child-safety
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The Watch That Fires Its Own Employer: How Cosmo Sells Parents a Phone-Killer for Their Kids
Russell York built a kids smartwatch that deliberately can't browse the web, can't open TikTok, and wants to be the last device parents buy before the smartphone talk. Then he sold enough of them to top Amazon's charts.
The Phone That Says No to Everything Your Kid's iPhone Says Yes To
Founded by a dad who watched his 8-year-old's friend get an iPhone, Pinwheel sells the un-smartphone: a real Android device with the addictive parts surgically removed and a parent holding the keys.
Alice (Formerly ActiveFence)
Alice, formerly ActiveFence, is an Israeli-American AI safety and security company that acts as a protective layer for online platforms and AI systems. Founded in 2018, it uses a decade of real-world abuse intelligence to detect and stop harms such as fraud, deepfakes, child exploitation, disinformation, prompt-injection attacks, and jailbreaks. Its technology helps protect roughly 3 billion people and secures 7 of the 10 largest AI foundation models, serving customers including Amazon, TikTok, Nvidia, and Cohere.
Zigazoo
Zigazoo is a video-based social network built specifically for kids and teens, where every post is human and AI moderated before it goes live. Founded by former educators during the pandemic as a daily challenge app for kids stuck at home, it grew into what the company calls the largest and safest social network for children in the world. Kids respond to short video challenges from museums, zoos, teachers, musicians and celebrities, earn in-app currency called Zigabucks, and connect through creativity rather than private chat. It is KidSAFE COPPA certified, has no text messaging, and removes anything negative before it ever reaches a feed.
Zak Ringelstein
Zak Ringelstein is the co-founder and CEO of Zigazoo, a moderated, kid-safe social network often described as the antidote to TikTok. A former public school teacher and Teach For America alum, he built and sold his first edtech company UClass to Renaissance Learning, ran a left-insurgent 2018 U.S. Senate campaign in Maine as the only DSA-endorsed major-party nominee, then launched Zigazoo with his wife Leah during the pandemic. The company has raised roughly $26M total, including a $17M celebrity-studded Series A, and made headlines when Australia exempted Zigazoo from its sweeping social media ban.