IoT tech makes the internet a safer place for children

The iKydz product suite is retail ready - meaning that telecom firms can easily white label and integrate it as part of their existing offering.

According to recent reports, the global parental control market was valued at around $1,400m in 2016 and is expected to reach approximately $3,300m by 2025. The global parental control market is expected to exhibit a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of over 11.5% between 2018 and 2025.

Zyalin Group founders John Molloy, Eddie Kilbane and Owen Van den Bergh are all tech entrepreneurs and parents themselves with a passion to make the Internet safer for children.

Zyalin Group Director of Operations Owen Van den Bergh said: “There is an epidemic brewing in today’s connected world. Children’s open, unchecked use of the internet is leading to a shift in young people’s social interactions, often to the detriment of their mental health. Much like global warming, the world may not see the problem until it is too late.

“We want to make a safer internet. And we want telecoms companies to use our products to help parents and carers create boundaries on the internet for their children. Our simple, retail-ready solution can easily be white labelled by phone operators and vendors.

“We provide our solutions with a simple, scalable infrastructure, making it easy for operators and providers to deploy revenue-generating, value-adding services to their customers. It gives telecommunication companies a strong differentiator in a fractured marketplace that is crowded with poorly thought-through half-solutions around internet safety and control.”

The products are device and system agnostic, meaning telecoms operators’ customers can easily manage their children’s online access and screen time across any type of connected device including mobiles, tablets and desktop computers.

Owen added: “Customers are frustrated and confused by what’s currently on offer in the internet safety space. There is a real need for a robust but unobtrusive solution. Unlike most of the app-based solutions currently on offer, iKydz software cannot be switched off or removed by tech-savvy kids. This means that parents and carers are fully in control of everything their children access on the internet via their smartphones, games consoles and tablets and how long for.”

iKydz is available to operators and telecoms companies in an array of configurations, with little to no integration requirements and fast deployment:

• iKydz is deployed as a QR code sold as a part of a smartphone package to customers.
• Also deployed as software or hardware integrated within the telecoms company’s existing offering and provided to its customers.

iKydz Mobile and iKydz Home are the two core products in the iKydz range. The simplicity of solution delivery allows customers to manage all of their children’s connected devices (on WiFi or on 3G/4G/5G) with just one app on their own phone.

Customers are issued with a QR code when they purchase iKydz Mobile - this is a new way of deploying the solution, making it instantly attractive to retailers. The technology is a NRCP agent (Network Resident Control Protocol) solution meaning it runs like an application but sits on the back-end of the child’s device.

iKydz Home is a smart device that plugs into any existing internet router. The technology can also be deployed directly to a provider’s existing CPE estate via a firmware update. This creates a safe network at home and allows parents and carers to control the content available to each separate device on their WiFi network. Bespoke access and time limits can be set for each user and each device, also enabling parents to limit ‘gaming time’ when they’re not at home to monitor their children.

Children cannot remove or switch off the software once it’s set up. Most other internet safety products are traditional apps and are easy for children, particularly teenagers, to circumvent.

iKydz has been successfully launched in Ireland where it is being sold through Nokia and Vodafone. The company has also agreed deals with retailers and phone networks in China, Japan, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Nigeria.