New Bedford Men Create App To Help Parents Police Cyberspace
Concerned about what your kids are doing online? An app created by two local men can help you watch over your kids in cyberspace without spying on everything they do.
The app is called Social Judo and it's designed to send parents an alert when something suspicious or dangerous happens on their child's phone.
App creators, neurologist Dr. Matthew Phillips and computer engineer Ken Smith, tell NBC 10 that they got the idea after seeing kids glued to their smartphones at a lacrosse game.
As the app's website states, Social Judo is a way for
parents to be aware of the dangers of smartphone use and abuse the our children are being exposed to everyday."
So how exactly does it work?
detects profanity, pornography, even nudity
Social Judo uses algorithms that search the contents of your child's phone for profanity, pornography, even nudity and when anything deemed dangerous is detected, parents get an alert sent to their phone.
And once the alert is sent, parents can decide if they want to lock down their child's phone from their own and prevent them from seeing or receiving the questionable material anymore.
helps parents deal with the list of internet threats their children are exposed to
The New Bedford creators say this app can help parents deal with the list of internet threats their children are exposed to.
You can learn more from their website SocialJudo.com or the company's Facebook page. And every Thursday night the app's chief parenting expert Andrea DiFilippo hosts a live chat at 7:30 p.m.