It doesn't corresponds with the slogan "Give your kids the freedom to explore.." more like "control your kids". for sure I will not use this, I want to promote self-awareness to my kid, not constant control.
@bogomep I love that you're taking the time to develop self-awareness and good judgement in your kids! That's fantastic parenting and definitely more important than any piece of technology.
I think what's changed recently is that much younger kids are now online. They're still developing the maturity and judgement (and spelling!) to get to the right places. So while traditional parental controls were primarily for policing teenagers, KidsWifi is especially designed as a safety net for young kids. I've taught my kids to bike independently, but still have them wear helmets when they go out.
So sweet to get hunted! I'm the primary maker on the team, so happy to share our design vision and answer questions.
I have kids that are 8, 5 and 2-years-old. When my 8-year-old was 2, he wasn't on the Internet (2008, right?). Today, my 2-year-old is online. We might set her up with YouTube, but she clicks on whatever catches her eye, and already knows how to say, "Okay, Google!" I'm glad to let her explore and simply want to limit where she can go and when she has screen time.
That's what's new about parenting connected kids. They're younger and accessing using many different devices (including ones friends bring over). Talking to other parents with young kids, the majority of us had no protections in place. Our goal with KidsWifi was to make something elegantly simple that takes care of the kids while leaving the home network otherwise unaffected.
It's been a joy to serve the "KiWi" families so far, looking forward to doing much more with many more families to come!
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I was a beta tester and we still use it all the time in our house. There's a lot of things I really appreciate it, but among the most is for casual youtube browsing.
It's very easy for kids to be watching lets play videos of Mario and to have the recommended videos be content I don't want them watching. It doesn't free one of the obligation of parenting in any way but it does act as a safety net for the times when I'm pulled away or not in the same room for any number of reasons when the next video comes up.
There's other, less obvious benefits as well. One really nice side effect, a few weeks ago we got a new wifi router as part of an ISP upgrade and being lazy we decided not to change the SSID from the random-seeming default. Setting up the kids wifi meant the playstation, the ipad, our phones, the computer for the kids or their 3DS. We use it for guest access too a lot of the time so any visitors don't have to change. That's a really small thing but it's a nice perk.
I was also a beta tester and have a production unit now - it gives great peace of mind. I still watch what my kids do on the iPad - but knowing that the really bad content is blocked is awesome.
If I was a parent this would be a no brainer. Sometimes I think I should just buy this for myself and block reddit, PH and twitter. So much time saved at home :).
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Hunter
I would definitely recommend the product to parents, kids, school administrators etc
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