Latest / Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza / Ep.92 - Brock Murphy On Why No Parent Ever Regrets Delaying Smartphone Use | Online Predator Protection | Healthy Digital Habits | Parental Control Solutions

Transcript

Ep.92 - Brock Murphy On Why No Parent Ever Regrets Delaying Smartphone Use | Online Predator Protection | Healthy Digital Habits | Parental Control Solutions · Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza

0:00
The unfortunate thing is, is like with that average age of
0:04
pornography exposure being 8 years old.
0:08
And quick side note, I was on the phone with the Diocese of
0:12
Arlington and Virginia and they said in their research right now
0:16
they see its first exposure to pornography is closer to five
0:20
years old. This is virtuous.
0:21
Leaders the podcast for based Catholics who will speak truth,
0:25
do good or die trying. Here's the show.
0:33
You're 26 years old and you've worked for the White House,
0:36
SpaceX, and launched parent Pro Tech.
0:39
You're clearly a magnanimous individual.
0:41
How did you accomplish so much in so little time?
0:46
No, no, thank you. That, that's a great question.
0:49
I, I think I, I feel very blessed to have had a mom and a
0:57
dad who we're always super supportive of, of me and, and
1:01
also help put me in situations to, to kind of build on, you
1:09
know, work ethic and, and leadership, public speaking, all
1:14
of the above. And so, but I'd say at A, at a
1:21
early age, grew up on a ranch in Missouri and so was on the farm
1:26
all day every day. We raised American Quarter
1:29
horses and got pretty involved in the American Quarter Horse
1:33
Association. And, and I think that that that
1:36
firm foundation of both being outside so much growing up and
1:42
also doing a lot of hard work and, and the responsibility of,
1:46
I mean, the horses in the morning aren't going to feed
1:48
themselves. They're not going to water
1:51
themselves. Kind of taught me you got to get
1:53
up and get moving to get the job done.
1:57
I think that that kind of really resonated with me, but but
2:01
definitely without my mom and dad and and their support, none
2:08
of it would would be possible. Giving young people a
2:11
responsibility at a young age is so important.
2:15
Yes, completely agreed. I want to get into what you're
2:20
doing now. Parent pro tech.
2:22
What? What is that and why should?
2:24
We care. Yeah.
2:26
So, so kind of like you mentioned, after after time at
2:32
the White House in the Office of Management and Budget and then
2:35
time at SpaceX had kept being approached by parents and
2:40
teachers and administrators of questions that they had about
2:44
technology. And really, really quickly
2:47
realized that there was kind of that disconnect between what
2:50
people kind of hope they know about all the platforms that our
2:53
kids are surrounded by today and what they can actually be used
2:56
for or like who they might actually be talking with or the
3:00
type of content that they could be so easily exposed to.
3:03
And, and started doing more research on on this topic and
3:08
saw data from the FBI showing that there are over a half a
3:12
million online active predators each and every day.
3:16
We saw that kids who spend 3 or more hours per day on social
3:20
media face double the risk of depression and anxiety.
3:25
We see that the average age of pornography exposure is closer
3:28
to 8 years old today. And the list goes on and on and
3:31
on of all of the impacts that tech and I'd say unbridled
3:35
access to technology is having on kids today, whether it be
3:39
through addiction or social deprivation, sleep deprivation
3:43
or attention fragmentation. And so Parent Protect began
3:47
really out of parents reaching out and doing a lot of this
3:50
research, seeing the impact that it's having.
3:55
And so our goal really became what can we do to empower
3:59
families to be more active and engaged in what their kids are
4:02
doing online? And from there, as we've grown
4:06
and worked with a lot of schools and churches and community
4:08
organizations is how we've built out student programming too, and
4:13
student curriculum lesson plans and videos that students can
4:16
watch and interact with to help build healthy relationships with
4:20
tagged directly with them too. So really focused on the family
4:23
piece and then the the student empower student empowerment
4:27
piece on top of that too. I.
4:30
Want to get in a nutshell, for a parent who's interested in
4:33
pursuing this? What, What are they going to get
4:35
out of it and what what are they?
4:36
What is going to be the value added?
4:39
Yeah. So where so a parent is going
4:45
to, when they join our our Parent Protect platform, they,
4:50
they really get access to loads and loads of content across all
4:54
of the tech that our kids are surrounded by.
4:57
So whether it be gaming or device management or your Wi-Fi
5:03
network at home and adding extra layers of protection there to
5:07
the apps that your kids might have on their phone or their
5:10
iPad. We're doing deep dives on those,
5:13
helping parents understand what it is, how to navigate it, what
5:18
parental controls you can put in place and how to put parental
5:21
controls in place, and then diving into conversation stars
5:27
as well. So really trying to help bridge
5:30
the gap that that we see so often with the tech and families
5:34
and helping kind of build that bridge.
5:37
And then on top of it, through our student programming that we
5:41
have, there's video content that a parent can watch with their
5:44
children to really build these con build on these concepts of,
5:48
you know, digital citizenship, digital footprint.
5:51
What you post today could come back and haunt you when you
5:53
applied your dream job or medical school and other
5:57
concepts, even diving into like cyberbullying prevention to
6:01
identifying predatory behavior in a lot of trafficking
6:05
prevention material, things like that that we see so often.
6:09
And I think part of it is, is our team is keeping an eye on
6:15
everything around tech that could impact a student impacted
6:20
child. And so we're trying to keep
6:22
parents up to date with these rapidly with the rapidly
6:25
changing tech world. That way they're prepared to
6:28
navigate it with their kids and with their family and with
6:31
themselves too. Because I know post COVID, a lot
6:35
of us are all way more reliant than we were before COVID on on
6:40
our phones. So a lot of these these ideas
6:45
and topics that we talked about, there's a lot of good reflection
6:48
points for, for families too on creating healthier habits with,
6:53
with what we have around. I was speaking on this topic for
6:57
seven years or so, and I've interviewed some of the biggest
7:00
names in the field. I thought I had found everyone
7:03
until I discovered you. I'm very impressed with your
7:05
work. Thank you.
7:07
But what it what I've seen as a challenge here is parents have
7:10
so little limited time. At least that's their
7:12
perception. And there I haven't had much
7:16
success at getting parents to consume resources.
7:20
Now it seems like your program is largely based on these like
7:26
parent educational resources. What what's your success rate
7:29
with that? How would you address that
7:30
challenge? Yeah, that, that's a great
7:33
point. And, and, and I, I kind of was
7:35
hitting it too of the current kind of stand or current
7:41
position we're in of post COVID, even our attention spans are,
7:45
are shorter and we're also juggling a million different
7:48
things. And so I think our unique
7:53
uniqueness on, on this is our video content is really high,
7:58
very quick paced, high value in the in the same structure
8:04
platform, the platform. And so we're able to deliver it
8:09
in a way that's similar to how you might be delivered content
8:13
on social media platforms. So quick, get you the the
8:18
questions and the information you need, and then move on to
8:20
the other million things you have on on your To Do List.
8:24
We're also building out an AI tool right now where a parent
8:27
can just ask a question and then it'll actually push out either
8:32
direct to the video and the spot in the video where walking
8:35
parents through how to put parental controls or time
8:38
restrictions on TikTok to the step by step.
8:42
Like here's how you do it just to be very quick and effective
8:46
with the use of time. And I think part of it too is
8:54
the thing about a lot of content for families is I think
8:58
especially with technology is different buzzwords or different
9:03
keywords are going to motivate a parent to consume content or
9:06
not. My point being, one parent is
9:10
going to have a question on TikTok, another on YouTube Kids,
9:15
another on Roblox and another on which phone to get their child.
9:20
And so that was kind of the point of us building this on
9:23
demand library of content for families that's constantly up to
9:26
date. And in the structure that's
9:28
really easier for parents to to jump from one thing to the next,
9:34
knowing that the structure is going to be similar throughout.
9:37
Because we want to make it where people on their own time with
9:42
whatever questions they do have, they can, they know that they
9:44
have a spot that they can go to with up to So we've got English
9:50
and Spanish right now, and working on Arabic and a few
9:52
other languages next. So let's niche down to my
9:57
audience. My audience is typically young
9:59
calf parents with traditional family values and they, they
10:03
know that there's way too much technology and we need to reduce
10:07
it and we're not going to give our kids a smartphone right
10:10
away. That's let's just say like
10:11
that's the kind of minimum commonality.
10:13
But what are the most common questions that these parents
10:16
have, and how would you address them?
10:20
You know, I think we always hear one of the largest questions, I
10:27
think is like, what's one thing that I can do today?
10:31
Whether my kids have a phone or whether they don't or they have
10:37
device access or not. And it's really the kind of, and
10:42
I know it's hard in the day and age that we live in of packed
10:46
schedules and, and running from one thing to the next, but we
10:51
always talk about 1 setting a good example with our own screen
10:57
time, because our kids are often times watching our own
11:02
interactions with technology too.
11:06
And so that's a really easy thing, a good reflection point
11:10
because I know often times I I spend too much time on on my
11:13
phone when I should be really intentional with, with giving
11:16
the people around me the attention they deserve.
11:18
But the second one being especially if if your kids a
11:22
gamer, but taking a moment and sitting down with your child and
11:28
actually trying to play the game that they're trying to play with
11:32
them. Because not only are they going
11:34
to make fun of you as a parent trying to play whatever game
11:38
that that that they love Mario Kart, let's say, but it's going
11:42
to be a fun memory for that for your child to look back on mom
11:48
and dad playing with, with the son or daughter in whatever game
11:52
it is dressed it dressed to impress or, or Mario Kart.
11:56
But really being intentional and sitting down and, and
11:59
interacting with your child with that game or watching that show
12:03
that they really like. Because it also helps the parent
12:07
to understand this game that they're playing.
12:11
They have a chat feature. And so they could be approached
12:13
by people to the chat feature or there's language in it that that
12:19
they didn't know about that they now do because they sat down
12:21
and, and listened or sat down and played with their child.
12:25
And so I think it also helps with kind of more understanding
12:28
of what platforms can be used for or different loopholes that
12:33
might be exploited by people. But I think a lot of it that we
12:38
boil down down to is that intentionality with with time,
12:43
which is our most precious resource that we have,
12:47
especially with our family. Yeah.
12:50
Over the parent can see how brain rot the video game is, or
12:54
maybe even morally debraved and then immediately confiscated,
12:57
which is what my parents did. Exactly, exactly.
13:00
Yeah, it's a good, good way to learn more and then take action.
13:04
And that's really our approach to parent protect is like we
13:07
want to help families understand the tech that their kids are
13:11
surrounded by. We're not going to tell you your
13:13
kid should not be on this platform.
13:16
But I mean, our my hope after they watch like our content on
13:20
Snapchat is the parent is going to be like, oh wow, my kid
13:23
should not be on Snapchat. But but we're really trying to
13:27
be intentional that to be that resource for families when it
13:31
comes to to tech. Well, that OK, that leads into
13:35
my next question. I was going to ask if you have
13:36
any direct recommendations, maybe you don't have them as an
13:40
official platform, but maybe you do personally as you've just
13:44
articulated. So for instance, the number one
13:46
question, which is I think like deceptively formulated to begin
13:53
with, but when should I give my kid a smartphone?
13:58
I, I, I thought you were going there that, that's, that's the
14:02
hardest question because to me, it's more of a maturity question
14:07
than, than an actual age. And we could, we could
14:13
strategize and think of 100 different ways to track maturity
14:17
in the right things that they do.
14:22
And, and I have an interesting perspective because we traveled
14:24
a lot when I was growing up, when we were raising American
14:29
court horses. And, and so I, I had a like a
14:32
flip phone at a super young age. And which obviously comparing
14:39
that to the power of this today is way different.
14:43
But I think when we talk to families, we always like to push
14:49
them to looking at phones like True Me or Gab or Bark that have
14:56
been built from the beginning with kids in mind.
15:00
And also one of the things that we love about True Me is you can
15:05
gradually give more responsibility to your child as
15:11
they continue to age. So you can start out really
15:14
making it only can make phone calls to approve contacts or can
15:18
only receive calls from from contacts in the phone.
15:24
And then as they age, you can open up messages, You can open
15:27
up different apps, not social media apps, but but you're able
15:31
to kind of as you build that trust with your child and as
15:36
they prove that they can handle the tools that you're giving
15:40
them, you can kind of continue to, to grow that, which I think
15:44
is a really cool, cool opportunity.
15:49
I, I think we've never once in our presentations the, the
15:57
hundreds, thousands of communities, we've never once
16:02
heard a parent say, I'm so glad I gave my child a smartphone.
16:08
And so it's definitely one that, I mean, we always hear the
16:12
opposite. So I think, you know, delaying
16:15
as much as possible, but when you do end up giving it, get it
16:19
where you can kind of give more responsibility as they prove
16:22
themselves and as they mature. And that's that's always the way
16:26
we recommend to do it. For me sounds really
16:30
interesting. So you said they don't allow a
16:32
social media apps, but they'll allow other apps like I'm
16:34
assuming GPS or alarm clock or things like that?
16:38
Yes, and they, they've got a whole list of, of different
16:41
apps. A lot of the platforms that,
16:44
that have been creating the, the safe smartphone built for kids,
16:50
none of them are allowing social media on it.
16:54
I mean, and even like, for me personally, I've deleted social
16:58
media on my phone and only look at it when I'm on my laptop just
17:02
because it, it, you know, I realized how much time it was
17:05
sucking because all of these platforms are being designed to
17:08
capture and sustain our attention.
17:11
And, and they're, they're so good at it too.
17:14
So when A1 cautionary tale you share with these like filters,
17:19
that sort of thing is there's always a back door, there's
17:22
always a way to hack it. Is that the case with True Me?
17:28
I from what? From what?
17:30
Obviously I'm only going off of personal experiences and, and
17:34
the feedback we get from users that we we talk with.
17:39
I know the these phones that have been built from scratch.
17:44
Most most of them are on an Android or Android device but
17:50
most of them that are built from scratch like true me Gab, Bark,
17:57
it's really hard to find loopholes in them.
18:00
It's the the apps that go on like an iPhone that we hear
18:04
often times have the back doors due to different API questions
18:08
and, and issues with Apple sharing some issues between the
18:15
company that created the app and, and Apple with screen time
18:19
settings and all that type of stuff.
18:22
So I, I think always lean on like the device, or I should say
18:30
we often talk about is you have to have multiple layers of
18:33
safety and and protection in place.
18:36
So both of the device level to the network level at home and
18:42
then having a conversation with your child because the
18:46
unfortunate thing is, is like with that average age of
18:50
pornography exposure being 8 years old.
18:54
And quick side note, I was on the phone with the Diocese of
18:59
Arlington and Virginia and they said in their research right
19:02
now, they see its first exposure to pornography is closer to five
19:06
years old. And so the unfortunate reality
19:11
is it's not as much if you're going to come across content
19:16
like that, but kind of when. And so by having the
19:20
conversation, it helps the child know, like if they ever do see
19:24
something, hopefully I pray it's not pornography, but maybe it's
19:30
explicit, inexplicit ad that pops up on a game that they play
19:33
on their iPad or whatever it is. But at least they come to you as
19:38
a parent or the caregiver to navigate it rather than keeping
19:42
an internal and then thinking that they're going to get in
19:45
trouble if the parent finds out that they saw something that
19:48
just popped up. And so that's kind of our, our
19:53
framework. But but I think the like, we
19:56
know so many stories about kids who had parents that locked down
20:00
everything and didn't give give it any access.
20:05
But there was no like relational peace, no conversations between
20:10
the parent and the child. It was just Iron Fist saying no
20:14
to everything and how then that child works like crazy to find
20:20
the loopholes in whatever it is that they that's that's causing
20:24
the restriction. So we think if you lead with
20:28
restrictions, they're always going to find anything any way
20:31
they can to find a loophole. But if you lead with the
20:37
relational piece and at the very tip of the pyramid, let's say,
20:41
are there restrictions you put in place?
20:42
But the base is on the relationship, the conversation
20:46
that you have with your child kind of navigating that.
20:49
That's a far better spot to to be in.
20:53
I like that pyramid image. Yeah.
20:55
And including it may be implied in the relationship is providing
20:59
reasons. I met a young man who told me
21:02
how much his parents helps him. They, they didn't give him a
21:05
smartphone until he was, I think 18 and he didn't give him any
21:10
phone till he's 18. And he really appreciated that.
21:13
And he because he can see the destruction.
21:15
It reeks on his colleagues. But he said what was helpful is
21:18
that his parents gave reasons throughout what?
21:22
What are the respective advantages of Bark and Gab
21:25
phones? Our team just pushed out some
21:31
updated material on our platform and then on our YouTube channel
21:36
kind of comparing the different smartphones that are built for
21:40
kids called the Ultimate Guide of Smartphones.
21:45
I wasn't the one who reviewed the did the most recent review
21:48
and and deep dive into both of those.
21:51
The thing about Gab is you've got a parent interface, kind of
21:56
a parent platform to and it's rapidly changed.
22:01
But to make a lot of these kind of changes and restrictions as
22:07
the child ages. I think the Gab phone and the
22:10
Gab watch, the smartwatch are about really good for younger
22:14
children. But then, and like I said, I
22:18
they might have updated stuff since I last reviewed it, but I
22:23
thought it was harder for an older child like middle school
22:28
for sure, high school there to use it effectively.
22:34
Whereas a true me and the bark, it felt like a normal phone,
22:39
normal smart, normal smartphone with functionalities that you
22:43
would want. And so I, I always lean towards
22:45
more of the true me and the bark just because in my mind,
22:51
especially with like kind of our mantra for parent pre tech is
22:57
like, we want to help families help their kids build a healthy
23:00
relationship with tech, whether that be on their phone or their
23:04
school computer or whatever it is.
23:06
That way when they do get to college or enter into their
23:10
first job after high school, that they built these habits and
23:16
are aware of the consequences and the dangers out there and
23:20
are able to use tech for good, but also are very much aware of
23:24
the bad and ugly impacts they can have too.
23:28
And so I think that bark and true me, especially with true
23:32
Me's features of, you know, give any more access as a child
23:36
matures is kind of the way to go with that mission of let's build
23:41
our children or let's help our children to to really use tech
23:45
effectively because it's not going anywhere.
23:48
It is only becoming larger and larger with AI being in the
23:52
equation and so on that I don't think the right answer is no
24:00
tech at all, because I think at some point they're going to have
24:03
unbridled access and then what do they do with it?
24:07
Well, why would any parent in their right mind give their
24:09
child a so-called smart watch? I know a lot of the argument is
24:17
that's an easy way for them to call their child like through
24:22
the watch or if they're like at baseball practice and the parent
24:29
isn't there and the the mom texts the the daughter or the
24:34
son that they're in route. And then they can just tap one
24:39
thing and say like, OK, and then GPSG PS: Tracking 2.
24:45
It's definitely. That sounds like a.
24:46
Dyspnea. Yeah.
24:49
I, I mean, I, I think a lot of times parents are kind of going
24:53
that route first before introducing a phone, but maybe
24:59
sometimes not necessarily thinking.
25:02
And, and here's what we see a lot is there's a lot of
25:05
conversation on like smartphones and the phone component.
25:10
But then we see a lot of parents give an iPad to a child or a
25:15
smartphone or a smart watch. And I think if we're not
25:18
thinking or let them have unbridled access to Netflix.
25:24
And I, I think, I think the big thing that we see and that we
25:37
would urge parents to think about is we have to have the
25:44
same verdict and mindset with technology overall that we do
25:51
with just a phone too. Because that iPad connected to
25:55
Wi-Fi has a lot of the same capabilities that the smartphone
26:02
and, and can be used in a lot of the bad ways that a smartphone
26:06
can. And if you're not extra careful
26:11
with the contacts that are in saved in your kids smartwatch or
26:20
yeah, you, you, you don't know who could be who could be
26:23
reaching out to them or what they could be exposed to and so
26:27
on. And and then for sure when it
26:29
comes to like unbridled access to any rated movie TV show on
26:34
Netflix. I mean, I'm shocked when I open
26:38
up Netflix on the TV and see the content that's just so readily
26:42
available at our fingertips compared to what it was 10 years
26:47
ago. And the type of language and the
26:50
type of content that were shown in almost every single movie or
26:55
TV show out there. And so I think we have to think
26:59
of these added layers of protection that we do with
27:02
phones, that we do with iPads and the TV and the laptop or the
27:08
games that we let our children play on their phone, if that
27:12
makes sense. Sometimes there's, there's
27:17
promoted this sense of inevitability of getting a
27:20
smartphone. And I just, I just question that
27:23
whole assumption. You know, there's like a magic
27:26
even even parents who will delay for a long time, like all of a
27:30
sudden 18 is a magic number. Oh, well, of course somebody
27:33
give them a smartphone when they're 18.
27:36
But guess what? Most 18 year olds are not mature
27:40
enough to use a smartphone. Well, most 25 year olds are not
27:43
mature enough. In fact, most 50 year olds are
27:47
not mature enough to use a smartphone well.
27:52
No, I, I mean, I, I think you're, I think you're right.
27:55
And we, we do see a, a big rise right now in the amount of
27:59
people shifting to dumb phones and even kids lately that I've
28:04
heard are wanting and asking their parents for, for these
28:08
phones that really only have phone call capabilities, texting
28:14
capabilities and like calendar alarm very basic.
28:20
What would it be at the? The basic example of that and
28:23
most prominent example of that. It's called the light phone is
28:28
the one that we, we hear a lot of people shifting to right now.
28:36
And I, I think probably though, the biggest pusher of parents to
28:42
get their kids a smartphone, I would say today is going to be
28:48
the peer pressure that the kids get from being around kids at
28:52
their school or in their clubs. Like once one kid in the friend
29:00
group gets a smartphone, then there's that relentless
29:07
questioning and asking like, well, so and so has it.
29:10
So why can't I? Or so and so is using it fine
29:13
without any issues. Well, why can't I get it?
29:18
And so I think it with the cell phone discussion for sure, you
29:23
know, we think it's so important to surround yourself with
29:26
families that like A, feel the same way that you do and also
29:31
recognize the dangers out there. And then B, kind of band
29:35
together and delay as much as possible.
29:38
Or when the time does come, you know, push the like phone or
29:44
push an option that's different than what society and the rest
29:48
of the world is telling us kids need to have.
29:53
How do you find that community? I think, I mean, for me, I think
30:04
being a Christian, I think the greatest community comes from
30:07
those that we have through the church.
30:13
And I'd say in, in what we see, it's a lot of families that
30:22
don't hide from the, the data and the truth and, and what we
30:27
see with technology. And so I think and then through
30:32
school, you've got a built in community of, of parents with
30:35
kids in the same age range. And so I, I think we would push
30:40
families to, to either get with parents at your church or at
30:46
your school in the PTOPTA, whatever, whatever it is that
30:50
you call it at your school and, and really try to band together
30:54
earlier rather than later, obviously to kind of find that
31:00
community. Yeah, it's true, because whether
31:06
inside the church or outside the church, most people are like
31:08
sheep without a shepherd. So it's it's hard to find those
31:11
people who are going to not only share those values
31:15
intellectually, but have the willpower to follow through on
31:18
them. True, true.
31:21
Yeah, for sure the willpower and I think it's important for the
31:27
church, which I think we've seen has been pretty cool as we work
31:30
with more churches around the country, is when you look at
31:37
technology and its impact on the faith of kids today.
31:48
I think it, it's easy to tell that the algorithm and the type
31:53
of content that that kids today when they are given access or
31:58
even back to the Netflix example, there's so much content
32:03
being thrown at at us from society that it's, it's easy to
32:07
kind of get kids focused on things that that's different
32:12
than and the real priorities of life, faith, family and so on.
32:19
Yeah, OK. Well, that's been a very helpful
32:22
intro to parent pro tech of the little plan where it's there,
32:27
just figure it out as you're talking pro tech.
32:30
Anyways, thanks for your patience with that.
32:32
I get honestly, I can just get enraged when I'm reminded of
32:36
weak parents, but I want to shift to how you, you built the
32:41
actual business here, because it's very impressive.
32:43
I'm, I'm just curious. Thank you.
32:45
The, the web, the website is really well put together.
32:47
I'll be curious how you did that and then also just what your
32:50
business model is as a business. Yeah.
32:54
So on the last question, first, we've got the platform built
32:59
where individual families can sign up for $4.99 a month.
33:05
That's access to our team. If you have one-on-one questions
33:09
that you have around technology. And then the on demand library
33:12
of resources going over everything that we talked about
33:15
earlier and the the content for you to watch with your kids as
33:20
well on your own time. But we also work with a lot of
33:25
directly with a lot of churches and schools.
33:28
We're in about 5000 schools and churches communities today
33:32
around the country. And so it's been cool to see
33:35
God's hand in that. And so when we work with a
33:39
school, let's say all of their parents get access to the parent
33:42
library of resources, their educators get access as well.
33:47
And then the educators also get access to all the curriculum
33:49
that we've built too. So we've got that K12 curriculum
33:53
at the fingertips that they can start using in the classroom to
33:57
help build these healthy relationships of tech between
34:00
kids and tech. And so, and if they're
34:06
interested, churches or schools, they can just fill out a form on
34:10
our website and we'll be able to, to reach out and, and kind
34:13
of work on that because we also do like in person or, or virtual
34:18
presentations, the families and church staff and, and leaders in
34:22
different communities. And so I really trying to help
34:28
shed more light on the tech problems today and how we how we
34:32
can be a little bit more proactive in kind of taking this
34:37
head on. And then it's, it's just been
34:41
really cool seeing the growth of, of what we've built
34:47
initially in in 2021 to what it is now in the team that we've
34:53
built. So we've got a, a team of 5
34:56
right now, but we're about to hire about 10 more people to
35:00
help with, with our growth around the country.
35:04
And then but we've, we've built people from some of the team is
35:10
from Elevation Church in Charlotte to like we've got some
35:14
people in Florida adding on the West Coast now too.
35:18
But bulk of our team right now is in the Houston area.
35:22
And so I would love to be a resource to, to families that
35:25
are listening to communities that you're a part of to really
35:30
help. I mean, our mission at the end
35:32
of the day is if we can help prevent just one kid from being
35:36
cyber bullied or help prevent just one from being trafficked
35:39
or help prevent just one from getting addicted to a screen,
35:42
then we've won. And so anything that we can do
35:44
to lean in and support families and communities and that that's
35:48
really what we want to do. How did you grow so quickly?
35:54
I, I think a lot of people see or either see the issue with
36:01
technology or hate the relationship that they have with
36:04
technology and don't want that same personal relationship that
36:12
they have. They they don't want kids to
36:14
have that same relationship too. I think also, like thanks to
36:18
Jonathan Height and the book The Anxious Generation, I think it
36:23
shed a lot of light on, you know, the, the data and the
36:27
stats of kind of kind of being a good wake up call to a lot of
36:31
people. And so I, I think we, and as I
36:35
think we're the team, everyone's incredible.
36:39
I, I think we've been really good listeners since we started
36:44
in 2021 of hearing the real issues and frustrations and
36:48
anxieties that parents and, and educators have and that kids
36:52
have too. And also a lot of our team is on
36:56
the younger side who grew up in this kind of tech boom.
36:59
And so I think we're also going at it from a lens of not, not a
37:04
ban restrict, no tech at all. But how can we kind of step back
37:09
and, and look at tech as a whole and figure out, you know, how do
37:13
we leverage it in the best way possible while also cutting out
37:19
opportunities for for danger and for those ugly impacts it can
37:23
have too? Any particular business
37:26
strategies or you know, breaks that y'all got that led to this
37:29
growth? I think having a bit of a policy
37:34
background for myself has been helpful.
37:35
Just as a lot of states, you're putting more more light,
37:39
shedding more light on online safety.
37:43
And so the state of Georgia passed the bill SP351 last year
37:49
that added curriculum requirements in the state to be
37:53
teaching kids on online safety and digital citizenship.
37:57
And so we just launched our partnership with the Georgia
38:00
Department of Education a bit ago, giving every public school
38:04
in the state access to the parent project platform in our
38:07
curriculum. That's huge dude.
38:08
That's a great contract. No, thank you.
38:11
It's, it's exciting. And, and so we've, we've been
38:14
heavy in on boarding Georgia, Georgia educators and, and
38:19
Georgia districts and, and now they're starting to push out
38:22
families as we enter into the new school year.
38:25
But I think we're, we're really trying to kind of lean in and
38:30
also really trying to, to meet the, the needs of, of different
38:37
communities. But I, I think our unique
38:39
proposition, especially when we do these larger like community
38:43
partnerships is really trying to meet the needs of the parent,
38:48
meet the need of the educator or like the church staff and meet
38:53
the needs of students and really addressing all three of us
38:57
different groups in a way that really help with the change that
39:04
we want to see around technology.
39:07
So that's kind of our our uniqueness I think is being able
39:12
to target both all, all three of those those areas.
39:16
OK. Yeah.
39:17
And I think that would distinguish you from protect
39:19
young eyes, which I think is primarily targeted at the
39:22
parents or educators. Well, and we love, I mean, I, I
39:28
think our mentality is like we, I love Chris and he's a wealth
39:33
of knowledge and it's going to take all of us, you, Chris,
39:38
others talking about it to really get the message out there
39:44
to hopefully see the change that we want.
39:48
And so I, I definitely think it's, it's one of those a rising
39:51
tide floats all boats type of approach that we have to have.
39:55
Yeah, Wilson, OK. Last question, just this
39:58
technical one again. You recommend Griffin.
40:01
It's some sort of like. Should we just explain why that
40:03
is why you recommend it? Yes.
40:06
So kind of talking about the the multiple layers of protection,
40:12
we talked heavy on like divide device being so important.
40:16
We talked about having the conversations and building that
40:18
relational piece. Griffin is a good option for
40:23
your home network and it's a device, a router that easily
40:29
adds those extra layers of protection to make sure that
40:31
your kids aren't looking up things that they shouldn't.
40:35
And, and it just adds a lot of great controls for the parent at
40:41
home. So we have a whole kind of Wi-Fi
40:45
series on the platform. If you walking parents through
40:51
caregivers through how to how to put parental controls on your
40:55
current router system at home. But Griffin is a just another
41:00
great option that's pretty easy for families to kind of just add
41:07
that extra layer of protection on your home network.
41:10
So love, love Griffin. Cool.
41:14
Great. Well, thanks Brock.
41:15
Any last words for us? Hi, I, I thank you again for,
41:20
for having me on. I, I think the big thing with
41:23
technology, I think right now is it can be so overwhelming and
41:29
whether you've given technology to your, your child or you
41:32
haven't yet, but it's, it's still overwhelming.
41:37
But I, I also think that like parents who are listening, I
41:46
mean, listening and hearing more about the, the data and the
41:49
stats is already a step in the right direction.
41:54
And I think the great thing about technology is we always
42:00
can can make decisions and reflect and create a healthier
42:06
relationship, either personally with technology or put things in
42:10
place to help our our kids have a healthy relationship too.
42:14
And so it's a never ending process, but it's also a
42:17
redeeming one too. And so I think it's awesome
42:22
thing, just a reminder of keeping up.
42:24
And I don't think anyone feels like they have tech under
42:29
control. And so we have to go at it as a
42:33
community to keep each other on pace, but also help our kids
42:40
navigated as safely as possible. Murphy, thank you.
42:45
Thanks for listening. Please like, subscribe and share
42:47
with your friends. See you next time.