With its cutting-edge monitoring software and patent pending Mental Health Check, the Aqua One breaks barriers that have prevented parents from accessing their child's online activity and bridges the gap between technology and its effect on mental health
PHOENIX, May 10, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Cyber Dive is the preeminent pioneer in making the digital world safer and healthier for millions of children through tech-forward innovations. Aqua One by Cyber Dive is the first ever smartphone to eliminate all barriers that have prevented parents from accessing their children's digital activity, empowering them to comprehensively monitor their children's health and safety online. With cutting-edge monitoring software designed by an ex-military intelligence officer and a Mental Health Check, this custom-built Android also bridges the gap between the digital world and its all-too-often damaging effect on children's mental health.
"Aqua One is designed to help real families facing real dilemmas—from their children's struggles with depression, eating disorders, body image issues, and attempts at self-harm to the very real dangers of sex trafficking, drugs, bullying, and explicit photos," said Cyber Dive Co-Founder and CEO Jeff Gottfurcht. "We hear so many real life horror stories from parents that have real life consequences. Our goal is to arm them with the ultimate tool to help protect their children from a digital world that is proving to be more and more fraught with complexities and dangers we could never have imagined even a decade ago."
Cyber Dive's Co-Founder and CTO, Derek Jackson, brings his experience as a U.S. Army Captain specializing in monitoring the social media activities of adversaries and insurgents to create the game-changing Aqua One smartphone for families. He emphasizes, "The true power of Aqua One lies in transcending screen time limits and app blockers, which are merely superficial solutions to deeper issues. It's the intentions, actions, and interactions that determine the impact of social media on our child's well-being. By harnessing the power of AI and encouraging parental involvement, we can guide our children towards developing healthier habits and greater self-awareness, ultimately equipping them to navigate the digital world more safely and confidently."
The Aqua One phone allows children to explore safely online with their parents at their side. Every action taken on the child's Aqua One device, including the watch history, text messages, search history, and social media activity is mirrored in a comprehensive web application on the parent's iOS or Android phone, allowing them to see everything. Currently Cyber Dive covers over 3,300 apps and social media platforms. With full internet access and no screen time restrictions, the Aqua One encourages involvement over limitation, reinforcing the importance of open communication at a time when so many children are quietly suffering from the negative impacts of social media—and making potentially irreversible decisions.
Other monitoring platforms promote app restrictions and screen time limits as the solution, but some parents are learning first hand that screen time limits don't matter. For instance, Ohio mother Jennifer Markus' 15-year old son Braden committed suicide in October of 2021.
"Ten grueling months after his death, we discovered that he was a victim of sextortion," Jennifer said. "We were unable to access his phone due to privacy restrictions which prevented us from taking any action to prevent his tragic fate."
Described by the FBI as a national safety issue, sextortion is a new scheme by online predators to target youth. The FBI received 7,000 reports of sextortion cases in 2022 and linked more than a dozen cases of suicide like Braden's to this rising threat. Sextortion begins when an online predator poses as a young teen on social media and makes contact with a child in order to pressure them into sending an explicit video or photo. Once the predator acquires these images, they threaten to release this sensitive material online unless the victim sends money or gift cards. As expert manipulators, these predators force their victim to comply by playing on their fear of what will happen if the video or image is posted.
In many cases, screen time limits wouldn't make a difference. Braden only interacted with the predator for 27 minutes; from initial contact to the moment he ended his life.
"Imagine your child has Aqua One, a smartphone that lets them talk, text, and have all the social media apps they want," Braden's mother Jennifer said. "At the same time, you as the parent have an application on your phone that lets you see everything your child is doing. If we had Aqua One, Braden would probably still be here. We would have known he was being threatened and could have talked and calmed him down immediately and informed the the police within those 27 minutes. The reality is social media and phones are not going away anytime soon. They are just going to get worse, as they already have."
Kids spend an average of 8 hours per day online, and are force fed self-harm content every 39 seconds from the algorithms on certain platforms. Parents deserve a solution that tackles the harsh reality of social media for kids.
The Aqua One interrupts that 8 hour scroll three times per day with the Mental Health Check, a quick survey of emotional, environmental, and mood based questions that are based on the child's age. These thought-provoking questions assess the child's overall safety, family communication, connectedness to others, and general mental state. Parent's can view the responses in real-time, all from the same Parent Dashboard app on their own smartphone. They no longer have to wait for the worst to happen, they can see it coming and step in to prevent it.
"The Mental Health Check combined with the ability to see every action a child takes online arms parents with the ultimate tool to protect their children from a digital world that is dangerous, complex, and evolving at the speed of light," Gottfurcht said. "How can parents keep up when things are moving at 186,000 miles per second? With Aqua One."
Cyber Dive is a progressive technology company that is the preeminent pioneer in making the digital world safer and healthier for millions of children through tech-forward innovations. The company created Aqua One, the first-ever smartphone for children that empowers parents to monitor all of their children's online activities through a single, comprehensive dashboard. Technology changed children and now Aqua One is changing parenting by empowering parents to go places in their child's digital world they never thought they'd go.
Learn more at http://www.cyberdive.co.
To make a donation to the Braden Markus scholarship fund, please visit https://www.locallevelevents.com/events/details/26230.
Media Contact
Cyber Dive, Cyber Dive, 1 (480) 561-8319, [email protected]
SOURCE Cyber Dive
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