We are a family networking site (essentially a safe place for parents to build their kids’ digital footprint). We have created a “family network” – the kids are the focus, and it’s their stories which are told. We host users photos, videos and stories and let parents create the network of people they want to share their kids’ lives with. It’s 100% private. We don’t keep the photos (i.e. if parents delete them – they’re deleted, unlike services such as Facebook or Picasa).
In light of some very recent studies released by security company AVG, what we’re doing is not only more relevant to parents, but the only site in existence providing this service. The study had digital footprints for children under 2 at 81% and cited real concern for the negative implications such public footprints may have on the children when they’re older.
Kids’ safety online has been of core importance to us at Wee Web – and we’ve gone to great lengths to make sure that it’s a service that affords parents all of the convenience of digital communities but in a way that isn’t going to infringe on children’s lives as they grow up. As we’ve built Wee Web, we’ve really taken a look at what the internet is. One of our original founders was the founder of Meetup.com – and he was all to familiar with the rise of the digital communities and saw at an early stage where we were headed and sought to provide a safe haven for young children. Similarly, my partner, Jason Olim, was at the forefront of the e-commerce boom when in 1994 he launched CDNow (the first international e-commerce company), and he too saw how quickly we become accustom to new ways of enterprise (then e-commerce — now digital communities). And from my end, given my knowledge of the parent market, I’ve had extensive time with new parents and have helped shape the product for that specific needs and patterns of this demographic. Together we’ve been building a company that has been predictive of the direction the market and social trends are going, customized to the targeted family/parent demographic, and built to protect the voiceless sector – the kids.
