Child safety app Thread is the brain child of the increasing safety concerns online. The story of 15-year old Carly Ryan is just one of them. She thought she had met her ‘dream’ boyfriend online and spent 18 months talking to an 18 year old musician from Melbourne. After a while, he was Carly to finally meet up with him. However, instead of meeting 18 year old Brandon, Carly was shocked to realize that a 50 year old predator called Gary Newman was the one waiting for her. Though she rejected him then, Newman convinced Carly to meet him again in a secluded beach and killed her.
The fact is that many kids simply grow up with the internet with parents often having little or no idea what their children are doing online and who they’re talking to. After a similar experience happening to her daughter, Sonya Ryan dedicated her time to educating young people and their parents about the risks of cybercrime. This gave her the idea of creating Thread, an app to help others in similar position like her daughter’s.
Thread is a personal safety app for children (aged from 8 years) that provides an immediate connection between a user’s location, trusted contacts and emergency services in stressful situations. It combines the benefits of contemporary technology with clever design and personal devices.
The app allows parents to create ‘check in’ times for which kids should have arrived at a specific location. When the kids arrive at a specific location, they can log on to quickly show they’re there. If a pre-set check in time is missed, the last known location of the child will be sent to pre-selected contacts, mostly the parent or family member.
The app also enables users initiate discussions with trusted contacts about any concerns they have and share images. In case of emergency, it enables a user to send his/her location to 000 as they dial, with the emergency call able to be activated from the phone’s PIN screen.
The app was developed under the funding by the KOJO Foundation, the South Australian Government, and Google. KOJO has partnered with Thread for the last two years, with their aim helping parents keep tabs on their kids without being too overbearing – and is looking to partner with other similar organizations.
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