Regulators around the world are stepping up efforts to make the internet safer for kids. Major social networks are facing increased scrutiny and fighting back by introducing child protection tools. A central focus is on the content that kids see on their screens and how to make it safer.
While many of these efforts are aimed at teenagers, young children also use the devices to consume content, so the three founders, who have worked at companies like Google and Amazon, are working on building an AI-powered browser/companion to create a safe environment for kids to learn and explore through Hello Wonder.
The company currently offers an iPad app (fully controlled by parents) that allows kids to ask an AI chatbot questions and get safe answers, videos, and interactive experiences. The startup believes that current content tools like YouTube Kids are focused on driving engagement and don't give parents enough information about what their kids are watching, which is the problem the company is trying to solve.
Hello Wonder has raised $2.1 million from investors including Designer Fund, A16Z Scout Fund, GroundUp Ventures and Chasing Rainbows, as well as individuals such as Chris Williams, CEO of children's content studio Pocket Watch, Things Inc. founder Jason Toff and Tony Fai, CEO of electronics-focused fund MESH.
Hello Wonder was founded by Seth Raphael, who led the AI prototyping team at Google and helped build the first version of Google Photos, Brian Backus, who has worked as a games producer at Amazon, Disney, DreamWorks and NBCUniversal, and Daniel Shiplacoff, a product designer who worked on Google's Material Design guidelines.
Rafael developed the app out of necessity while raising five children under the age of 12 during the COVID-19 pandemic. He told TechCrunch that he saw the potential for AI to help kids studying at university, but the technology wasn't mature yet.
“The fundamental problem is that we humans use the internet every day in a fantastic way and get a lot of value from it. But we can't let kids do that, because it's really harmful. And young children don't have the ability or the tools to find content that will be useful to them,” he said.
Image credit: Hello Wonder
Rafael says he started by searching for the best content for kids. But that limited them when they wanted to learn more about a particular topic. So he was inspired by the Montessori method, which incorporates hands-on learning and activities based on children's interests. That led the company to create an AI-powered environment to safely pull in content from different parts of the internet.
The company allows parents to control the content their children watch (videos, games, website content, etc.). Parents can receive texts about any type of video, or a daily or weekly email summary of videos watched. Through the parental interface, parents or guardians can tell the AI in natural language what content they want their children to watch or not watch.
For example, if a family wants their child to learn the violin, they can tell Hello Wonder and the tool will search for and insert content related to learning the violin as it goes along.
Targeted at kids between the ages of five and 10, Hello Wonder also allows users to interact with trusted family contacts through messaging and video calls within the app.
Jordan Odynski, a partner at GroundUp Ventures, said Hello Wonder solves the problem of kids being exposed to unsafe content by using AI to scan the safety of content before it's served to kids.
“Today's safety systems for kids' app services are not enough. Hello Wonder, the browser, doesn't tie kids to a specific format. Kids are free to explore with AI supervision. Kids can consume any type of content as long as it fits with their parents' values, giving them a true internet experience,” he told TechCrunch over the call.
Odynski added that the app can adapt to kids as they grow and show them content that reflects their development. He said the app is OK with showing kids a blank search box and leaving them unsure of what they want to ask.
“Wonder is built differently. When kids log on, they're presented with ideas to search for every time. From there, it generates new exploration ideas that they can input by simply speaking. A lot of what a browser handles, from exploring to discovering to identifying the best prompts to achieve the desired outcome, is removed from the Wonder experience,” he noted.
The company isn't currently charging for the app but plans to introduce a subscription tier in the future, and is also testing an extension of the app to Android tablets and Chromebooks.