allday long while they're in
chemistry, while they're in likeyou know, classes, and I had a
parent say to me.
I told her, I said oh, are youaware your daughter's on
Snapchat?
Are you on Snapchat?
She's like, oh, yeah, but youknow, I, I don't want anything
to do with that.
That's her thing.
And I was just like, yeah, butyou need to see what she's doing
on there.
You know, like you need to seewhat, what activities, is
(45:52):
happening, because if you'regiving your child a device and
this is not to be judgmental atall but if you're handing a
child a device and that is yourresponsibility to ensure that
your child's being safe yougotta know what apps they're
using and or like with my son,I'm thinking he just has cash
app on his phone and so I waslike he's disappearing a lot.
(46:13):
What is going on?
And not acting like he normallydoes.
That's just because he was.
I mean, he was watching scootervideos and how to be a better
scooter rider, scooter, which ismuch better than some things.
He could be watching Scooterist,but then we just started having
a conversation about it insteadof like no phone, you can't
have this.
This is horrible, becausethat's not the right approach
with kids either.
What you're saying is to beinvested in what is important to
(46:37):
them, really, start withrelationship and connection and
then from there, once they seethat you are on their side,
maybe they'll be like oh, youknow what?
This probably isn't thehealthiest for me.
Or, hey, can I?
I need help with this.
Or, you know, we've seen thatwith our kids.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Yeah, beautifully said yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Okay, so can you take me through a little bit, just
like what are the resources thatpro tech offers?
And like how can I like I justsigned up for your newsletter a
minute ago and like, if I signup or like get access, like what
will I see?
Speaker 1 (47:16):
yes, so, um.
So we've got kind of two, threemain kind of ways that
communities can get involved.
One like subscribing to thenewsletter, we kind of ways that
communities can get involved.
One like subscribing to thenewsletter, we kind of keep
track of all the major changes.
Like earlier in the year, whenall the tech big tech CEOs
(47:36):
testified in DC, we had a wholeedition on kind of what you know
how, what do we make of it,what's going to happen with that
?
And then, like I said, we'retrying to keep up to date with
all the major changes happeningin the tech realm.
(47:57):
So that's one way.
The other way, individuals cansign up for the full ProTech
platform and that includes allthe family content like the
how-tos, the walk walkthroughs,all of that type of content and
the student curriculum andstudent programming that you can
watch with your kids.
The third way is reaching outand we do more like churchwide
(48:22):
or schoolwide, uh, microschoolwide, um kind of
partnerships where we canprovide the entire community
access at a very discounted rate.
Um, and then, kind of, with allof that, we we have, uh, we
have a um, we open up a fewhours every Friday, uh, where,
(48:45):
like if families are battlinglike really, really tough
specific challenges when itcomes to tech, that we can
really meet them where they areand really try to lean in and
support and I didn't didn'tmention it, I guess I did
mention earlier.
But really like back to our whyanything that fits with, like
like if we can help save,prevent one bad thing from
(49:09):
happening to just one of ourkids, then then anything that
aligns with that mission we wantto lean in and support love
that.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Yes, thank you.
So thank you so much forwalking us through how Parent
Pro Tech works and just all theresources that you're providing,
and even just to think abouthiring younger people that could
be spotters.
I just find that I'm like, oh,they're really thinking of it
all, like how can we really getahead of this?
(49:44):
Instead of being proactive, Ifeel like this is a really good
tool to help parents be I'msorry.
Instead of being reactive, ithelps parents be proactive.
Which parent pro tech?
I love that name.
It works really well.
So this is a question we askall of our guests who is someone
who has kindled your love oflearning, curiosity, motivation
(50:05):
or passion?
Speaker 1 (50:11):
That's a loaded one.
I feel like I've been veryblessed through kind of every
endeavor of having really goodmentors, but especially on the
learning and curiositymotivation, all that I think I
would say my dad is a really biginfluence and motivator,
(50:37):
especially on really finding thepassion and then that
motivation to keep pushingthrough every up and down, uh,
and then really like investingand trying to like learn
everything I can about whateverit is.
That passion is, uh like verygrateful to have had that.
(50:59):
That um influence forever sinceI've been born.
So well, influence foreversince I've been born.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
So, yeah, well, thank you so much for coming on the
Kindle podcast.
This has been a coolconversation and we appreciate
your time.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
No thank you.
That's it for today.
We hope you enjoyed thisepisode of the Kindle podcast.
If it was helpful to you, allyou need to do is like,
subscribe and follow us onsocial at Prenda Learn.
If you have a question you'dlike us to address, leave a
comment, or you can also emailus at podcast at Prendacom.
You can go to our website,Prendacom and sign up for our
(51:38):
weekly newsletter, the SundaySpark.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
The Kindle podcast is brought to you by Prenda.
Prenda makes it easy for you tostart and run an amazing micro
school based on all of the ideaswe talk about here on the
Kindle podcast.
If you want more informationabout becoming a Prenda guide,
just go to Prendacom.
Thanks for listening andremember to keep kindling.
we're becoming numb to graphic and extreme content
and then kind of combining thatwith kids having access to
devices at younger and youngerages.
And I know the debate is alsolike let's delay the phone, but
then we give an iPad, um, thathas a lot of the same
capabilities, and so I think Ithink we have to be looking at
(00:23):
the accessibility across theboard, not just like I'm not
going to give the phone, buthere's everything else on the
kitchen table.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi and welcome to the Kindle podcast where we dig
into the art and science behindkindling the motivation,
curiosity and mental wellbeingof the young humans in our lives
.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Together, we'll discover practical tools and
strategies you can use to helpkids unlock their full potential
and become the strongestversion of their future selves.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Welcome to the Kindle podcast.
Today we're talking abouttechnology and kids and social
media and screens and all ofthat.
We have a really cool guest,Adrienne.
Tell us who we're talking totoday.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
We're talking to Brock Murphy.
He's a graduate of Texas A&MUniversity, with time spent in
the agriculture industry, at theWhite House and at SpaceX.
After being approached byparents and teachers to solve
various problems about newtechnology and applications, he
co-founded Parent ProTech tohelp empower families and
(01:38):
educators with the tools andknowledge needed to safely
navigate technology, and this issomething that I think is so
important and top of mind for somany people, because it feels
like the robots are taking over.
We're not going to talk aboutrobots, but we're going to talk
about social media and phonesand, yes, that's a different
(01:59):
episode, but the technology istaking over and it seems like
they are targeting our kids.
So what can we, as parents andeducators do?
Well, there's so much that wecan do, and Parent Pro Tech is
there to help us.
Let's go talk to Brock.
Brock, welcome to the Kindledpodcast.
(02:20):
We are so excited to have youhere today.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Thank you so much, excited to be here, awesome.
Okay, so let's.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Excited to be here, awesome, okay, so let's dive in.
Tell us about who are you.
Give us a little bit about yourbackground, how you came to the
work that you're doing today.
I find your story to be superfascinating and I'd love to
share it with our listeners.
And then also, can you tell uswhat is your big, why?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, no, so my background is heavier on the
government side.
I spent time on Capitol Hillfor a little bit and then was at
the White House.
While at the White House,worked in the Office of
Management and Budget and reallylooked at federal financial
management and federalprocurement policy and then kind
(03:03):
of created a niche, looking atadversarial nations and their
impact on our education system.
So love my time doing that.
But then kind of got a littlebit tired of the polarization
that DC shockingly hadshockingly had uh, I know big
(03:31):
shock and uh made my way down tosouth texas and started to work
for elon musk at spacex for alittle bit, um, and learned so
much being around the topengineering brains in the entire
world.
Uh, got to work on a reallycool project.
And then, early 2021, kept beingapproached by parents and
(03:51):
teachers and administrators withquestions that they had about
technology and really reallyquickly realized that there was
a big disconnect between whatpeople kind of hoped they knew
about, all of the platforms thatour kids are surrounded by, the
type of content that they canbe so easily exposed to, and
even who they could becommunicating with online.
(04:13):
And so I launched Parent ProTechout of that realization with
the big goal of how do weempower families to be more
active, be more engaged in whattheir kids are doing online and
make it really easy.
So I'll transition from thatbackground to, like, my why.
I think I think for me likecoming from the government and
(04:36):
the space realm and then grew upon a ranch in in Missouri and
Texas and so a lot of likedifferent industries that I've
been blessed to be a part of andto be, uh, to be in, but I feel
like the the parent pro tech,like online safety piece has
(04:56):
really felt like a calling umand, like we always say, our
mission really is, at the end ofthe day, if we can prevent just
one kid from being cyberbullied, or if we can help prevent just
one kid from being trafficked,or if we can help prevent just
one kid from getting addicted toa screen, then we've won, and
so I'd say that's my why andthat's the team of Parent
(05:20):
Protect's why as well.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
It's a really profound why, and so I'm curious
rewind a little bit.
The team of parent protects whyas well.
It's a really profound why, andso I'm curious rewind a little
bit.
So why were parents coming toyou Like, did you have a
background in this or were youjust really fascinated about it?
Like, why were theadministrators and parents
asking you about technology?
Speaker 1 (05:41):
No, that's a good, good question, I mean.
I mean, I have a veryentrepreneurial background and
so, like, developed an app whenI was in college and then the
(06:01):
government piece, I think, addedsome trust and like validity to
the work that I do, and so Iguess it was a combination of
that with being open andapproachable and being tech
techie to help answer questions.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
And probably being younger.
I'm going to guess that youwere younger than some of the
parents too, so, like you're,you're more aware of what's
going on.
I just feel so old, I'm justlike I don't even know what this
thing is Like a little bityounger, I'd say, from, from the
people that were reaching out.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Um, yeah, and I guess , on that too, like myself and
most of the team, like we grewup in this kind of tech boom and
so a lot of these issues,though it's dramatically changed
since I was in grade school, inhigh school, all of that.
We were kind of that firstgeneration of living through it,
(07:02):
which I think helps with withthe conversation and perspective
through it all too.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Absolutely so.
Can you explain what parent protech is?
And you kind of talked aboutwhat motivated you to start it,
start it, but you didn't reallyexplain what it is and what you
guys are doing.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
True, true, yes, we'd love to.
So parent pro tech.
We've taken a very preventative, very education approach to
tackling the online safety piece.
And so when I say that we'vereally identified the key
stakeholders in the entireequation, so for us we think
(07:41):
that's the parent or caregiver,we think that's the student
themselves, and then we thinkit's like the educator or the
youth pastor, that other adultleader in their life, whoever it
might be.
We've built a platform toreally hone in and support all
(08:04):
three of those differentstakeholders.
And so we've got an on-demandfamily library, family dashboard
, really trying to meet familieswhere they are on the tech
journey, so whether they havequestions on whatever phase
they're in, whether it's whatdevice they should get their kid
, which we view as such animportant milestone and kind of
(08:28):
critical moment in the child'sonline safety relationship, or
it's, you know, diving into thesocial media platforms that kids
are surrounded by and throwninto at such young ages, and so
we've got all of those resourcesthat we make available to
families.
And then we've also got a fullK-12 digital citizenship
(08:53):
curriculum that's being utilizedin the classroom, so really
trying to build on thefoundations of digital footprint
.
What you post today could comeback and haunt you when you
apply to your dream job ormedical school or in an election
year, like deciphering factfrom fiction online, which I
think that would be applicableto more than just kids today.
(09:15):
Um, I always laugh because mygrandma I always say, like,
don't believe everything youview on Facebook, don't click
links.
Um, and she believes it.
And then she clicks the link.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Um, so uh well, cause she didn't grow up Like when we
talked about it, like shedidn't grow up with technology
and and I notice at least someof my friends that have their
parents really involved in theirkids.
We live across the country fromour parents, so my kids don't
have grandparents close by, butI noticed that they tend to be
(09:49):
the first ones that are handingover these devices because they
didn't have it growing up andthey're like, oh my gosh, this
is so much easier.
But then we have to starteducating.
You know what it's doing tobrain development, what it's
doing to you know all sorts ofthings happening.
So where are you getting all ofyour information from, as, like
you're building this on demand.
(10:10):
You know platform I'm currentlyreading anxious generation by
Jonathan Haidt and the data, andthat is just crazy.
So are you looking at this samesort of things?
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yes, we, we are and and and so, like we, big fans of
Jonathan Haidt and the AnxiousGeneration book, everyone should
buy it and read it.
If they get that, regardless,they should do it.
And so we look at like expertslike Jonathan, but then we also,
(10:41):
having the governmentbackground too, we try to keep
an eye on different reports,like the US Surgeon General came
out with a report early 2023 ononline safety and impacts on
mental health.
The big stat, one of the bigstats in that was kids who spend
three or more hours per day onsocial media face double the
(11:02):
risk of depression and anxiety.
Three or more hours per day onsocial media face double the
risk of depression, anxiety.
And so definitely trying to.
And then FBI reports and moreof those really trusted,
credible sources, and then we'realso to the point now, though,
where we're in a couple ofhundred communities across the
(11:22):
country and starting to supportmore global institutions, but
really trying to leverage kindof the feedback that we're
getting from educators, fromteachers, from parents, from our
interactions in the classroomtoo?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, totally.
What do you feel like are themost significant challenges that
parents are facing when itcomes to kids and technology
Like?
What are we up against here?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Yeah, no, that's a great question.
I feel like one of the first bigthings is like how much tech
has changed since like 2007, Iguess, when the iPhone was first
released, and just how muchaccess and like content,
entertainment, everything isjust at the fingertips of
(12:14):
everyone today, and so all theresponsibility that lies in that
.
I think another challenge islike some of the brightest minds
in the world are working ondesigning platforms that are
like sticky and so to capturethe click, the view, all of
these different things, and sothe addiction component is so
(12:40):
easy to fall, fall into thattrap.
I also want to say that I feellike even content that would
have been posted like five yearsago and deemed like really
graphic and horrible is just soeasily available, even on like
Netflix today, and so there'skind of this um, we're becoming
(13:02):
numb to graphic and extremecontent, and then kind of
combining that with kids havingaccess to devices at younger and
younger ages, and I know thedebate is also like let's delay
the phone, but then we give aniPad that has a lot of the same
(13:22):
capabilities, and so I think Ithink we have to be looking at
the accessibility across theboard, not just like I'm not
going to give the phone, buthere's everything else on the
kitchen table.
You know what I mean.
Um, so I'd say those are kindof the major challenges that
we've been looking at and reallytrying to focus in on.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
You mentioned several kind of like shifts in you know
over time, like are there anyother kind of significant shifts
that like demonstrate that thedigital landscape has kind of
evolved?
And I think sometimes asparents we're like, okay, I've
got a handle on this, I have anapp on my phone that's like
monitoring things.
Like we're good, like this isno longer a problem, but then
things change rapidly, right,and if you're not constantly
(14:09):
vigilant about it?
So talk about what kind ofchanges have happened, what
parents might not know.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
No, I mean, I think it's easy to fall in the trap of
, like we've we've downloadedthe app and so we can have our
hands off and not worry about it.
But, as you mentioned, theseplatforms are constantly being
changed and also, like appledoesn't really like giving up
their like api tied to screentime, and so the data that some
(14:43):
of these monitoring platformsare getting, if it's like an app
on an iPhone, is maybe workingfine, but if Apple launches an
update, like iOS 18 coming up,they're going to be scrambling
to figure out how they can shiftall of their platform too.
In other words, it's definitelynot like a set it up and forget
(15:08):
about it and think everything'sfine, because a lot of these
platforms, too that we can see,or some of them, have a lot of
holes that that are able to beexposed and taken advantage of
by the, the child, um, and alsoso kind of.
Wrapping back around to youryour question, though, I think I
think that I think that Ourphilosophy really is like, if
(15:33):
you're looking at the pyramid,the base of the pyramid has to
be the relationship that aparent builds with their child
and the conversations they havewith their child around
technology, the dangers, all ofthat, or the app that you think
handles everything.
It creates a relationship wherethey're going to either.
(16:00):
We've seen a rise in the amountof kids getting burner phones.
There are a lot of ways topower.
I know, I know Powering off thedevice to get it to reset.
There are a ton of differentthings that can be done where we
think if we can build thishealthy relationship, then if
the child comes across contentand they rush back to the parent
(16:22):
or the caregiver, whereas ifyou lead with like the
restriction and like danger andthe scare tactic which I think
we have to also live in realityof the situation but I think we
can see some changes and shiftshappening in that regard of like
(16:43):
making sure that we know thatthat better relationship is like
really building the foundationthrough having the conversation,
all that.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Do you provide any neuroscience or like helping
parents understand what'shappening from that level?
As you're talking, I'm thinkingof super normal stimuli and so
basically, our brains haveevolved to need certain things,
(17:19):
so communication is one of those, and having relationships with
others, and so Facebook andInstagram.
It's by million, fold I wantedto say tenfold, but it's like
causing this need and then soevery time there's a ding, every
time we've been trained likepsychological conditioning is
happening.
So are you educating parents onthose types of things and
(17:41):
helping them make sense of it,or are you trying to stay
surface level, like where howdeep do you get?
Because for me, that's how thatreally motivates me to go.
Okay, we do need to have someboundaries, we do need to forge
our own path instead of justdoing what every other parent is
doing or every other kid isdoing, because I'm really
(18:02):
understanding the neurobiologybehind it, the neuroscience
behind it, the shifting and whatyou know Jonathan Haidt calls
like having a phone-basededucation versus a play-based
education, and he even reallygoes into being in defensive
mode versus discovery mode.
So I have all these things inmy mind to help motivate me to
make these decisions.
(18:23):
So I'm curious where you fit inthat.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Yeah, so I think one of the biggest, like you've said
, impacts of technology on allof us, not just tech in the
brain, which was really, reallyfascinating.
(19:01):
So we've got kind of thatseries on our platform that
families can dive into the bigthing.
I think that one of the largetakeaways from our conversation
with her was for teens.
She always says that they havea overdeveloped accelerator and
(19:21):
an underdeveloped brake system,and so when you combine that
with the full access to theinternet and everything that
comes with it, it kind ofcreates a recipe for disaster.
And then it's no, no surprisethat we're dealing with all the
large impacts that we are, andso we've got the approach of
(19:44):
like I definitely am not aneuroscientist and I struggle
enough with saying the wordneuroscientist that that's as
close as I'm going to get, thatthat's as close as I'm going to
get.
But we're very lucky to have anetwork and a team that has the
expertise, and so we try tobring subject matter experts
(20:05):
within our fold, especially inareas where we really want
families and educators to knowand administrators to know the
impacts that all that can have.
Because, especially today whenschools, micro schools, are all
having the conversation ofdevice access and should phones
(20:29):
be allowed, not allowed lockthem up, not to lock them up,
all of that allowed lock them up, not to lock them up, all of
that.
And then, looking at kind oftying in, what you were talking
about is the average amount.
A common sense media stat saidthat teens in the US today get
an average of 237 notificationsa day, which, when you take out
(20:52):
time they're sleeping, itaverages out to a notification
every four minutes, and so ifthat's happening all day during
the school day, their focus isgoing to be on that, not on the
teacher.
I mean, I'm even wondering myphone's over here how many
(21:12):
notifications I'm gonna have andemails that I'm gonna have to
read later tonight after workeven just yeah, the phone being
present, yeah being in the roomdistracted, or even, yeah, you
have to like turn it completelyoff, to like really be free of
it, because you're alwayswondering totally
Speaker 3 (21:30):
I want to circle back to what you said, though you
this was.
I really like the way this wasframed the overdeveloped
accelerator and underdevelopedbrakes.
I think that right there aloneis so important for us to
understand.
I was just at the eye doctoryesterday with all three of my
boys.
I have a 14 year old, 12 yearold, seven year old and the eye
(21:51):
doctor I could tell we weren'tin alignment with education,
with all the things.
Because he's like so can youguys see the board?
And my kids are looking at himlike what board are you talking
about?
Because they don't go to normalschools.
And then with my little one, hehasn't even started his micro
school.
He starts soon.
And he was like you should bein school, you are seven.
(22:13):
And then he looked at me andsaid well, how are they getting
instruction then if they don'thave a board to look at?
So I could already tell hisparadigm around education is
very differently than mine.
And then his paradigm aroundcomputers and technology.
And he's an eye doctor, so Ican only imagine how he's seen
eye strain and all kinds ofthings come from, you know, blue
(22:38):
light and and technology.
And but he said to me he waslike well, you know, I get that
you're trying to keep your kidsoff of computers, he said.
But you know every singleperson.
They're growing up with thesecomputers.
They have to be on them.
And even my landscaper uses acomputer.
And I wanted to say to him youshould know you're a doctor that
they have overdevelopedaccelerators right now and
(23:00):
underdeveloped brakes untilthey're fully developed.
Yes, they're going to have tobe on a computer, they're going
to need to use technology.
Yes, but their brains are stillso underdeveloped and I can
only imagine the impact thatit's having on their brains.
So I was just sitting therelike taking deep breaths.
I'm not going to get into anargument with him about it right
now, but I think what you saidthere is really, really
(23:21):
important for us to understand.
Yes, technology is ubiquitous,it is everywhere.
Our kids are going to need touse it, but we do kind of need
to look at where they aredevelopmentally.
And then self-control andimpulse control and and or
(23:42):
you're saying all thosenotifications not only, I would
guess, not only can they notfocus on what they're learning,
but I would think that the brainis also in this survival state.
This hyper arousal or hypervigilance is probably happening
as well, and my son's school didread Anxious Generation and
they are following it and theybought little lock boxes for all
the classrooms and they've beendoing a lot of trial and error.
It's a middle school and a highschool.
(24:02):
It's a very non-traditional,progressive school.
And they said they started outwith okay, they can have them on
breaks, they go outside a lot,they're on breaks, let's see how
that goes.
And they started out by puttingthem in the box before the
class, getting them out after.
Well, some kids would forget.
And then they didn't know whatbox they were in and so it kind
(24:22):
of caused a little bit of chaos.
And then they said we're goingto do a test and they emailed
all the parents, they told allthe students and said today you
can't have a phone out If we seeit out, it goes in the box if
you want it, but it can't be onyour person.
You know it needs to be putaway from the beginning of
school to the end of school.
Let's just see what happens.
(24:42):
And they said, just from thatone day, social engagement went
up, Engagement in the class wentup.
I'm like you guys need to bepart of a research study or
something.
I was like this is amazing.
So I think it's reallyimportant to go, and what my son
told me was he is convinced toget kids to do anything, you
have to have them all do it atone time, Cause, he said, not a
(25:05):
single student has complainedbecause they're all having to do
it and they're actually likingto, not, they're enjoying not
having a phone and having thisalmost like social pressure that
you have to be, you know, on aphone good.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Well, I will say I have heard one drawback of the
whole, like locking up the phoneduring the school day and it.
It's created um, and we've itin a few of our partner schools,
but that it creates a closerlike.
They use the platform or thedevice way more when they're out
(25:43):
of school than that attachmentis a lot stronger outside of
school hours because they're notgetting to check it all through
the day.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
They're not getting those dopamine hits throughout
the day.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, that's a good point.
I did want to touch up on onething that you mentioned and
it's kind of like like with the.
The eye doctor is like, well,everyone else does it, but that
doesn't mean it's right, rightand that we should all continue,
but we've not always it kind oflike you said we become numb,
you go on Netflix.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
you don't even have to go to the actual shows.
It's showing up on the top.
You know of some really graphicimages and I'm just trying to
go find a bluey show orsomething for a little kid.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Whenever I'm doing, whenever we're on Amazon, prime
search or something, like mykids know, like I'm like, okay,
I'm going to search something,they all just look away because
they have no idea what's goingto be.
Like put on the screen, I'mlike I think we need to change
this, and something thatJonathan Haidt talks about in
that book is that it does needto be like a societal change and
something that um like it isvery hard for parents to
(26:50):
withstand the, but everyone elsehas it kind of argument from
their kids, the but everyoneelse has it kind of argument
from their kids.
And so he he points to thingslike alcohol and, um, smoking,
like we have.
Like these things are bad,they're unhealthy for all of us,
obviously, but like they'reparticularly bad for the
developing brain, right, and sowe have um expectations and laws
in place, and he talks aboutthe age of internet, adulthood,
(27:13):
being 13 and how that was likeset by some law in like 1997,
before any of this happened.
And no one's policing it.
No one's like you know, youhave to be 13 to you have to
click a box that says you're 13to make a Google account or
something where you can, likeyou know, make all these
accounts and no one checks it,and it's not verified, it's not
verified, so it's like there'sreally
(27:33):
no controls on this and I'veheard people say like well, the
genie's out of the bottle.
Like you can't put the genieback in the bottle, like it's
too late now, and he goes backthrough history a little bit and
he's like nope, the genie wasback in the bottle here and we
successfully like put it back in, like we have done this there
for pulling things back likethis.
But it's going to take all ofus as parents to say like, yeah,
(27:54):
like the new social media ageis 16.
And like every like nobody,none of your 14 year old friends
have Instagram or Tik TOK orwhatever and like make that the
new norm.
I think it's going to take along time.
Um, I was just having aconversation with some kids at
my house and my oldest is 11.
And I've told my kids, like ourphone age is like 20, because I
know like by the time they're14, 15, 16, they'll have talked
(28:16):
me down to 16 or 17.
Whereas like that's like I'mvery super conservative and all
of this stuff, so don't followmy example.
I think I'm a crazy head.
Whatever, it's fine.
Um, but like, all of my embracethat to all of the kids in my
house were like oh, our phoneage is 11.
Our phone age is 12.
I'm like, well, I'm about toshare a book with your parents
(28:37):
and your phone age is about tochange because your parents just
don't know yet that, like, thisis not going to be a good thing
for you and I'm going to helpeducate them, even if it's going
to be really annoying andpassive, aggressive maybe.
But like I, I, but we have todo it like a social, like, yeah,
well, brock, like we have to doit together is what I'm
promoting here.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
But you, brock, you said that you've seen in some of
these schools that then theyget home.
I'm curious are those schoolsdoing education with the parents
?
What this school is doing isthey already are having meetings
with parents, they'rerecommending that everyone reads
anxious generation.
So they are doing it as acollective whole, not just, oh,
at school, this is what we'redoing.
(29:19):
You go home and do whatever youwant, and obviously it's not
going to be with every singleparent, every single child, but
they're doing a really.
Uh, I think they're comingalongside the parents, cause
that's what school should bedoing anyways.
Right, it should be arelationship, and that's what
you said is that foundation isrelationship, I think,
parent-child, but then alsoparent to school, school to
(29:41):
child.
There's lots of relationshipshere, not just one.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, and in the ones that I have looked at having
that really negative impact atthe end of the school day.
Those are ones that like we'renot working with, but when we
pair up with, like a not not tobe that guy, but when we pair up
with like the yonder pouchgroup at a school and then we
(30:09):
can hit it on.
All cylinders from like devicesare locked up, but we're also
educating the kids on theimpacts of tech and how they can
use it for good and minimizethe bad and the ugly impacts.
And then also kind of beingthat really big education
partner to direct two familieslike that, that's where I feel
like, yeah, the perfect scenarioplays and student education I
(30:35):
think is huge in this.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
But not just telling them Modeling, I think is really
huge.
And then also, what they'redoing is they're partnering with
Let Grow as well, and they'redoing Let Grow projects and so
giving them to do actual realindependent things.
So almost saying, okay, we'renot just taking your phone away,
(30:58):
but we're going to do reallyfun projects in the classroom
and then also outside ofclassroom.
We're going to ask your parentsto partner with us to let you
go to the park and let you makedinner.
And I mean that still blows mymind that 12 to 18 year olds are
not doing that becauseobviously, or apparently we're
not the norm.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
But I think we need that.
I think we've known that.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
So they're also yeah, we're not the norm, Um, but
they're bringing to light like,hey, this is not just what the
research is saying, but thatwe're seeing this in your own
child, and how they're justlighting up.
And so, hey, will you partnerwith us and let's give them
other things to do than just tobe on a phone and constantly
stimulating their brains.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
No, I love that, and that directly ties into Jonathan
and the play-based childhoodrather than the phone-based.
So yeah, so much value in that.
I do think, though, likeschools and like parents, need
to think about like, uh, justlocking up the device is only
(32:00):
one part of the equation, um,and so the education can't be
overlooked.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
So what are some common mistakes parents make in
regards to their kids usingsocial media?
So we're talking about justlocking up their phone is not
good enough, so what else shouldparents be looking at?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
I think it ties into exactly what we were talking
about of like.
Just because everyone isallowing it or giving access to
it doesn't mean that everyoneshould.
But I also think the power ofcommunity really comes into play
here as well, and I'd say forsure for like micro school
(32:39):
communities as well as like,banding together to either delay
the phone in general or to picka family friendly, kid friendly
phone like Pinwheel or Gab orTrumi or Vark, instead of
Russian.
They just give an iPhone.
But I think the easiest andmost impactful thing is
(33:04):
obviously trying to catch itbefore access is already given
and to band together as acommunity to say we're going to
wait until eighth grade or aftereighth grade or until 20.
To say we're going to wait tilleighth grade or after eighth
grade or till 20.
And then from there kind ofreally sticking to that plan.
(33:25):
But yeah, it completely tiesback into like just because
everyone else does, it doesn'tmean we all should.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
So what is your advice for setting boundaries
and what kind of conversationsshould parents be having with
kids about social media andonline safety?
It really didn't hit my kidsuntil we have a friend's
daughter who was going throughthe police academy and then that
was what she was responsiblefor and she was sharing some
(33:54):
stories and they were like, oh,this is real.
It's not just my parentstelling me that these things
happen online, and not just withgirls, but with boys too, and
so I'm curious, like, how do youeducate parents on that and
what are?
What is your advice aboutboundaries?
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I feel like it.
It it kind of comes down to theconversation, for sure, the
conversations, and like loopingit in, if age appropriate, like
those stories that we hear aboutway too often, um, and kind of
like on a general, kind of uhacross the board, just
(34:32):
highlighting like don't takeeverything online as like face
value and like, if you ever geta weird feeling, if you are on
the platform when that timecomes, like investigate, like
tell mom and dad, tell trusted,trusted adult, um on like the
(34:52):
misinformation piece, like lookfor multiple sources to validate
whether something is true orwhether it's false, like kind of
more along those types ofconversations.
But then also like generalsafety advice of like protect
your passwords and protect yourpersonal information and like
(35:14):
who is fine to tell your homeaddress, protect your personal
information and, um, like who isfine to tell your home address
or your personal phone number oremail or whatever.
It might be like really tryingto to have those conversations
and that dialogue beforeanything comes up and then kind
of reinforcing, kind of thefoundations, like over
(35:37):
emphasizing and over sharing,rather than just doing it once
and forgetting about it.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Make it a conversation.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah, but I do think it ties in like that kids, kids
notice, sorry, like kids noticethe habits of parents and those
around them have with technologytoo and so kind of that
modeling healthy tech behaviortoo.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
For sure, something that I've noticed recently and
my kids, like with Prenda, weuse a lot of app-based education
and tech tools, so my kids areon computers quite a bit and
they're like doing things likeduolingo or scratch, like things
that I would deem as like veryhigh value educational
(36:26):
experiences.
I think something that parentsshould be aware of is that these
platforms, even though they'reeducational, like they have
social, like the social aspectbuilt into them, and so it's
like it's not Instagram, it'snot TikTok, it's like we're safe
, like you're not, it's not, itreally isn't.
And like the other day, like my, my daughter, was doing
something on Duolingo and I wasjust watching her and she was
(36:49):
there was there's like you cando friend request, like there's
all sorts of like little thingsbuilt in.
I'm like, oh, we got, we got toshut this down.
Like I thought you were just onDuolingo and I didn't even know
that there were ways that youcould connect with strangers on
Duolingo.
Or like on scratch, you canlike talk to their kids and it's
like, oh, we, we need to bereally every single thing.
Yeah, yeah.
Like all of these things, theycan talk to people and, um, even
(37:11):
though it's not a social mediaplatform or you think your kids
don't have social media they'retalking to people on the
internet and that is social andit's media.
So, expanding our definition ofsocial media maybe.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Yeah, I feel like one of the big shocking stories I
heard about a year ago was therewas a loophole on the Bible app
that kids were leveraging tolike send pictures or like
something like that, which whichit's been they've, they've.
They fixed the issue now, butif there's a way, On the
(37:46):
pinwheel.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
it had it as red, so pinwheel is a.
Can you explain what that is ina better way than I will?
Speaker 1 (37:57):
I don't know if I'll be able to better than you, but
a phone built for kids gives alot of controls to parents on
what apps that they can use, butthey also have um uh, they code
uh the different, the differentapps into like um red being bad
(38:20):
, which I think is, or likecaution, I guess.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
It says it violates their whatever, because they do
all this research and they workwith psychologists, and so they
have a red, a yellow and green,and Bible app was red and I was
wondering why it was red.
But my son was using Cash Appto get onto YouTube and I'm like
, why?
How in the world is he able touse Cash App?
Should just be able to give himmoney.
(38:46):
So that's where we give him hisallowance, so that he has
access to it and he has a cardattached to it, and he was using
that to get to other socialmedia platforms.
And because they have, you cango and shop.
So there's all these loopholesand things.
So is that Are these things onParent Pro protect, so the
(39:06):
parents know, like duolingo, youcan connect with other people.
Like, um, cash app or like, howmuch do you get into the that
thing?
Speaker 1 (39:13):
those types of things yeah, we, we try to try to dive
completely in and find thoseloopholes that kids like to to
exploit, um, and we also realize, like I, I'm getting older and
older, obviously, and so I'm notone of the the cool kids
anymore that is in the know.
Even our creative team, they'vebeen doing a lot more like
(39:37):
trends lately, and the pastcouple that they've been sending
to me I'm like this makes nosense, it doesn't like it's not
funny, but supposedly it was atrend, um, and so we're trying
to.
We've got like interns and kids, um, who are kind of like
spotters for us, looking forlike the loopholes that others
(39:59):
are exploiting or, um, kind ofsharing conversations that
they're having, uh, at schooland at practice and all of that.
That way we can stay in theknow and then communicate all
that out to our users.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
That's so smart.
You call them spotters.
Is that their official title?
No, I guess you just label itas like intern or something, but
spotters would be better.
That's so smart.
So what tips do you have to forparents who want to
(40:39):
continuously educate themselvesabout technology but also not
get overwhelmed?
Because I have gotten to thatplace where it is just too much
at times.
I rather just no phones, nocomputers, no anything.
It's just so much easier.
So what?
Speaker 1 (40:56):
tips do you have for?
Speaker 3 (40:56):
parents.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
No, I, I.
It's funny because my mind wentstraight to like follow
accounts on social media thatare like tracking all of this,
but then I feel weird aboutsocial media yeah yes, I know
same thing exactly.
I feel that way a lot too now Ithink I think the big thing that
(41:19):
I'd say is, um, like starting.
We have to kind of ground orlike start our conversation
somewhere, and so I think partof it is like investing in
figuring out what platforms anddevices like our kids are using,
(41:39):
want to use, that their friendsare using.
It might be because from there,I think, it's easier to know
and to kind of have theconversation of like, um, how we
can make those platforms safer,or at least you as a parent
know, like what, what debate orchallenge is going to come up as
(42:02):
I get closer to to the age thateveryone else is getting, uh,
social media, um, and so I Ithink that's kind of where I
recommend that we start.
And then from there, um, likeI've got tons of different media
alerts on the top, topplatforms and kind of top tech
(42:24):
uh, uh companies that are outthere to keep up with all of the
changes that are happening.
And then, like, apple makes itreally easy that as they update,
you can go in and take a readthe patch notes, so, like what
changes they've made or what newfeature they've added, stuff
like that.
(42:44):
Um of that, though, I thinkrequires quite a bit of time on
the parent angle.
So that's where I feel likefinding a tool that helps with
making that education pieceeasier and staying up to date on
all the changes is veryimportant and staying up to date
(43:08):
on all the changes beingimportant, but also I think if
we don't know what platformsthat our kids are on and at
least take that first step, thenthe net's going to be so spread
out that you're going to failkind of across the board.
Or we can get really targetedum on on the specific issues.
But then also like reallyinvesting time with your child
(43:33):
and like if they like playingvideo games, like hop, hop on
the beanbag and play a round offortnight or whatever it is, and
they're gonna laugh and makefun of you but you'll have a
better idea of, like what theplatform in the game even is.
They're gonna notice thatyou're invested in them and want
(43:53):
to meet them where they enjoyum and it's just a good kind of
strengthening of of thatrelationship and bond yeah, or
the approach.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
I just don't let my kids play fortnite.
But what I'm hearing too is youcan't take a back seat if
you're allowing your kids tohave technology, if you're
handing them over a device.
Again, the refer referencejonathan height.
He opens up the book aboutsending kids to mars and how
we've seen that would be crazyto do that, but yet we're
(44:25):
handing them these devices thatthey have access to who knows
what, and so we really can'ttake a backseat approach if
we're allowing our kids to haveaccess to computers, video games
, social media.
You know any kind of technology.
You said about getting on theapps or being aware of what apps
(44:46):
they are using, and hopefullyyou have a good enough
relationship with your childthat they are sharing that.
So if they're not, there mightneed you know again,
relationship first We've talkedabout that multiple times.
I recall when I was a highschool senior photographer, I
had a team of girls they're, allyou know, 17, 18.
And this was back in 2013, 14.
(45:10):
Snapchat was still fairlynew-ish, I think it came out in
like 11 or 12.
And all the girls were using itin school.
I would, and I only joined itto connect with them.
I wasn't even their parent.
But I was like, okay, this iswhat they're on.
This is really new to me.
It's kind of scary.
I don't know what this is.
It disappears.
(45:30):
What is this?
Uh?
And they were just snapping allday long while they're in
chemistry, while they're in likeyou know, classes, and I had a
parent say to me.
I told her, I said oh, are youaware your daughter's on
Snapchat?
Are you on Snapchat?
She's like, oh, yeah, but youknow, I, I don't want anything
to do with that.
That's her thing.
And I was just like, yeah, butyou need to see what she's doing
on there.
You know, like you need to seewhat, what activities, is
(45:52):
happening, because if you'regiving your child a device and
this is not to be judgmental atall but if you're handing a
child a device and that is yourresponsibility to ensure that
your child's being safe yougotta know what apps they're
using and or like with my son,I'm thinking he just has cash
app on his phone and so I waslike he's disappearing a lot.
(46:13):
What is going on?
And not acting like he normallydoes.
That's just because he was.
I mean, he was watching scootervideos and how to be a better
scooter rider, scooter, which ismuch better than some things.
He could be watching Scooterist,but then we just started having
a conversation about it insteadof like no phone, you can't
have this.
This is horrible, becausethat's not the right approach
with kids either.
What you're saying is to beinvested in what is important to
(46:37):
them, really, start withrelationship and connection and
then from there, once they seethat you are on their side,
maybe they'll be like oh, youknow what?
This probably isn't thehealthiest for me.
Or, hey, can I?
I need help with this.
Or, you know, we've seen thatwith our kids.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
Yeah, beautifully said yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Okay, so can you take me through a little bit, just
like what are the resources thatpro tech offers?
And like how can I like I justsigned up for your newsletter a
minute ago and like, if I signup or like get access, like what
will I see?
Speaker 1 (47:16):
yes, so, um.
So we've got kind of two, threemain kind of ways that
communities can get involved.
One like subscribing to thenewsletter, we kind of ways that
communities can get involved.
One like subscribing to thenewsletter, we kind of keep
track of all the major changes.
Like earlier in the year, whenall the tech big tech CEOs
(47:36):
testified in DC, we had a wholeedition on kind of what you know
how, what do we make of it,what's going to happen with that
?
And then, like I said, we'retrying to keep up to date with
all the major changes happeningin the tech realm.
(47:57):
So that's one way.
The other way, individuals cansign up for the full ProTech
platform and that includes allthe family content like the
how-tos, the walk walkthroughs,all of that type of content and
the student curriculum andstudent programming that you can
watch with your kids.
The third way is reaching outand we do more like churchwide
(48:22):
or schoolwide, uh, microschoolwide, um kind of
partnerships where we canprovide the entire community
access at a very discounted rate.
Um, and then, kind of, with allof that, we we have, uh, we
have a um, we open up a fewhours every Friday, uh, where,
(48:45):
like if families are battlinglike really, really tough
specific challenges when itcomes to tech, that we can
really meet them where they areand really try to lean in and
support and I didn't didn'tmention it, I guess I did
mention earlier.
But really like back to our whyanything that fits with, like
like if we can help save,prevent one bad thing from
(49:09):
happening to just one of ourkids, then then anything that
aligns with that mission we wantto lean in and support love
that.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Yes, thank you.
So thank you so much forwalking us through how Parent
Pro Tech works and just all theresources that you're providing,
and even just to think abouthiring younger people that could
be spotters.
I just find that I'm like, oh,they're really thinking of it
all, like how can we really getahead of this?
(49:44):
Instead of being proactive, Ifeel like this is a really good
tool to help parents be I'msorry.
Instead of being reactive, ithelps parents be proactive.
Which parent pro tech?
I love that name.
It works really well.
So this is a question we askall of our guests who is someone
who has kindled your love oflearning, curiosity, motivation
(50:05):
or passion?
Speaker 1 (50:11):
That's a loaded one.
I feel like I've been veryblessed through kind of every
endeavor of having really goodmentors, but especially on the
learning and curiositymotivation, all that I think I
would say my dad is a really biginfluence and motivator,
(50:37):
especially on really finding thepassion and then that
motivation to keep pushingthrough every up and down, uh,
and then really like investingand trying to like learn
everything I can about whateverit is.
That passion is, uh like verygrateful to have had that.
(50:59):
That um influence forever sinceI've been born.
So well, influence foreversince I've been born.
Speaker 2 (51:07):
So, yeah, well, thank you so much for coming on the
Kindle podcast.
This has been a coolconversation and we appreciate
your time.
Speaker 3 (51:14):
No thank you.
That's it for today.
We hope you enjoyed thisepisode of the Kindle podcast.
If it was helpful to you, allyou need to do is like,
subscribe and follow us onsocial at Prenda Learn.
If you have a question you'dlike us to address, leave a
comment, or you can also emailus at podcast at Prendacom.
You can go to our website,Prendacom and sign up for our
(51:38):
weekly newsletter, the SundaySpark.
Speaker 2 (51:40):
The Kindle podcast is brought to you by Prenda.
Prenda makes it easy for you tostart and run an amazing micro
school based on all of the ideaswe talk about here on the
Kindle podcast.
If you want more informationabout becoming a Prenda guide,
just go to Prendacom.
Thanks for listening andremember to keep kindling.
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