3265: The Future of Safe Tech for Kids Starts with Troomi

[00:00:04] What if there was a better way to introduce your child to technology without exposing them to the dangers that come with it? Well, today I'm joined by Bill Brady, CEO and co-founder of a company called Troomi, which offer a kids-safe phone that is designed for digital wellness and positive mental health. And as the world grapples with screen addiction, cyber bullying and mental health toll of constant connectivity, Troomi is taking a different approach to help kids.

[00:00:34] So I've invited him on here today to talk about the Android-based platform that empowers parents and grows with their child's maturity, all while eliminating the threats lurking in social media and unfiltered web access. So how can we shift the conversation around tech and kids from fear to optimism? Well, it's time for me to officially introduce you to today's guest.

[00:01:02] So a massive warm welcome to the show. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do? Bill Brady So my name is Bill Brady. I'm the CEO of Troomi, and we're a digital wellness company to help kids have a safe cell phone experience. Most importantly, I'm a husband and father to five fantastic kids. And I bring that up because I'm right in the middle of all these issues with kids and tech

[00:01:31] that we're going to be talking about. I'm right in the middle of it with everyone else. Bill Brady Oh, absolutely love it. And that is one of the reasons I invited you on the podcast today. It's an issue we don't talk about enough. And yet every family everywhere in the world is impacted by this. And to begin with, I've got to ask about your origin story. I mean, what was it that inspired you to create Troomi? And what gap in the market were you aiming to fill right from the outset? Bill Brady You know, the dots actually started getting connected years ago.

[00:02:00] I was an undergraduate student at university studying marketing and communications and everything. And I read a book called Technopoly by a guy named Neil Postman. And it kind of raised my conscientiousness or awareness around the obviously the benefits of technology, but the dangerous potential dehumanizing

[00:02:28] effects of technology and how it's changing the human experience. And so when my wife and I got married, we were just always very intentional, very purposeful about what we brought into our house and decided that we would be intentional the same way with our kids in tech as we had kids. And it fast forward a few years and all of a sudden we've got five kids. And in the market,

[00:02:55] there were some solutions that had come out intended to be safer for kids, but they were so locked down that they seemed impractical. So on one end of the spectrum, you could give your kids, a $1,400 iPhone that does anything and everything. And parents are realizing that's not the way to go. And on the other end of the spectrum, some things that were so impractical that

[00:03:21] perhaps kids wouldn't use them or it wouldn't really meet the need. And so with Troomi, we sought to create something that was frankly more safe than what was out there, but also a lot easier to use for a parent to manage and much more flexible. And that's really the gap that we've that we've filled. And I think in recent years, we've all seen what happens with that electronic babysitter, how it's become

[00:03:47] well, we've all been having growing concerns about screen addiction and of course, social media's impact on mental health, not just on adults, but on kids, especially. So how does Troomi help kids develop that healthier relationship with technology? Well, it starts by introducing an age appropriate amount of technology. You know, given a child's

[00:04:13] actual practical needs, their maturity level, you know, it enables parents to give the child what they need for that age. So you can, you can custom fit a Troomi environment for an eight year old or a 12 year old or a 15 year old and have it be safe and practical at any of those ages. So it's the, it's the idea of giving a younger kid a limited experience and letting them grow into more

[00:04:42] functionality without having to replace the hardware all the time. The parents are able to graduate them from one, one function to the next, to the next as their needs and their maturity evolve. And I think it's fair to say that many parents struggle to balance that safety with giving kids access to technology, especially. So how does your approach differ from, let's say other

[00:05:06] parental control solutions? Because there are a lot out there. Some are more effective than others, but how does your approach differ? So those themes of maximizing safety while maximizing flexibility, that's a huge one. So, you know, whether you're looking at the way we manage, you know, a safe contact list or the way we

[00:05:29] manage content filtering, it's not one size fits all. It's, it's enabling parents to very easily, very intuitively custom fit those sense, those, those functions for the maturity of their child. We also have a lot more visibility into what kids are doing and frankly, how kids are doing.

[00:05:54] So we're the, we're the only kids safe phone that is concerned, not just about safety, but overall digital wellness and mental health. So we're actually providing parents with insight into what are their kids' predominant emotions and what are, what are insights into things they may be thinking about and worrying about, which is very differentiating. At the, at the core, we believe that, you know,

[00:06:20] digital safety and positive mental health with kids, they're inextricably connected. So rather than just solve the symptoms of the problem, we want to help parents have the information they need to perhaps be addressing broader issues if they exist. And one of the things that stood out to me is how Trumi's operating system evolves with a child's needs and maturity. And I think that's so important.

[00:06:47] Children, as they grow up, they encounter so many different problems with technology and those problems get bigger obviously as well. But what are the features that make this possible? Dr. Justin Marchegiani So I'll call out a couple. Dr. Justin Marchegiani You know, one is, is this notion of contact safe listing. So you can, with contact safe listing enabled, literally the child can only talk in text with

[00:07:14] people who are on that contact list that's been, you know, vetted by the parent. But that's got flexibility to it. You know, so for, for an eight or a nine year old, you'd say, absolutely, you know, that's going to be a limited contact list. And the child can only send or receive texts with those people. But that's not practical or necessary for a 16 year old.

[00:07:38] You know, for a 16 year old, you could say, you know what, there's still a safe contact list. And so you won't be pursued by predators or bullies or spammers. But you know what, you're old enough to add your own contacts, I don't need to approve your contacts anymore. And I've gone through that evolution with my own kids as they learn to have good judgment. Another one is content filtering. You know, so if with content filtering turned on,

[00:08:09] explicit images are automatically blocked. You know, if there's a nude picture, it's not coming in, and it's not going out, which is another one of the big differentiators of, you know, between true me and other, other things out there. If in a, in a moment of poor judgment, a child gets tricked or fooled into sending a picture of themselves that they shouldn't, it's not going out. And you see the horror stories around kids and sextortion.

[00:08:38] But beyond the obvious stuff, there's also the ability for parents to, to set the sensitivity of the AI that is running that content filtering. So that when it comes to language, for example, there may be words that you're okay with your, a 15 year old using, but not a seven year old or a nine year old. And so the parent can, has that amount of, again, very easy to use control to set that.

[00:09:07] And you mentioned cyber bullying and predators. I think threats like that are becoming more and more sophisticated now. So how do you, true me, how do you mitigate some of the risks around that? Well, ultimately still allowing kids to stay connected and enjoy that tech. So part of it, it's, that's a fantastic question because there's the functionality side of it,

[00:09:30] but we're also trying to create a relationship with technology where number one, it's viewed as a tool, an essential tool, but a tool and not a lifestyle. Not a, you know, the default for my free time is screen time. We want kids to be out playing, exploring, going down the street and gathering

[00:09:55] kids to go to the park and throw balls and do all these things. And so that's the first thing is just creating a paradigm where kids are using the technology for the wonderful benefits, using it as a tool, but not feeling like I have to be on a screen all the time, which is where so many of those problems begin. If you know, the more time that kids spend on screens, the, you know, the greater chances they

[00:10:23] have of connecting with those, you know, predators or bullies. We keep with the contact safe listing and by not allowing social media, which we don't, we're limiting where we're, you know, really going as far as we can to say predators and bullies are not going to reach your children. And especially, you know, if a parent is managing that, that contact safe list, they can have a high degree

[00:10:50] of confidence that intruders are not going to be talking to, to their children. I'm a hundred percent with you on everything that you're saying here, especially around finding that right balance and ensuring children are not always face down in their smartphones, but some listening, especially younger listeners, they may have a counter argument that restricting access to social media or gaming might put them at a disadvantage socially. So how would you respond

[00:11:20] to that perspective? I think that's a, um, a lie we tell ourselves, frankly. Uh, you know, it's, it sounds like a great argument for a kid who's saying everyone else has one, you know, I'm the only kid in my class that doesn't have Instagram. Yeah. You know, um, the truth is, as we dig in on that, uh, there's, it's not just one kid that doesn't have Instagram or doesn't have a, a full

[00:11:47] smartphone or call of duty or grand theft or, uh, and all that, whatever those things are right. And here's the, here's the truth, Neil is there, there was some phenomenal research done by the Pew Research Center here in the United States that talked to kids and said, and asked kids, what does social media do? What, what is it doing for you? 73% of the kids in the survey said, I know that social media

[00:12:17] harms my mental health, but I feel trapped, you know, uh, cause of this expectation that, you know, the cool kids are doing it, but I know it erodes my mental health. I actually got a letter from a girl in New York city. Uh, and she, she wrote a handwritten letter, uh, dear Mr. Brady. My name is so-and-so I'm 14 years old. I live in New York. I got into trouble with my iPhone and I need to tell

[00:12:44] you my story. My mom took the phone away for two months. I thought I was going to die after a couple months. She said, it's time for a second chance. And she gave me a true me phone. And when I realized it didn't have social media again, she said, I thought I was going to die, but Neil, the best part was the end. She said, I'm writing you a letter to tell you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:13:11] I didn't know I could be this happy. And I burst into tears. Like that's why we're doing what we're doing. And, and so kids may feel trapped by this expectation that they have to be doing it. But for so many of the kids that never get into it, the, whether it's the social meeting or just the excessive screen time or they're in it and then step out, they immediately see the benefit.

[00:13:38] Yeah. And it's such a beautiful story. When I think of things like that, I, I also think at the time that it took that young girl to sit down, put pen to paper, handwrite a note, put it in an envelope, walk to the post office and send it to you. So man, what a, what a powerful story that is. So we've got this tool, fantastic tool. What role do you think schools and communities should be playing in digital wellness now? And how can parents maybe better work with them to create this

[00:14:06] overall safer tech environment for kids? Well, that's the debate, right? You know, there, there are those who say, no, kids have to have phones in schools. And there are those that say kids should not have phones in schools. Yeah. Um, I believe that, that kids need to be able to learn and teachers need to be able to teach. So I think, uh, I think it's difficult to say

[00:14:30] you can't have a phone on school premises that I think that goes too far, but I do think we should say kids should not have phones in classrooms. Yeah. And I've read other research that shows it's 97% of kids in the survey said, yeah, of course I use my phone during class. And that makes it really difficult for a teacher to create an environment of learning that doesn't

[00:14:55] have the distractions, the, the, the vibrations or the ding, ding, you know, it just, it makes it really hard for teachers and students. And so you've got now, uh, around the world, you see Western countries saying, you know what, we're going to do this differently. And you see different efforts to limit, uh, schools and classrooms, whether it's country by country or at a district

[00:15:19] level. Uh, and that's what we're seeing here in the United States is, uh, now, you know, coming up on, well, well over a third of States have had some kind of government action to either set a law or a policy that saying, you know what, we need to reduce the distraction of devices in classrooms. And I think that's the right way to go. And if we were to look ahead, how do you see that

[00:15:44] relationship between our kids and technology continuing to evolve? And also what's next for Trumi? How do you adapt to that relationship evolving too? Well, we, the next big technology without question is AI. And I, um, I believe hope, uh, that, you know, with the lessons we've learned

[00:16:07] about how we rolled out social media with, with into, you know, this great 15 year experiment of giving kids iPhones. Uh, and now we see the negative fallout of that. I hope that we'll do that more effectively, smarter, uh, and, um, and provide some guardrails for how, for how AI is used with kids,

[00:16:32] but that's definitely going to be part of the technology they're using. We've got a new product coming out. That's, uh, it's a safe web browser. That's using AI in really great ways, uh, to, to vet content before it's served. So, you know, a parent could say, yes, I do want my child to have access to the internet because by default they don't on a Trumi phone, but a parent could say, yes, I do want

[00:16:59] them to have internet access on Trumi safe browser, but I don't want them to see content that is pornographic or hate speech or gambling or whatever those things are. And then in real time, we're using AI to vet the content before it's served. And it's either served or the child gets a message that says, Oh, sorry. It looks like that content. It doesn't fit your family standard. And, um,

[00:17:29] so there are phenomenal uses of AI. Uh, we're even looking at ways to, to use AI, uh, in learning applications without just giving the answers to the kid, you know? So it's, it's used constructively and not as a, ah, I don't have to do my homework anymore because chat GPT is going to do it for me. So, so it's, it's, you know, there are definitely, uh, definitely considerations as we, as we get

[00:17:58] further down the road into kids in AI. And for anybody listening, well, maybe we've set off a few alarm bells here and they're thinking, Hey, I need to look more into this. So Trumi can be a phone. Am I right in saying it can just be the browser as well? What is it that you offer here and, and how would the parents use it for their children? Yeah. So Trumi, you know, we sell the device, we use Samsung hardware. Uh, we sell the device

[00:18:23] with our operating system on it already. And that's what the child receives. Uh, and it just looks like an Android phone. There's nothing that screams, this is a kid phone. It's just, it's an Android Samsung, beautiful phone with a great camera and, uh, wonderful. The parents receive what's called the parent portal in the parent portal is a web-based app. They can access from any anywhere where they're controlling those settings on the phone that they can adjust

[00:18:51] and have maximum visibility into what the, what and how their kids are doing. Um, so those, those are kind of the two components, the phone and the, the parent portal. And it's just as easy as, as parents ordering the phone, it shows up with the operating system already on it, really easy activation process. And, uh, it's ready to go. We're the phone service as well.

[00:19:18] So the, the, we're also providing that talk text and data, uh, just doing it in a, in a safe operating environment for the child. And where do you, um, what markets do you serve at the moment? Are you just in the U S at the moment? Yeah, just in the United States right now. Any plans for, uh, expanding further? Is it something you'd be interested in in the future? Yeah, definitely. You know, looking at what's

[00:19:45] going on globally, the demand for products like this is not, not limited to the United States. Uh, and in the UK, for example, you know, massive conversation and massive demand from parents saying, let's please do this differently. Uh, so we've been, we've been watching some of those conversations with, uh, attentiveness. And before I let you go, something I always try and ask my guests,

[00:20:11] I thank you first of all, for sharing your insights with me today, but I want you to leave one final gift to everyone listening. I've got a Amazon wishlist where I asked my guests to leave a book. So before I let you go, what book would you like to add to that wishlist and why? You know, your, the wishlist on Amazon is awesome. I've looked at it. Uh, and I, it filled my cart with books I need to buy. Um, the book that I would recommend is, uh, is just immediately related

[00:20:41] to all these issues. And it's a book that was published last year by a researcher at New York University named Jonathan Haidt. And it's called The Anxious Generation. And in this book, uh, Dr. Haidt completely unpacks the relationship between how parenting styles have changed over the last 30 years. And, you know, combined with the introduction of screens into childhood and kind

[00:21:11] of the departure from a play-based childhood into a screen-based childhood. And he looks at all of the very negative consequences of that, including skyrocketing levels of stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, isolation among our kids. And he spells it all out, not just for the United States, but for Western countries. He's got research from everywhere. And then he ends with, and here's my

[00:21:39] advice. Stop giving younger kids iPhones, delay the use of social media, get back to a play-based childhood, get kids off screens, let them be kids. Anyway, I think it should be required reading for every parent because it is, uh, just an, a phenomenal insight into again, what, you know, what the consequences have been of giving kids too much technology too soon.

[00:22:08] Well, I'll add that straight to the Amazon wishlist, an incredible and important read right now. And for rural parents in the U S maybe they want to find out more about Trumi and how it might work for them and, and their family. And equally, if there's a business leader listening, maybe they're interested in being a future business partner with you, maybe expanding it to a different region or a different country. Where can people go to find out more information and connect you or your team?

[00:22:36] Yeah. Trumi.com is the best place for more info. T-R-O-O-M-I, uh, is how we spell Trumi. And on the website, you can obviously learn more about the product. Uh, but we also have a fantastic set of resources to help parents through some of these questions with, you know, parenting in this digital age. And, um, and certainly, you know, we'd love for people to learn more there and figure

[00:23:01] out what is the right kind of solution for their family. I love it. Well, I will have links to everything to make it nice and easy for everyone. I think this is just a great conversation starter today about that relationship between our kids and the technology that we all probably are guilty of overusing, but it's more important for kids, especially of course, but just thank you for shining a light on this and the great work that you're doing. And we'd love to hear from people listening, see what they think and their experiences, but more than anything, thank you for starting

[00:23:31] that conversation with everyone today. Thank you, Neil. Great to be with you. I think as Bill reminded us today, the challenge isn't whether kids will use technology or not, it's how they will use it and whether it will serve their growth or undermine it. And Trumi's philosophy is rooted in optimism. And I think we should shine a big light on that. It's about responsibility and giving families a way to introduce tech in a more thoughtful and age

[00:23:59] appropriate way. Whether that be safe listing contacts, filtering harmful content or using AI to enhance learning safely. I think this approach is opening the door to healthier digital habits for the next generation. So the big question is how can we empower kids to thrive in this digital world without handing them the keys to the entire internet all at once? That certainly doesn't

[00:24:24] seem like a sensible option, but I know passions run high on topics like this. I don't have all the answers. So email me techblogwriteroutlook.com, LinkedIn X, Instagram, just at Neil C. Hughes. Let me know what you're thinking and how are you managing your child's relationship with technology? Love to hear that. But time for me to go now. I'll be back in your podcast feed before you know it with another guest. I look forward to speaking with you all then. Bye for now.