New Arrival: myFirst Circle – Social Community App for Kids

Singapore kids-tech company myFirst has launched a social community app for children – myFirst Circle. It provides a safe, walled social network for kids that enables their parents to monitor, control and guide them on the dos and don’ts of posting and interacting on social networks.

myFirst Circle can be downloaded from the App Store for Apple iOS devices or Google Play for Android smartphones or tablets. It can also be accessed through a myFirst Fone smartwatch.

myFirst Circle can be downloaded from the App Store for Apple iOS devices or Google Play for Android smartphones or tablets. It can also be accessed through a myFirst Fone smartwatch.

The new myFirst App provides a social community platform where children can post and share messages, photos and videos with their family and friends.

The parents are able to monitor and control who their children allow into their “circles” of family, besties and friends, as well as the information that they share with these circles.

Parents may change a child’s post settings to enable access by “lower” circles (eg. Acquaintances) or to restrict access to only the inner circles (eg. Family and/or Besties).

Parents may change a child’s post settings to enable access by “lower” circles (eg. Acquaintances) or to restrict access to only the inner circles (eg. Family and/or Besties).

This enables parents to supervise and guide their children on the etiquette and precautions to take when sharing on online social networks so that when they are old enough to get onto “grown-up” social networks such as Facebook, Instagram etc, they would be well-coached on the ins-and-outs of sharing media on these networks as well as dos and don’ts in interacting with others on the Web.

Basically, contacts can be accepted into one of four circles: Family, Besties, Friends and Acquaintances.

These four hierarchical circles determine which of a child’s posts that other members of a his/her circle can and cannot see.

For example, all members in a child’s Family circle will be able to see EVERYTHING the child shares.

Those in the Acquaintances circle will have access to the least number of posts.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by tech4tea Events (@tech4teaevents)

Founder and CEO of myFirstG-Jay Yong – briefs how children can access the app through myFirst Fone S3 smartwatch.

So if a child marks a photo as viewable by Besties, only members of his/her Family and Besties circles will see the photo.

Those in his/her Friends or Acquaintances circle will not be aware of the post.

The mechanism is similar to the privacy rights setting in Facebook except that parents can step in to adjust the setting as they see fit.

More details below from the press release.

myFirst Circle was built from the ground up with features that provide children with a safe and protected environment to experience the benefits of social connectivity alongside their parents who can moderate posts on the fly in this increasingly digital world.

Traditional social media networks are built upon uncontrolled peer-to-peer connectivity, which may expose children to inappropriate content, social media scams, cyberbullying, and ill-intentioned strangers.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by tech4tea Reviews (@tech4teareviews)

Tried out the latest gizmos for kids at the launch of the myFirst Circle app. Here’s the myFirst Fone S3 smartwatch which will be available from 25 January at S$229. The myFirst Carebuds TWS earbuds (not in this photo) will hit the shelves on 1 February at S$69.90.

myFirst Circle, on the other hand, requires children’s accounts to be tied to a parental account that will approve and classify new members who join their children’s social circles.

Children can create posts and share photos with their circle of friends within a safe environment without the need for parents to approve every post.

“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,” said G-Jay Yong, Founder and CEO of myFirst.

At the same time, parents can monitor and make changes to their child’s activities instantly if found inappropriate.

This creates a balance between creating a safe space for children and freedom to socialise with friends.

Creating safe social circles with contact whitelisting

For safety reasons, children under 13 years of age need their parents to have an account.

Parents will need to whitelist and approve the friend requests received by their children before they are added to the children’s social circle.

Before accepting any friend requests, parents can check with their children personally to see if they are really friends.

Alternatively, they have the option to chat with parents of the incoming friend if they have any additional concerns before approving the friend request.

Once the friend request is accepted, parents need to set the relationship they have with the person.

There are four groups of relationships:

  1. Family
  2. Besties
  3. Friends
  4. Acquaintances

Tags: , , , , , , ,

6 Responses to “New Arrival: myFirst Circle – Social Community App for Kids”

  1. Marianne Teh says:

    I bought my daughter the Fone R1s last year. Can she use it with the app?

    • tech4tea says:

      Yes. You will receive a notification from the company on how to do a one-time firmware upgrade to migrate from the current myFirst Fone app to the new Circle app. How is your daughter liking the app so far?

      • Marianne Teh says:

        She loves it and uses it to take photos etc. I like that there’s an SOS function and GPS tracking. Thanks for the info on the compatibility!

        • tech4tea says:

          glad that both you and your daughter are happy with the watch. I think we need more of such tech that pays attention to the protection and care of our kids, rather than just pile on lotsa features that we either don’t really need, or put our kids at risk.

        • Marianne Teh says:

          I can’t agree more. That’s why I bought her the watch after reading about it from you website.

Leave a Reply