We all may have different opinions on whether kids should be on social media (or not), but the fact is that two-thirds of children aged seven to nine in Singapore use smartphones every day and are active on social media. More than 40 per cent of them have their own Facebook accounts, while a quarter is on Instagram, according to a poll by online market research firm Milieu Insight that was conducted in 2021.

The question that remains is how to create a safe environment for children to interact through social media, which contains a multitude of risks, including exposure to inappropriate content and ill-intentioned strangers.

This is why Singapore-based startup myFirst introduced myFirst Circle, which it dubbed the first social community app for children. Announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 on January 6, the platform includes features that provide children with a safe environment to experience the benefits of social connectivity.

Using the app, children can create posts and share photos with their circle of friends without the need for parents to approve every post. At the same time, parents can monitor and make changes to their child’s activities instantly if found inappropriate, creating a balance between safety and freedom to socialise with friends.

“We created myFirst Circle because there is no platform currently that allows children to have authentic social engagements in a safe and controlled environment. Children can stay in touch with genuine friends even after they leave for other schools, keeping their childhood friendships alive. With myFirst Circle, we want to let children explore the world of social media, while ensuring we are there to guide them along the way,” says G-Jay Yong, Founder and CEO of myFirst, in a press statement.

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The myFirst Circle app is now available for Apple and Android devices and is also accessible through the myFirst Fone device.

To use the platform, children under the age of 13 will need their parents to have an account. Parents will also need to whitelist and approve the friend requests received by their children before they are added to the children’s social circle. Once the friend request is accepted, parents can assign the connections into four categories: Family, Besties, Friends, and Acquaintances. These groups create an expanding circle that defines the types of posts a person can see.

Each child will also be attached to a nuclear family, which is also known as a family bubble in myFirst Circle app. This bubble typically consists of parents and their immediate children.

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Research has also shown that receiving less validation on social media, as reflected by the number of “likes”, can affect users’ self-worth negatively, particularly in teenagers.

In addition to providing safety by limiting the people who can access their posts, myFirst also aims to prevent this from happening by replacing the “likes” system with a “ShoutOut”. So, instead of receiving a simple “like” on posts, users are encouraged to send 16-character text messages, an eight-second voice blurb or emoji reactions, building a more meaningful connection.

Building for the children

In an email interview with e27, myFirst details the process they had to go through to develop the products. First, it begins with identifying the underlying problem based on the team member’s own personal experience as parents of young children.

“We all live in a digital social world, but all the social platforms are designed for teenagers and grown-ups. So what about younger ones? Our kids? Unfortunately, they’re exposed to a lot of inappropriate content and dangers on regular social platforms.
So as a team of parents, we’re working towards the digital social world we want our young ones to grow up in,” they explain.

“With the broad problem statement of regular social media not being safe or suitable for kids, we sat down and discussed with kids and parents what functions they needed to stay connected. We built 25 versions of the app, and it is always a continuous process of iteration and improvement. We kept re-designing it to accommodate all their needs, as well as features both kids and parents would like to have.”

The company sees the need to balance the needs and wants of its two sets of customers, which is the kids and the parents. Parents want to keep an eye on their children and ensure their safety and well-being; kids want to have fun.

“We can’t please either side 100 per cent cause if we do, the other side won’t use it. We can please either side 70 to 80 per cent and that’s enough of a balance. Kids will still be able to have fun, and parents can still keep an eye on their kids. The app is cloud-based so that myFirst Circle works for any user across multiple devices. That means a kid can use myFirst Circle on their myFirst Fone (wearable kids smartphone) or their iOS or Android smartphone or tablet,” the company continues.

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According to the company, myFirst’s ecosystem users are mostly between three to 12 years old, and the myFirst Circle app is between 5 to 12 years old. When a kid becomes a user of the platform, an average of three other people are onboarded as users as well –as it still requires parents or other family members to help with the setup.

“When building a network, the usual challenge is the cold start problem. Our kids tech ecosystem overcomes this problem because the atomic network that endures as other atomic networks form is the nuclear family for immediate communication needs (mommy, daddy, siblings and grandparents of the kid) of messaging, voice, video calling and geo-location. Practical usage from the need to stay connected,” it explains.

“Eventually, these atomic networks will intersect. Kids with the smartwatch will pair with other kids, and as more and more kids connect, so will these families. It could also be the grown-ups connecting their family network with other grown-ups and their respective family network, so cousins or family friends and all the kids can stay connected. This will form larger and larger networks and eventually spread into one big socially connected mesh. The use case and problems our kids tech ecosystem and myFirst Circle solve are very clear to parents, so our focus is on education that this ecosystem and solution exists.”

Founded in 2017 by Yong, myFirst has been busy with the launch of its products in the recent month. At CES 2023, the company launched its latest kids’ wearable smartphones, the world’s first kid-safe earbuds (myFirst Carebuds), and myFirst Circle.

“Our big goal for 2023 is to grow the myFirst Circle community in Singapore, and enable kids in other markets where myFirst is present such as the US and the rest of Asia to experience all the benefits that come from staying connected, with no ads, no strangers, only real connections,” the company highlights.

“There is a worldwide underserved market where there just simply isn’t a good solution that exists today. We want to define the digital world our own young ones grow up in.”

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Images Credit: myFirst

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