Pajama Entrepreneur

Paralert is an online tool for parents who want to spy on (oops, monitor) their children’s online activity. It is designed for parents of children between the ages of 6-15 years. Paralert scans the child’s activity in social networks and online chats, and sends SMS and email alerts to parents in real time. Paralert uses a real time monitoring service that tracks the child’s activity on the computer on which it is installed. It detects the use of “suspicious” words and messages, and communicates data and screenshots to the Paralert server. The server analyzes the data and automatically sends alerts via email and SMS to the parents’ mailbox or mobile phone. The login-protected section of the website enables the parent to view information captured at the time of the alert, as well as additional information. This provides a context for the child’s activity, enabling the parent to assess the level of risk and offer appropriate assistance to the child. Parents can define or remove “suspicious” words or phrases, according to the type of issue that they would like to monitor. They can also modify the frequency of screenshots, and update profile information such as email address and mobile phone number for alerts.

Paralert was started in 2008 by Yehonatan (Yoni) Hasheli and Walla Azrik in Israel. Yoni’s experience in police intelligence and telco sales led to the concept of Paralert — to enable parents to monitor children’s activity to help them identify risks such as sexual predators, cyberbullying and psychological disorders. Paralert has a distribution contract with one of Israel’s leading ISPs (which has 33 percent of the Israeli ISP market). Since then thousands of customers have joined the service through the ISP and via a direct online sales channel. The business is in the early stages, with the service commercially available in Israel (with thousands of customers), Paralert’s founders are currently seeking angel funding to develop the second generation product and expand internationally.

Q&A with Yoel Mittelberg (Technology and Business Development, Paralert)

Where was Paralert founded? Why did you launch the service in Israel?

The business was founded in Israel. In addition, Israel has a very high level of usage of Internet amongst children, with a relatively small number of ISPs. This meant we could tap into a large portion of the market with few key relationships. We are now planning to expand our operations, and offer the service to parents in other parts of the world, such as North America and Europe.

What are parents saying about the application? What do kids think? Don’t the kids resent being spied on?

We have received extremely enthusiastic responses from parents, who have told us about life-threatening situations that have been identified using the software and handled before any harm came to the child. For example, one parent noticed that their child was researching websites of food disorders and it was then that they realized she was anorexic. Another parent identified an urgent suicide risk and was able to intervene before anything happened.

On the one hand, parents would probably prefer not to spy on the kids, but on the other hand, realizing that these risks are out there and very real, they are determined to use any tool they can to protect their children.

The software can be run in overt or covert mode. Some children are told about its presence, as part of their disciplinary framework at home. It is quite common, even for parents who do not use parental controls, to regularly read their child’s emails or chat transcripts. When this is done as part of an educational relationship, children apparently accept it, understand the need and cooperate. Other children would not be aware that the software is installed, until an emergency happens and the parent intervenes. In that scenario, there are often more pressing issues at stake, such as the danger from meeting a stranger, or potential life-threatening situation.

* * * * * * * *

My opinion about parental spying (which has nothing to do with Paralert’s business prospects):

I believe that there are a lot of parents who are terrified about the dangers of the Internet. They justify spying on their children’s online activity as a “normal” way to be a parent. If the children know this is happening and assent to it, it’s not spying. However, if the children don’t and if they later find out that the parent has been spying, the trust is broken. Once broken it is very difficult to repair. What happens then is that the child will hide things from the parent, not just online activity. The child will be reluctant to talk to the parent about friendships, feelings, school performance, sex, and other issues that are bothering him or her.

This is a very dangerous game for a parent to play. I remember an incident that happened to a close school friend when I was in my teens. My school friend discovered that her mother had been reading her diary (which my friend had taken great care to hide in her closet). It was such a great shock and disappointment to her. My friend’s trust in her mother was completely destroyed. She stopped talking to her mother about the things that bothered her. Result: the mother ended up knowing much less about her daughter than if she has NOT secretly read the diary.

It’s much easier to use technology to spy on children rather than taking the time to build a sincere and long-lasting relationship of trust. I fear that many parents will use technology — instead of taking time and making an effort — to try to figure out what’s bothering their kids.