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‘FYI play it safe’ is an app used to monitor your children’s online activity and keep you, as the parent, in the loop.

Amy Maclver interviews Rachelle Best, the CEO and Founder of FYI play it safe, an AI-powered monitoring app.

Getting a first smartphone has become the major milestone of modern childhood, and many families are starting off the year with a new connected user in their midst.

Getting a phone comes with its own freedom and a sense of maturity in the kids, but also trust between the parents and the child, but with this sense of freedom comes its fair share of online danger.

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Being a mother herself, Rachelle Best founded FYI play it safe as a way to monitor her children’s online activity, not a way of policing her kid’s online interactions, but to ensure their safety online, whether it be from pedophiles or inappropriate, graphic content.

FYI play it safe’s mission is to ‘monitor the content of children’s online communication and other online activity to provide pro-active alerts to parents or guardians of potential signs of cyberbullying, depression, self-harm, suicidal ideation, online predators, or when they engage in adult content.’

The app tracks online conversations and activity. If any inappropriate or harmful content is interacted with, parents will receive a notification, alerting them of the interaction.

It’s when we pick up something that we believe parents should worry about, that we send that alert.

Rachelle Best, the CEO and Founder of FYI play it safe

It’s therefore important that the app is downloaded and linked on both your child and your cellular device.

While it may seem like the work is done at this stage, parents then need to intervene and communicate with their kids about the content that was engaged with, what it means, and what the implications may be.

It will then send you an alert and what you will see as the parent is an actual screenshot of what was on the child’s device at the time, and you can decide how to deal with that.

Rachelle Best, the CEO and Founder of FYI play it safe

Things that are able to be monitored via the app:

• Cyberbullying – whether they’re the ones being bullied or are the ones bullying others

• Adult content – from pornography to drug-related content

Best says that it’s imperative to enter the online world with an open line of communication.

Take more of an interest in what they do…because if you take that type of interest, they more open to actually talk to you and share what they’re in to.

Rachelle Best, the CEO and Founder of FYI play it safe

Best states that the average age of kids getting a phone in South Africa is eight years old, but this will differ from family to family and their needs.

An indicator if they’re ready for a phone, according to Best, is if they’re able to distinguish between online situations that make them feel comfortable or uncomfortable, and if they’re able to understand that the avatar they see on screen may not necessarily be the person that they’re chatting to.

That’s not necessarily the correct age. Each family structure is different and what works for one family may not work for another family.

Rachelle Best, the CEO and Founder of FYI play it safe

To download FYI play it safe, click here.

Scroll up to listen to the full interview.

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