My son just reached the tender age where he and his whole cadre of friends have discovered Fortnite. For those of you without kids, Fortnite is a multi-player game where a hundred or so players join a game for a sort of death “battle royal” where the last man standing wins (super simple explanation).
The game is a phenomenon that has taken hold of the young gamer population; in fact, when my son isn’t playing it (or a variation of it from a me-too game maker on his tablet), he is watching people play it on YouTube.
This is where the rubber meets the road for a lot of parents like me. My son is young enough to potentially be taken advantage of by people he has never met from some far-away place, who he is talking to on a headset so I cannot necessarily hear his interactions. For many parents, games like Fortnite are simply too violent to let younger developing children even play (unfortunately, this is a battle I have surrendered).
Why does this matter to our industry? Think about it: When you sell the head of a household on the benefits of a security system, you play up the fact that he or she is making an investment in protecting their family. Your salespeople tout the ability to use video surveillance cameras and smart locks to enable parents to make sure their children arrive home safely from school and that they are doing their homework and not playing Fortnite when you aren’t looking directly over their shoulder.
But making sure Junior gets home safely is (forgive the pun) child’s play compared to ensuring their safety as they navigate the Internet. The safety and security of children from online threats is a major concern of parents around the world – whether that means making sure they aren’t playing shooting games, or ensuring they aren’t having inappropriate conversations and interactions. Achieving that isn’t always easy, but thankfully, as with most things, technology is coming to the rescue – this time in the form of parental control software.
According to research firm Future Market Insights, the parental control software market is expected to increase from nearly $91 million in 2018 to $223 million by 2028. “Adoption of Internet-enabled devices such as smartphones, tablets and TVs has increased among children for purposes such as online gaming, live streaming, communicating with friends, audio, video and also surfing explicit websites,” the firm reports.
By installing a suite of parental control software in computing devices, parents can monitor their children's activities related to personal information, such as phone numbers, addresses and passwords. To protect against online predators and sites restricted by the parents, the software can selectively restrict and block harmful content. McAfee, for example, recently announced its parental control software will be pre-installed with all LG phones.
I realize that security providers in the residential space are just now expanding into the concept of IoT device protection and cybersecurity; however, the concept of protecting our children is as old as the alarms systems we sell and install every day. Wouldn’t this just be a logical extension of family protection?
As a security dealer, ideally, your role should be perceived as a trusted partner. In this age where children are spending more time in front of screens than ever before, parents are looking for solutions…why not offer them one with their security package? While this technology is not in the traditional wheelhouse of the security dealer, it simply makes sense to look into partnering with a software company to further solidify your role in protecting families.
Paul Rothman is Editor-in-Chief of Security Dealer & Integrator (SD&I) magazine. Access the current issue, full archives and apply for a free subscription at www.secdealer.com.