A younger boy named Dawson leans again in a white rocking chair on a balcony: “I purchased some rocks from House Depot and we simply painted them. Let me present you over right here.”He factors to his assortment; there is a blue rock with orange stars and one other with a flower. A couple of seconds later, the video carousel switches to a different clip. This time it is a lady named Avery who pops just a few quarters into her gumball machine and tells her 97 subscribers, “It is blue! I guessed proper.”If not for the tiny voices and faces, you would possibly suppose you’ve got fallen down a TikTok rabbit gap. However that is the world of Zigazoo, a social media app for youths ages three to 12.The short-form video platform launched final summer time with a mission to develop wholesome social media and streaming habits at an early age. It lets children browse or take part in 30-second video challenges or actions created by zoos, museums, academics, musicians and TV studios, encouraging them to reply questions comparable to “What’s in your thoughts?” or “What do you need to be while you develop up?” Children can then share recorded responses with their Zigazoo associates or its community of 120,000 subscribers. There’s singing, dancing and pet show-and-tells.At a time when Fb faces backlash for reportedly engaged on a children model of Instagram, with advocacy teams citing extreme time on units and social media as a principal concern, Zigazoo is attracting constructive consideration. The corporate stated the platform has grown by about 100% for the reason that starting of 2023 and has had 20 million video views up to now — two-thirds of that occurring in 2023.File video: Youngsters could possibly be vulnerable to on-line predators by means of digital studying, FBI saysOn Thursday, the corporate introduced a $4 million spherical of funding led by MaC Enterprise Capital, and a handful of movie star buyers, together with Jimmy Kimmel, Serena Williams by means of her enterprise capital agency Serena Ventures, and Matthew Rutler, investor and head of expertise at MasterClass.Williams, a serial tech investor and mom to 3-year-old Olympia, stated she was drawn to Zigazoo as a result of it was designed particularly for youths, reasonably than retrofitting a product made for adults.”Current social media websites weren’t essentially designed with younger kids in thoughts and require parental supervision to verify children solely devour content material supposed for his or her age group,” Williams instructed CNN Enterprise in an e mail. “Children-first platforms like Zigazoo are necessary as a result of security is of their DNA and content material is particularly developed to satisfy kids’s social and emotional wants.”Zigazoo co-founders Zak and Leah Ringelstein, former elementary college academics, created the app within the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic after struggling to search out interactive, participating content material for his or her three younger kids.”We all know the very best stage of pondering occurs at creation, and we have been watching our personal children zone out and binge on YouTube,” Zak Ringelstein stated. “We acknowledged that not solely was there plenty of content material that we might by no means choose for our little one to look at however that youngsters can and need to do extra. They need to be with associates. They need to create, construct, and work together.”Leah Ringelstein stated they began orchestrated challenges round the home for his or her children, comparable to “Does it sink or float?” or trying to find gadgets that begin with every letter of the alphabet. With a background as tech entrepreneurs — the Ringelsteins launched and bought Dropbox-for-education platform UClass to Renaissance Studying, a Google Capital Firm, for an undisclosed sum in 2015 — they folded these workout routines into an app and made the historically passive expertise of viewing movies into one thing inventive and social.The app’s challenges fall into numerous classes — artwork, math, well being and health, and extra — and are available from its content material companions. For instance, a Netflix problem options character Chico Bon Bon: Monkey With a Device Belt demonstrating downhill acceleration with toy vehicles, whereas a Peanuts problem highlights how Zigazoo customers may also help defend the planet for Earth Day.The app requires an grownup over the age of 18 to enroll through a Fb, Google or Apple account. Mother and father can then resolve if they need their kid’s movies to be seen on the Zigazoo feed or set to non-public.Every video is run by means of a third-party skilled moderation service; the corporate has posted 125,000 to this point in 2023. Its moderators work throughout a 19 hour window 7 days every week to make sure movies keep on subject for every problem, don’t embrace private info — no final names or addresses — language is clear and content material is freed from “shoving, throwing, anger, yelling, bullying, sarcasm, or sulking,” in response to its coverage web page. Movies that verify these containers seem on the app’s made feed; these that don’t are made non-public.Zigazoo can be a part of the kidSAFE Seal Program, an unbiased security certification service designed for children-friendly applied sciences.The app has earned excessive reward from nonprofit Frequent Sense Media, which makes tech suggestions for households. “It is actually not possible to emphasize how favorable and important this method is,” stated Christine Elgersma, senior editor of social media and studying apps at Frequent Sense. “If all social media had been designed with the notion that youngsters would possibly use it, we might be in a really totally different place as we speak. As a substitute, we’re enjoying catch-up and making an attempt to place bandaids on points that maybe might have been prevented if preliminary design and launch positioned children and youths on the heart.”As Zigazoo grows by means of phrase of mouth, it has additionally fallen into the palms of movie star mother and father — together with Rutler and his accomplice, singer Christina Aguilera — whose 6-year-old daughter consumes movies on the app. “There’s nothing else on the market like this in any respect within the children schooling area,” stated Rutler on why he wished to take a position. “I did not actually need my daughter to be spending time on among the we discovered early on within the pandemic. I really like that there are extra thrilling choices now.”Elergsma believes present social media platforms and different apps for youths can look to Zigazoo for instance of the way to supply a social but protected place for youngsters to be on-line.”Children aren’t messaging one another, responding to a number of notifications, making an attempt to get ‘Zigazoo well-known,’ store throughout the app, meet strangers, or doing any of the opposite issues that make TikTok widespread,” Elergsma stated. “As a result of Zigazoo encourages offscreen exploration and studying after which permits children to indicate what they found, it strikes an awesome steadiness. It is completely okay for youths to be on apps like this.”
A younger boy named Dawson leans again in a white rocking chair on a balcony: “I purchased some rocks from House Depot and we simply painted them. Let me present you over right here.”
He factors to his assortment; there is a blue rock with orange stars and one other with a flower. A couple of seconds later, the video carousel switches to a different clip. This time it is a lady named Avery who pops just a few quarters into her gumball machine and tells her 97 subscribers, “It is blue! I guessed proper.”
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If not for the tiny voices and faces, you would possibly suppose you’ve got fallen down a TikTok rabbit gap. However that is the world of Zigazoo, a social media app for youths ages three to 12.
The short-form video platform launched final summer time with a mission to develop wholesome social media and streaming habits at an early age. It lets children browse or take part in 30-second video challenges or actions created by zoos, museums, academics, musicians and TV studios, encouraging them to reply questions comparable to “What’s in your thoughts?” or “What do you need to be while you develop up?” Children can then share recorded responses with their Zigazoo associates or its community of 120,000 subscribers. There’s singing, dancing and pet show-and-tells.
At a time when Fb faces backlash for reportedly engaged on a children model of Instagram, with advocacy teams citing extreme time on units and social media as a principal concern, Zigazoo is attracting constructive consideration. The corporate stated the platform has grown by about 100% for the reason that starting of 2023 and has had 20 million video views up to now — two-thirds of that occurring in 2023.
File video: Youngsters could possibly be vulnerable to on-line predators by means of digital studying, FBI says
On Thursday, the corporate introduced a $4 million spherical of funding led by MaC Enterprise Capital, and a handful of movie star buyers, together with Jimmy Kimmel, Serena Williams by means of her enterprise capital agency Serena Ventures, and Matthew Rutler, investor and head of expertise at MasterClass.
Williams, a serial tech investor and mom to 3-year-old Olympia, stated she was drawn to Zigazoo as a result of it was designed particularly for youths, reasonably than retrofitting a product made for adults.
“Current social media websites weren’t essentially designed with younger kids in thoughts and require parental supervision to verify children solely devour content material supposed for his or her age group,” Williams instructed CNN Enterprise in an e mail. “Children-first platforms like Zigazoo are necessary as a result of security is of their DNA and content material is particularly developed to satisfy kids’s social and emotional wants.”
Zigazoo co-founders Zak and Leah Ringelstein, former elementary college academics, created the app within the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic after struggling to search out interactive, participating content material for his or her three younger kids.
“We all know the very best stage of pondering occurs at creation, and we have been watching our personal children zone out and binge on YouTube,” Zak Ringelstein stated. “We acknowledged that not solely was there plenty of content material that we might by no means choose for our little one to look at however that youngsters can and need to do extra. They need to be with associates. They need to create, construct, and work together.”
Leah Ringelstein stated they began orchestrated challenges round the home for his or her children, comparable to “Does it sink or float?” or trying to find gadgets that begin with every letter of the alphabet. With a background as tech entrepreneurs — the Ringelsteins launched and bought Dropbox-for-education platform UClass to Renaissance Studying, a Google Capital Firm, for an undisclosed sum in 2015 — they folded these workout routines into an app and made the historically passive expertise of viewing movies into one thing inventive and social.
The app’s challenges fall into numerous classes — artwork, math, well being and health, and extra — and are available from its content material companions. For instance, a Netflix problem options character Chico Bon Bon: Monkey With a Device Belt demonstrating downhill acceleration with toy vehicles, whereas a Peanuts problem highlights how Zigazoo customers may also help defend the planet for Earth Day.
The app requires an grownup over the age of 18 to enroll through a Fb, Google or Apple account. Mother and father can then resolve if they need their kid’s movies to be seen on the Zigazoo feed or set to non-public.
Every video is run by means of a third-party skilled moderation service; the corporate has posted 125,000 to this point in 2023. Its moderators work throughout a 19 hour window 7 days every week to make sure movies keep on subject for every problem, don’t embrace private info — no final names or addresses — language is clear and content material is freed from “shoving, throwing, anger, yelling, bullying, sarcasm, or sulking,” in response to its policy page. Movies that verify these containers seem on the app’s made feed; these that don’t are made non-public.
Zigazoo can be a part of the kidSAFE Seal Program, an unbiased security certification service designed for children-friendly applied sciences.
The app has earned excessive reward from nonprofit Frequent Sense Media, which makes tech suggestions for households. “It is actually not possible to emphasize how favorable and important this method is,” stated Christine Elgersma, senior editor of social media and studying apps at Frequent Sense. “If all social media had been designed with the notion that youngsters would possibly use it, we might be in a really totally different place as we speak. As a substitute, we’re enjoying catch-up and making an attempt to place bandaids on points that maybe might have been prevented if preliminary design and launch positioned children and youths on the heart.”
As Zigazoo grows by means of phrase of mouth, it has additionally fallen into the palms of movie star mother and father — together with Rutler and his accomplice, singer Christina Aguilera — whose 6-year-old daughter consumes movies on the app. “There’s nothing else on the market like this in any respect within the children schooling area,” stated Rutler on why he wished to take a position. “I did not actually need my daughter to be spending time on among the [apps] we discovered early on within the pandemic. I really like that there are extra thrilling choices now.”
Elergsma believes present social media platforms and different apps for youths can look to Zigazoo for instance of the way to supply a social but protected place for youngsters to be on-line.
“Children aren’t messaging one another, responding to a number of notifications, making an attempt to get ‘Zigazoo well-known,’ store throughout the app, meet strangers, or doing any of the opposite issues that make TikTok widespread,” Elergsma stated. “As a result of Zigazoo encourages offscreen exploration and studying after which permits children to indicate what they found, it strikes an awesome steadiness. It is completely okay for youths to be on apps like this.”
