140: Keeping Our Kids Safe Online & Kangaroo Parenting with Tim Estes

A growing body of research shows that social media is designed to be addictive and feed children age-inappropriate content. This is leading to higher rates of depression and loneliness. As a parent, this is heartbreaking news but not surprising. Concerned parents, legislators, and psychology experts are advocating for abstinence – specifically banning social media and smartphone use until kids reach high school age, and understandably so. But while their intentions are good, our guest, Tim Estes, an online child safety advocate, believes that taking away devices altogether isn’t the answer either. He says it creates a "pink elephant paradox." He believes that the more we try to take social media and smartphones away from kids, the more they’ll want them. It makes sense. So what are parents to do? Tim advocates for "kangaroo parenting." Who is Tim Estes? Tim Estes is a pioneering executive in the Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing domain. He founded and led Digital Reasoning in 2000, an AI leader in the space of unstructured data analytics for 20+ years. Estes envisioned a means by which computers could learn to accurately interpret language, understand context, and extract critical intelligence. Dubbed "Wall Street’s Robocop" by Forbes, the technology in Digital Reasoning became the market standard for applying AI and Natural Language Processing to communications data across text and voice and was adopted by a majority of Tier 1 Financial Institutions around the globe. Its technology also supported key Defense and Intelligence efforts in the U.S. Government. It enabled nationwide cancer screening systems to automate patient detection and prioritization and created the largest deployed system to support law enforcement in the disruption of child sex trafficking rings in North America. It was merged with Smarsh in November 2020 to create the market leader in Communications Intelligence for Financial Services. Tim left the acquiring company, Smarsh, at the end of 2021 and is now an active Angel Investor, Advisor, Board Member, and Mentor to CEOs in multiple industries. His newest startup, Angel AI, uses the latest advances in generative AI to change how kids use the internet to empower and protect them. The mission of Angel is to harness the power of AI to raise healthier and happier humans, starting with our kids. As a parent himself, Tim has dedicated his life to keeping kids safe online. He frequently advocates for change on Capitol Hill and recently briefed the House and Senate leadership on these issues. We are so impressed and so grateful for the work Tim does. This episode is a great listen for parents with kids using the internet. What Did We Discuss? In this episode, we chat with Tim about keeping our children safe online and Kangaroo parenting in this digital age. Here are several of the questions that we covered in our conversation: How do you recommend parents manage devices, social media, and other digital platforms for their kids in this digital world? I know you are an advocate for "kangaroo parenting." Can you tell us more about this parenting style? How can parents instill healthy online habits and boundaries? What is it that parents need to know that you know about the internet and keeping our kids safe online? What is your number one piece of advice for parenting a child in our digital world? Tim's Resources Website: angelkids.ai LinkedIn: Tim Estes Thorn: Tim worked closely with Thorn, an organization co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore that combats child sex trafficking. Thank you for listening to this episode! Follow us on our podcast Instagram page @thebabychickchat, and let us know what you think and if there are any other topics you'd like us to cover. Cheers to keeping our kids safe online and allowing them to grow and explore with our guidance! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices