With the newly widespread availability of voice-controlled assistants such as Alexa, parents are looking for new ways to restrict children’s use of all devices in the home. One recent story told of surprised parents whose toddler had ordered toys over the internet that were delivered to their home, unbeknownst to them.
Parental control technology has its strengths. The object is to protect innocent children from disturbing or adult content. But there comes a day in everyone’s life when they are exposed to realities that will destroy the innocence that has built up in a loving and nurturing relationship with parents and family. Nonetheless, it’s hard for parents to determine at what age a child or young adult should learn about the “birds and bees.” What seems to happen these days is that children are exposed to disturbing or adult content at earlier and earlier ages.
If parents could actually choose a date on which their children would learn about the vicissitudes of the world, we would all likely choose 16 or 18 years old. Dealing with life’s challenges with full knowledge of good and bad is really work for an adult, or someone who has achieved the requisite level of personal maturity and self-understanding. Unfortunately, many parents are so wound up in the challenges of their own lives that they neglect to take the time to discuss or even consider these matters. Even when parents are locked in on their children’s experience, they can’t watch them 24 hours a day. A story goes that some parents woke up in the middle of the night to find a young child watching pornography and they weren’t even sure that the child knew what they were watching.
Entrepreneurial Opportunity in Parental Control Market
This type of situation is a ripe opportunity for entrepreneurs. Aerez, for example, has put together routers loaded with custom software that provides parental control of internet access.
For larger companies such as Apple, the iPhone/iPad now have a large number of parental control apps such as iKeyMonitor. Linksys’ Mesh Router provides a Wi-Fi management tool that takes care of guest access, parental controls, and prioritizing devices as well.
The following video explains how to set up Parental Controls on iOS devices.
