On this episode of the Dudes and Dads podcast, we talk with our friend Jack Davidson from Parent ProTech.
You're listening to the Dudes and Dads podcast, a show dedicated to helping men be better dudes
and dads by building community through meaningful conversation and storytelling. And now,
here are your hosts, Joel DeMotta and Andy Laidman. Andrew.
Joella. Nice.
You like that one, don't you? Took me for a look. How are you?
I'm good. I'm good. And it's been beautiful here today. I got outside and mowed the yard,
till the garden. It's been...
From all signs, Andy, I can tell that the sun... You've been in the sun.
I have.
You got the nice watch.
I know.
And nice. That's how I know you've been up to something.
Something no good.
Yeah. Yeah. But no, it's been lovely out. It's been good. We've been... We're in deep,
and now we're getting into baseball season.
Yeah. You said you had a tournament this week.
We had a tournament this week. I didn't get to see all of it because not only are we in baseball
season. Andy, I attended... Please hold the applause. I attended my first ever cheerleader
competition.
You were the cheerleader or...
Thank you for asking. I'm so glad you did. No, Molly.
Oh.
Our shining star little girl.
Your youngest.
Our youngest child is in cheerleading now.
Fun.
Friends, if you're listening and you're like, "I'm not sure how Joel feels about Molly being
in cheerleading." That's because I don't know how I feel about Molly being in cheerleading.
Well, hey, there's that.
'Cause it was at the... So it's at the Fort Wayne Coliseum. If you've ever been... I think
you've done hockey... We've done hockey games there before. Big old place. Lots and lots
of little girls in their cheerleader outfits with a lot of very strong emotions and a lot
of parents yelling at those little girls...
Oh, man.
To get here, go there. It was a whole thing, but we managed. Molly did great. And so here
we are. 'Cause nothing helps me unwind after all of that. Sitting down at this table with
you, Andy.
So thank you.
Glad I can help.
So thank you. Thank you so much. Yes. Well, hey, what a lovely evening for a podcast.
We're so glad we've got our friend Jack Davidson, who's actually... I won't say he's a stand-in
because...
No, that's not...
Because he's not a stand-in. He's even... He's an upstandin.
I'm bringing him in. He's in.
Sure. Hi, Jack. Hello.
Hey, guys. How are you doing today?
We're so great.
Happy to be in the stand-in.
We're so... Yeah.
You're not a stand-in. So just to clarify for everybody, we've... So we were contacted
by Parent Pro-Tech and Neil wanted to know if we wanted to do an episode. And we're like,
"Absolutely."
This fits us. And Brock was like, "Let's go." And then we had to cancel on Brock because
of...
We did Brock dirty. We did him dirty a few times.
One or two things.
Mostly, we both... Andy and I had some emotional breakdowns and we had to say, "Brock, we're
just not able to... We're not able to do this right now."
And so I emailed Brock. We had agreed on this date. We're like, "Hey, we can do this. It's
not Mother's Day. It's perfect." And I emailed him and said, "Hey, you're still good to
go." And he said, "Oh, shoot. No. I have a work trip that I'm on." But Jack would love
to do it.
Here's the thing. We feel like Jack is actually the person that should have done this interview
to begin with. We really should have just started with Jack. Little did we know. So...
But Brock, if you wanna come on later...
Yeah. And Brock, by the way, when and if Jack outshines you on this episode, I think we'll
have to have him back. Notice here's the deal. We'll have Brock back and then we'll do a
side-by-side comparison. We'll figure out who really...
Jack.
Who did the best.
Who did it better? Who did the show better?
Last audience.
Yeah, that's right. We'll put it out to the internet and we'll see what people think.
But seriously, Jack, thanks so much for joining us. We're so grateful to have you here.
Of course.
Really looking forward to the conversation. We periodically have discussions around here
about technology use, smart technology use, particularly as we're raising kids of all
different ages and different maturity levels and different life stages and all of that.
And it seems to us that the good people over at Parent ProTech are right in that conversation
with us at the forefront of some of the best work out there.
Joel, you did not do the dad stats though.
We should ask this dude what he's all about and what he's up to in life.
So we normally ask our guests and I can't believe Joel forgot.
I didn't. I was getting to it.
Oh, sorry.
It was a super long... I was really waxing eloquent on the introduction though. So I'm sorry.
Thank you, Andy, for keeping the show on track.
So dad stats are essentially, who are you? Are you married? You got kids?
Just tell us all about you first.
Whatever you want out on the internet, Jack. That's what we want to know.
Yeah. No, don't worry. No, I'm in a relationship. I don't have any kids.
I'm only 22. I'm about to be 23.
Got a boy.
I do have a goddaughter.
Nice. Good start.
Her name's Ellie. She's awesome.
We have a lot of fun together, but yeah, that's about... I was a camp counselor growing up,
so I've always tried to look out for the younger people.
And to be honest with you, COVID really, I realized young kids are really in harm's way
right now. And so that's been my how I am where I am now, I guess.
Gotcha.
And Jack, the fact that someone said, "Hey, we want you, young man, to be our child's
goddaughter or godfather. You're a godfather." Wow. That's a 22 year old godfather. That means
someone trusted you, which means that you're a perfect candidate to be on the show as well.
So congratulations on that. No one's ever named me a godfather of anything. Andy?
I'm sorry.
Andy?
Sorry.
Oh man.
I'm sorry, Jack. I didn't mean to bring this up in front of you. It's apparently a little
bit of an issue for me, even though we've never ever talked about it before.
Work through the time.
Yeah, all at once.
We'll do some work after the show.
Absolutely. So Jack, tell us about your background, what it is that you do over there at Parent
ProTech. And on top of what you do, where Parent ProTech came from, what birth was this
company and really the passion that you guys have for what you do?
Yeah. I mean, I'm going to take it way back. Right. So I'm 2001. That's whenever I was
born. I was pretty young. I was born with a computer in the house, fast working internet.
I wasn't allowed to play on it all the time or anything at all. But my age group in really late
90s, early 2000s and on, we have lived and seen the world shift from a tech balance where maybe
the computer's in the computer room and that's the time that you use the computer. And other than
that, you're in the physical world. Point is, though, I grew up in a pretty healthy relationship
with tech, I would say. But I was able to see the iPads come into play and the young little kids get
addicted really early on. I was in Decca at school, which is like a business competition thing.
And that was around the same time as TikTok. It used to be called Musical.ly. That was getting
really popular back then. So I'm a little business high school kid. Me and a few of my friends were
like, "Let's find a way to make money off of this." And so I started managing Musical.ly
influencers back in 2017 while I was in high school.
Nice.
The issue was... I didn't know how to monetize that. I didn't know how I could make any money.
Fast forward, I found a way to make money off of it. And I was doing a lot of music marketing
and all that kind of fun stuff. And so for me, I was really in the grit and grime. I was seeing how,
on the backside, how companies create trends online and how companies can use an influencer
who a ton of 14-year-old boys follow to funnel attention over here to their product or over here
to their show, whatever, XYZ. So I ran a pretty successful music marketing company and we expanded
to just be a marketing agency, really from 2019 through 2023. COVID was amazing for me.
TikTok was number one. Everyone saw TikTok.
Yeah.
I was able to create a lot of awesome music trends and the dance trends and all that stuff.
And I started to realize this is not it. I have an eye for marketing, I would say. Not to pat
myself on the back. But I was getting great numbers and doing great things. But I was just
getting kids addicted to listening to a stupid song and a dance on their phone.
Brock and I had met at that time. And we both realized that society and this new age group just
has a problem. Brock was at the White House and the administration. And he was hearing from a lot
of politicians, "Hey, we don't know what to do online. Our kids are addicted to TikTok. What is
this? Our kids are addicted to VR in the early days." And so that birthed Parent ProTech.
And I was, of course, ready to help because my expertise, to be honest with you, was,
how do we hack these very malleable children and young adults and even late 20s, mid 20s?
How do I hack their attention span to be interested in what I want them to be interested in?
And that created Parent ProTech. We decided that's a problem and we need to stop it.
So what I hear you saying is you decided to use your powers for good and not evil.
Yes. So you mentioned the Parent ProTech. Can you explain to me what it is? So if I've never heard
of it, because actually, to be honest, I had never heard of it before Brock emailed me and said, "Hey,
we would love to be on the show." And so I know what it is now, but can you tell my listeners
what it is? Yeah. So I would say we're an up and coming company. And so if you haven't heard of us,
it's no big deal. A lot of schools, educators, politicians, from all over, administration,
school departments, they've heard of us. We are trying to really inform and equip every single
parent, every single adult, every single teacher, and honestly, even the students and kids with the
right information about how they should be acting online. And so for a parent, that really looks
like we're logging into our platform. We have 100 videos, basically breaking down platform by
platform. Here's what you need to look out for on Reddit. Here's what you need to look out for on
YouTube Kids. If you're having a problem with your kid, and you've just introduced the iPhone to them,
and they're going to school with it, we have an onboard into technology for middle school,
or for elementary school, digital citizenship, pretty much everything to make sure that you're
creating and cultivating this good image of yourself online because it's going to follow
you forever. Yeah. Yeah. So your main audience, if you will, is... You mentioned teachers,
parents, so a little bit of everybody. Is that what I'm hearing?
Yeah. Yeah. We're trying to hit as big an audience as we can. While I was growing up,
we would get the projector coming down and we'd get a 30-minute cyberbullying that doesn't do
anything. Honestly, it's attacking it on all fronts. It's the parents are learning about
cyberbullying. At the same time, the kids are learning about it. And in that one week span
where both parties... There's a better chance of conversation happening, and whatever truth there
is coming to light and so on and so forth. We tackle literally every issue that a sub 18-year-old
can definitely face on them. So as in front of our friends who head over to parentprotect.com
and check out your guys' site, which is... We'll make sure that we make obscenely available on our
show notes and over on our site as well. They'll see right away that you have a lot of existing
relationships with, as you've mentioned, educational institutions. When you approach a school,
how quickly... I would just be interested in what the conversations are that you're having
with educators, with school administrators, what that looks like and what your ultimate goals are
as you're just building those relationships and building those partnerships.
David Collum (00;15m 1s): I love it. I was always one of the kids...
I was kind of a nerd growing up in high school. I played tennis. And so I was one of those kids. I
had a stigma. I was friends with all my teachers, especially the cool ones. I think they have always
recognized that there was a problem even whenever it wasn't this rampant. COVID, just like how COVID
screwed up everything else, COVID really amplified all these online problems times 100, I would say,
if not even more. But growing up, everybody knew, teachers knew. And so I've had some really
amazing conversations with some of my old teachers or people who used to work at my old schools.
As you venture out and talk to different schools and different people, you hear crazy stories. In
Chicago, there's always just crazy, insane stuff. I've talked to a lot of people in Arizona and even
that. You get into drug issues, you get into all that. Everyone is very open to hearing a solution.
The biggest issue at the end of the day is funding. Funding is tight. Funding is...
You hear all these... The bureaucracy is always the issue, but it doesn't really stop us. We're
offering as many free solutions as we can. At the end of the day, we do have to survive. We do have
to make money ourselves. It's a balance. But yeah, I would say pretty much everyone is very aware
that it's a problem. Of course, you run into some admin or principals that are, "Get out of here.
We're not... We don't care. There's nothing we can do." And that's definitely a gut punch, but...
What can you do?
Adam: Yeah. And I wonder so much now, in terms of just thinking about from the parents' perspective
and parent advocacy, approaching schools and asking... Really thinking about the relationship
with parents and with schools and what parents can be asking for and what parents can be looking to.
We're seeing right now, there is a beginning movement and I really... And I personally really
hope it continues. I think about what happens at my own children's schools, but this growing
movement of no phone zones at all, where no devices are accessible during the school day
at all. And it should be no surprise that the positive outcomes of all of this are pretty immense.
Is that the direction that you guys, if you could speak for your organization or in general,
is that the kind of direction that you guys, in terms of within academic settings, within school
settings, what you would advocate for specifically? Just less access, especially on the social media
side?
You know, what we always say is every family is different, everyone is different, every school
is different. And that's, at the end of the day, that's the reality. If I had to make a blanket
statement, which I'm totally fine doing. I fall somewhere in the middle personally, but I think
Parent ProTech as a whole, we are encouraging a healthy relationship with the school. It's not
necessarily in the classroom or outside of the classroom, it's both. There's always going to be
a kid with an Apple Watch that sneaks it by, and now we have the exact... I can scroll on TikTok
and my Apple Watch. And so that's... It's tricky because for us, of course, I want to say, yeah,
take out all the tech from the class and make it a safe place. At the end of the day, there's going
to be a kid who outsmarts the teacher. And now that rule is pointless, to be honest with you.
And everyone else is kind of at a disadvantage academically because maybe one kid can cheat now.
In terms of the safety, yeah. If it was my opinion, I would say, you don't get online,
you have a closed version of the internet and you live in that. And that's my ideal.
Which is... The whole thing is kind of interesting because it's shifted from when Joel and you and I
were in high school, things have changed. And not even just the fact that there's all these social
media sites, but my kids, all of their homework is done on their computer. All of... They're always
on the computer. That's how they do school. And especially during COVID, everyone was on
Zoom all the time. And so times have changed. So I think that there's definitely a healthy
balance between technology, because we're going to live with it. These kids are going to grow up with
it. These kids have grown up with it. They were born with a computer in their hand, pretty much.
And so I think it's important as parents and educators and other adults to teach the
responsibility of how to do that responsibly. Because like you said, Jack, we're not gonna
get this out of all... We're not gonna take all technology away. And I don't know that that's
even a healthy thing, but I think it's important for us parents to stand in there and have an idea
of, "Okay, this is what we want. These are our rules." For instance, we've gone back and forth
with it and it depends on the time of the year, but there have been times that our family, as soon
as we get home, if we're not doing the homework and stuff with it, we put our phones down until
eight o'clock in the evening. That's parents included, because it's important for us to set
those examples as parents. And so yeah, that's how we do it. And important for us just to do that.
Right. In general. As a practice of general practices. Yeah, for sure.
For sure. So Jack, Parent ProTech, you guys offer a few different, really,
I think valuable resources. And so I just kind of wanted to run through a few of them and kind of
give a description of what it is that you guys do. What the deliverables are for you, specifically.
Obviously, one of the first things here is your family resource platform. And just the kind of...
I wonder if you can kind of talk through what those resources are, what is available, because
like you said, you've got to pay the bills, you got to keep the lights on, you got a team to
employ, you have a product to sell. But as we've said, it's a product that is used for good and not
evil. And so while plenty of products are being used for nefarious purposes and things that are
less than helpful, this one is truly an investment in wellbeing, especially for our kids. So
talk us through your family resource platform and what all that involves.
Yeah. Right now, I would say it's about 90 videos, each one anywhere from 10 to 20, 30 minutes.
We have segmented everything kind of by chapter. If you're familiar with Khan Academy, it's kind of
a similar platform. You hop in and we have it broken down by social media. We have a whole study.
We talked to a neuroscientist who has her own whole study on how tech in a developing brain
involves everything. The family platform is definitely our video catalog is what I would say.
We have a few hundred other videos that are getting edited over the summer. And so by next
school year, we'll be up and running with hopefully hundreds of really informative, awesome
videos made by teachers. And so we make sure that we're kind of translating the tech to them and
then they can translate it into, you know, adult.
And so you guys really get to be the one-stop shop for kind of the, for educating all of us
on better and more responsible tech usage. I know a lot of parents are like, they just
some of us, depending on the stage for life, we kind of want to be like,
just tell us what to do, right? Like just tell us, tell us the best thing that we can do. What has
your guys has been your approach? Is it, is it, Hey, we want to give you the information and then
you're making decisions about how you want to roll that out to your, to your children within
your administration. Or are there places where you guys come down and just say, Hey, listen
all the, all the info is in. Cause I feel like this way sometimes it's like,
listen, the research has been done. We are very clear on this, on this is the right,
this is the right thing to do. And this is the wrong thing to do. What does it look like
just in terms of your guys's resource about how you guys approach that question?
Jason Blum: We try to be very definitive and everything. And so of course, like by social
media platform, we kind of give you a conclusion video statement kind of thing where we say, Hey,
look, here's what we covered. Here are the, you know, five settings that you need to change in
the next week or today, right now. And of course there is stuff that is very urgent and we have in
there urgently, you know, turn location settings off of Roblox, you know, turn voice chat,
functionality off and Hey, also while you're doing that, here's how you set up your parent
account and make sure it's connected to everything. And so of course we, we know that this is for some
people, this is not their land, right? Technology. They honestly are still not that interested. And
so we want to make sure it is as easy as possible. We're all they have to do. They spend five
minutes. They know their kid is on Roblox. They can watch the five minute video on Roblox and get,
you know, the five minute solution. Of course, that's not the big blanket solution that we all
want. And you know, water is still going to be seeking through the cracks, but at the end of the
day, like it, some stuff is very easy. That's the benefit of this technology world that we're in now.
You know, at the same time, there are some more complex things. You know, the family sharing,
that's a pretty complex one. You know, depending on how old your kid is, you might want different
things on different things off. You might want an all on. And so, you know, we, we do a pretty good
job saying, here's the stuff that you need to do and here's our best suggestions on some other
stuff. And then here's, we, we try to educate everybody. So at the end of the day, you can make
your own decision and feel, you know... Which I think is smart because like you said
before, every family is going to be different. You know, my kids are different than Joel's kids
and they may have different responsibility levels. And so yeah, ultimately, I mean, I think as
parents, that's the important thing for us is just to stay educated because, you know, I'm in
technology in my field and yet I'm not up to date on all of the things, right. You know, like I don't
play Roblox. There's a big forest out there. I was actually so glad Jack, that you actually did
reference Roblox because that is the one game I do know that my kids play amongst the many. So that's,
yeah, that's, that's really, really helpful. And, and I, so I would also imagine, you know,
as technology is evolving constantly and there are new things out in the marketplace constantly,
how do you guys feel about your, just your reaction time to all of that? And because I would,
cause that would be, I think a great resource to have. I knew, Hey, this is a place that I can go
where there are people literally, literally watching, watching the market as we speak and are
trying, you know, are trying to help us stay ahead of the curve. How have you guys approached that
as a company? That's us. We, we are the radar, you know, we are the radar turned all the way up
and, and if there's any, you know, we, we caught a Yik Yak update the other day. You've probably
never heard of Yik Yak. It was, yeah, it was really popular probably about 10 years ago.
It's a, it's a location based thing. High schoolers like it a lot because they feel like they're
anonymous and talking to people. Of course, it's not safe. I don't, if your kids use Yik Yak, don't.
But for example, we we've caught, you know, one line of an update in there and in our email blast,
which is completely free, it's called the ProTech playbook. It's weekly or biweekly, depending on if
there's anything super duper pressing, but you know, if there's a Snapchat update that comes out
where an urgent setting needs to be changed again, we'll send out, you know, a Wednesday random,
urgent, Hey, do this right now with red stickers up top so that everyone sees it. We're, we're
pretty on top of it. And at the same time, I would say we do have parents, we do have teachers who
are saying, Hey, look, I have this problem. Here's a new platform. One of them the other day was
Minecraft. If you guys know Minecraft, there was a Minecraft server and some kids were being bullied
and basically banned another kid from their Minecraft server. And so we kind of helped them
through that. And I wrote a nice little response, but once you're banned, you're banned. So I can't
do anything. I'm sorry. But you know, and so it's just, it's stuff like that, but we are,
you know, we're really responsive. If there's ever a question or something that a parent catches
first, feel free to contact us about it. Even if you're not a subscriber yet or anything,
we'll help anybody. That's that's awesome. So you guys also do what you refer to as a,
you have a digital citizenship curriculum and digital citizenry now they're there. That just
rolls right off the tongue. Oh yeah. Jack, what is it? And why is it important?
You know, yeah, I would say being a good citizen in real life used to be a really big focus even
before my time. You know, early 2000s, people still cared about being a good person, but
nowadays you're literally living your life online. And so, you know, and everyone's in their own
bubble. You walk around with your AirPods in all day. Being a good citizen in real life is
a lot harder in many ways, but a lot easier in a lot of ways as well, because you don't have to
talk to people. Being a good citizen online has many different layers to it, right? That you have
to pull back where, you know, of course, like if you're in a fantasy football league, you might say
some choice words to your friends if they beat you that week, like, okay, whatever that, that probably
doesn't matter. But, you know, targeted harassment and, you know, you can't let go of 2015 and that
one guy beat you and he got you in that trade too. Like, you know, there's a level. And so
we're trying to teach kids, you know, cyber bullying is real. You know, you can sit there
and watch a 30 minute video on it, or we can give you guys, hey, here's the facts. Cyber
bullying has been around for 25 years now. You know, pretty hardcore. Here's the history to it.
Here's why it's not good. And really going through how to be a good person online and then why. And
the why is a big part that we don't think schools are really addressing these days. You know, those
are the hard conversations that parents have with their kids at home is normally the why, because
something tragic happened or, you know, some story in the news and you have to sit your kid down and
say, hey, look, here's a reality check, but like, you know, let's make sure we're on the same page.
We try to, I would say like, it's a ramp up, right? So like, we're trying to get everyone
kind of on the right path to where you as a parent, you don't have to worry as much. And
those conversations are a lot simpler. But yeah, I mean, what that looks like, I guess, is literally
like, here's what not to do online. Of course, we're not telling them like, here's a website,
do not search this website, because obviously they would search it. But it's complex, it's tricky,
and it's more of a learning process and, you know, a group thing and meant to be, talk to your
parents about so that you're understanding. It's not hard to be a good person online. Just when
you're little, it's easy to overreact. It's easy to be curious and stupid.
So one of the things that I see on the site, and I think this is top, and it's trending on the site,
and there's a reason for it, is it's summer screen time, you know, summer is here, and so is increased
screen time. How can I help my child? Because I think that's important. We as parents, a lot of
us, there's two parents working in, you know, at the house. So there's, may or may not be parents
home all day. And so just quickly, like, what are some tips that you can give us for that?
Yeah, because Jack, I plan on technology babysitting my children for the next two and a
half months. And if you're here to tell me that that's a less than great idea, I've got, I've got
some new arrangements to make. So here it comes. Let's find out what he has to say.
No, I would encourage healthy usage, right? And so, I mean, obviously, we're adults,
we know what that means. They can play, they can play all day. Like, it doesn't really matter. What
you don't want is the kind of negative things to start creeping in that normally do with playing
a lot and playing consistently. Me personally, like, depending on how old your kid is, I would
just set a hard time limit and say, you know, for every X amount you do, go outside, run a lap,
run the ball, whatever. Go play with your friends, go pop a water balloon, you know. A give and take,
find the balance for them. And if you get them on board before everything starts, then things
should go well. But of course, I'm not a parent yet. I don't know how that works.
I think that there are a lot of learning games depending on how old your kid is. For example,
Roblox back in the day actually taught me how to code. It's not like that anymore at all. But I
learned how to do like HTML in 2009, like in the very beginning. There's some other stuff that's
pretty comparable. You know, some iPad apps that are very... Duolingo is a fun one. If your kid is
interested in learning another language, I would really suggest that once they're like 15 or 16,
they start to kind of decrease learning language ability. And so, really anything to gamify
learning still and keeping that going over the summer, I would highly suggest.
Also, science experiments and other things can be done online now, which is still pretty awesome.
But yeah, I would say for every X amount of screen time, and it depends on how old your kid is,
but definitely no more than two hours before you need to go outside, drink some water, stretch,
do something away from the screen for a while, and then come back. Another big thing... I'm so sorry,
I don't mean to cut you off. But as you're getting closer to school, definitely start to ramp down.
You know, start to introduce... And that's obvious. Y'all know that. But that's a big thing that we
run into where kids have the worst online behavior right whenever they're back in August and
September. So finding that balance form as time goes on is super important.
Yeah. I think for us, for me and my wife as parents, we found that, yes, obviously summer
is summer. And we all like relaxing and hanging out and doing whatever. But still, for us,
we found that some structure has helped too. So there may be... Every day, we have a list of things
that they have to do. And we put it pretty prominently in our kitchen on a whiteboard,
so that way they can see, they can mark it off, they can know what they need to do.
And then they have free time. And that free time is... Usually we say, you have an hour of screen
time or whatever that is, maybe whatever, maybe not an hour, but whatever. We have a limited
amount. We say, you can do this, but the rest of the time, go find something else to do.
No. We are prepping. We just did the ceremonial removal of the PS5 from the main media area. And
tonight, Jackie, my wife, looked at me, she goes, "This is just gonna stay away for a while." I go,
"Fantastic." 'Cause the weather's changed up here, it's turned. They're really pretty much,
the kids can be outside every single day now for the most part. And we are at the place now,
we feel pretty comfortable with them riding their bikes into town and to our area park and all of
that. And so we just had this moment where we're like, there's a million other things that they can
legitimately do now. And I have four kids, so the older ones can be semi-responsible for the younger
ones. And when they go places and things like that, if they're gonna be taking walks and going
to the park and things like that. And so I had this moment where it's like, I don't feel bad
at all about just taking the game system away for now and just saying... And again,
it's not even a disciplinary thing. It is a, I'm gonna help you make the most of your summer,
make the most of this time. 'Cause I know, and I'm guilty of it too, if the technology,
whatever the technology thing is, if it's there, it's gonna be a distraction and it's gonna rob me
of an opportunity. We only have, Jack, I know you being down there in Austin, apart from the
killer tornadoes, we only have three months of good weather here. That's it. And then it all just
goes... I'd like to say the end of the fall is nice and it can be, but it's a 180 real quick.
So yeah, yeah. See, you listen to the Southern person here. Do you see how amazed and terrified
he is? It's exactly right. We've normalized it up here. He hears me explain this. He's like,
I don't know how, how are you even alive? He doesn't even know how in the world. But
just to make the most, I think to make the most use of the time of when we're in a season where
it's like, Oh man, be outside, do the things that you can do to fight away the... I don't know,
just that constant screen time. And my goodness. And Andy, as you mentioned already, and Jack,
you see it too. There's already enough mandated screen time in our lives. I have to be in front
of my computer so much. Andy definitely has to be in front of a computer pretty much for his entire
job. I think, and that's with our kids too, in the educational sphere. I mean, there's so much
that's required. Summer break can be a summer break from a lot of things and it can be an
entrance and an invitation to some other good stuff too. Well, and I know for me, my kids,
so I've got four kids also, and my oldest two, my oldest oldest one is working a full-time job
this year again. So that's going to be good. That'll keep him busy. Attaboy, Micah. Stay out
of the house, make yourself some money. Go get it, son. Pay for your car. Namely pay for your car.
Yes. And then my second one is actually going to be in Germany for a while this summer. And so
he's actually taking a trip and he's going to be with the school. And so it's going to be a
different dynamic in our house because it'll be really mainly just the girls home. The youngins.
Nice. Yeah. And so it's going to be just a different atmosphere this year. Yeah, that's
interesting. Then we'll, you'll get to get to encourage them to of your kids and they'd be
interested. What are the, are the, who is there more interest on the technology side? Who are
you having to pull away from tech more? Is it the old Hattie Hattie, the, the, the, the, the,
the we want and she's sneaky about it too. Cause like I'll say like, you know, no doing that. Well,
I'm just listening to music. And the next thing I know every time watching something, it's like,
no, no, no, no, no. That's right. Joel, your wife did in our comments say that your kids rode their
bikes 20 miles today. So yeah. In total, actually, that's right. I'm glad she did the math. It was
like a nine, a nine mile ride and a 11 mile ride. Yeah. Which you guys are fine. Jack's like, if I
could distort the horror stories, I could tell you things like that. Things like here. Jack,
we look at it again. We, we see the, there's plenty of warning signs. I mean, the things
that you guys have listed we, cause we want to be really, really clear. And I, I have,
I think back to a couple of months ago, I had to go to my kids junior high cause he got his,
they have a no phones policy during the year. You have to like turn it off, put it in your locker
during the day. He, he forgot that he had his phone. And so it was taken from him. And when
his phone gets taken away, I have the strange amnesia that it's there at the school. I forget.
And I let that phone set there at the school office for several days on end. I have zero problem with
that. So I come into this school admin, I come into the administrator's office and she right
away knows what I'm there. Like when I'm there for she's goes and gets it. She's like, Hey,
that's been here a while. I was like, and I said the same thing. I was like, yeah, it's funny when
the phone gets taken away. I seem to forget that it's here for a while. And one of the other
teachers who I know came over and just put his, put his arm around me and goes, you are one of my
favorite parents of all time. And then, but it was interesting. We had, there were about, there
were a couple of administrators and a couple of teachers that were all standing there and we had
this, we had this kind of impromptu conversation real quick. And I, and I just, I just said,
you guys see it on the front line. I know it because I've been in adolescent studies and
research for a long time about, about what technology and kids, the development of the
prefrontal cortex, judgment centers, all of that sort of thing, what it's doing, how it's rewiring.
And I, I just told him, I said, I said, listen, when you are given your kid, especially if we're
exposing our kids technology, if we're giving them phones, particularly at an early age, you're,
you're, it's like, you're putting a loaded gun in their hand. The bullets are just slower. And,
and, but that is, that is the case is that there is still an impact there. And and we know this and
you guys mentioned it. I mean, Jack, on your site, you talk about 60% of adolescent girls
have been contacted by a stranger who made them feel uncomfortable. 60% of adolescent girls,
32% of teens think social media has a mostly negative effect on their life. 32% of them like,
but they still do it. They right. They still do it. I remember, I remember surveying when I was,
when I was still in direct use service talking to high school seniors, every single one of them
said that they wished they had never gotten their phone, but they felt it was like a necessary evil.
Now they're like, they didn't know how they would function in life without it, but they knew,
they knew it was not good. It's like, what, like any other situation we would be like, well, that
okay. That's a problem. Right. Two children who are two times of the risk of anxiety and depression.
If they are spending three plus hours a day on, on their, in front of a screen on their,
on their device. Again, the research is all there. We have researched the crap out of this, Jack,
like you guys have, you have all the info. It's not a question. It really is a matter. Is it fair
to say it really just a matter of our follow through about how seriously we take this and
the steps and the diligence that we want to put forward to address the issue. Yeah.
To be honest with you. Yeah. Like I could run through some really dark stats like there,
and some people need that or whatever to slap on the face. I'm like, I don't want to do that
tonight. I'm just going to tell you, it's a serious, serious, serious problem. Just like
suicide is obviously been off the charts for all age groups since COVID, but to be honest,
it's young men. That's the highest stat right now. Especially an increase just over the last
few years. That's terrible. And of course, no life lost is okay. But like I've had friends who have
been personally affected and are not here anymore because of some just really rough stuff online and
that spills over into your personal life. And you know, high school is rough. Middle school is
rougher. I would say, you know, and some of these kids are getting phones in elementary school. And
so in some ways they're at a social advantage starting when they're 11 or 12. And so that's,
you know, as a parent, you probably see all the pressures. I want a phone, I want a phone. It's
because it makes you cool. It's because it makes you, you know, you have more power than everyone
else. You're more responsible than everyone else. And that's tough because at the end of the day,
there's kids who are getting it that aren't responsible and aren't ready for it,
but their parents are not really taking control and just kind of laissez-faire. And so I think
at the end of the day, every it's the parent's job. We're trying to get the teachers and the
admin a lot more involved as well. And so, you know, on our platform, for example, we have stuff
that's kind of teacher specific where it's help identify stuff in the classroom. But, you know,
it's, we're trying to build an ecosystem where everyone is acknowledging the problems and kind
of working together and sharing the best tips and sharing, Hey, you know, I found this new setting.
It's worked. You know, I've been able to track my kids' text messages for the last week. There's
some softwares for that. There's all this other stuff. We have partners that can do pretty much
anything, even if it's hardcore data security. But we're trying to create an ecosystem just
where this problem gets attacked. You know, the one-stop shop is to be honest, spot on.
We're not there yet, but we will be really soon.
Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. And Jack, I just have to say, I mean, I'm glad,
I'm glad you guys are out there doing this. I'm glad the resources available.
I think I speak for a lot of parents when I say, you know, for all of us who are just trying to
live life these days in this season that Andy and I are in, where it's like, it does,
we could use an extra few hours every day that we know we're not, we're not going to get like,
life feels very jammed full. And it really, the question that we ask so frequently is like, okay,
where am I going to find the bandwidth and the time to do the extra research, to do the extra
checkup? You know, and what I love is that whenever there is a resource of like, Hey,
we are here to do this work for you, to give you a very clear and concise information and
step-by-step instruction, man, that is, that is what this dad right here needs more often than not.
It's just like a shot in the arm. I mean, it's just an extra boost of an extra boost for us.
Cause again, you know, we don't have to, I mean, don't have to, isn't the right word, but it's,
it's an assistant, something like this, something like parent protect is an assistant for us where
we don't have to go out and do all of the research ourselves. We don't have to go out, you know, it's
like having an army, you know, I can, I can do that. I can go out and do research on Roblox and
Minecraft and Snapchat and, and, and, you know, all of the things for when I don't want all this
stuff. I, you know, I, I purposely have never installed Tik TOK and I, I don't plan on it. And,
and so for me to do research on that is really, really hard. And so parent protect is a great
assistant for those parents like myself, like Joel, that just don't like, we don't have the
time for it all. And yet, what we want to do is just streamline, right? Like if there was a
parenting one-on-one book for technology, of course you have some people who know the exact
problem and they're going to be able to find everything, but for someone who just has five
minutes and you know, Oh wait, I can, I know I just got this subscription. I can look at it.
You know, we break everything down and it's kind of built where you can just flip anywhere you want
and it's useful and it's actually gonna, you're going to learn something and you're going to learn
some really powerful stuff along the way as well, but I didn't mean to cut you off. I'm so sorry.
Yeah. And not even just that, but you know, as, as me, I, I, I work in the IT security field. And so
for me, like some of these things come natural. Some of them I look and go, yeah, there's no way
I want my kid to have that. But those of those parents who don't, aren't in security and think
security minded, aren't going to think about, Oh, this app has your kid's location. And you know,
they're sharing that with their friends. So, and things like that.
And people who they think are there for. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well, we, we really
appreciate you coming on and we appreciate the Brock for being super persistent with us and
patient with us. But we, we obviously can't let you go without doing the dudes and dads pop quiz.
Now it's time for the dudes and dads pop quiz. Oh, thank you so much. All right. So the pop quiz,
if you've never joined us is just a random time where we pepper Jack with questions that he can't
prepare for and probably don't have anything to do with parents or technology. Well, it may be
technology. I've got one, maybe on the air. We'll see. Are you prepared? Are you ready?
Say no Jack. You're not ready. Don't live a lie. Okay. Here we go. Go ahead. You go first. Okay.
Jack, we're gonna, we're gonna start off with a little bit of a softball toss here because I want
to ease you into these waters. What Jack is your favorite either IRL or online game?
To play, correct? Yes. Yes. Yeah. I love me. I love me some tennis, to be honest with you.
Okay. I'm also, I'm also on a baseball team and so they would get mad at me if they saw this and
I didn't shut out the dirty Sixers. Dirty Sixers. Okay. That sounds like a team that only could
exist in Austin. It is. Wow. Okay. What would be your best day ever? And you can't say tennis
because you just use that. So whoever your significant other that's listening, this is also
we've set up a minefield for this poor guy. Okay. Let's go. Best date ever. I don't know if you guys
are familiar. There's, there's this nice park in downtown Austin called Barton Springs. It's this
awesome natural fed kind of lake thing. Water, I think is like 63 degrees year round there,
which for us Texans is freezing cold whenever it's, you know, 105 out. And so believe it or not,
yesterday I had my dream date and we spent all day there, me and my girlfriend.
Went around and just had a beautiful day. It was kind of picnic-esque, but we had to sneak food in.
So attaboy, Jack nicely done. Jack, if you had a time machine and you could travel on back to
witness any historical event, where would you go? And I love history. So, you know, just, just
violent, you know, going through all the, I would have to say, I mean, I could get biblical here and
do that, but I would honestly have to say whenever some, just probably a big war way back in the day,
one of the group shade, obviously not in it, but I would love to be,
yeah. Like you're watching it from above. Right. You got the view above,
you get the popcorn and you're sitting alongside. Yeah. Yeah. I do. Exactly. There was,
there was just not too long ago here. I want to say this is over in England. There was a site
uncovered of a, of a early, like it's like pre medieval battle. Okay. Maybe pre medieval or
around the time this is because I'm not a historian where they, they were able to date
the battle because the, the individuals were wearing an early version of chain mail, but,
but the battlefield injuries or so horrific, we're talking like spears through the head kind of thing.
And I just think to myself, what a, what a different, what a time to be alive, right?
Like what a different reality of, of how just like intense and barbaric, you know, that,
that all was so okay. Gotcha. Good, good answer. Keep it going, Andy. Which talent
would you most like to have that you don't currently have?
You know, I learned how to juggle. I would've said juggle. I learned how to juggle like six
months ago and I'm pretty decent at it now. I juggle Andy's a juggler. Andy juggles chainsaws,
though. It's no, no, no, no. Fire fire. Any juggles fire. Excuse me. Yeah.
I can get three tennis balls. If I do an Apple, some, it always drops and it just
spoils the side of it. But tennis balls I have down pat. Nice. You know, I'm really jealous
of the people like thinking kind of woodsy now, like, have you ever seen the chainsaw guys who
make those perfect sculptures with the chainsaw? Man, like to be a sculptor and to like be a good
artist would just be, you know, top tier. I'm not an artist. I'm good at writing, but like
not that good or anything. Being a good artist would just be my love.
All right, Jack, my final question for you next time I'm in Austin, Texas,
where am I going out to eat?
Where are you sending me? No pressure. There's a place called in a DC burger.
It's it's owned by a Michelin chef, but it's not a Michelin restaurant. It's a burger. Just
exactly how you would think a Texas burger should be right on spot on.
Well, I think you've successfully passed the dudes in Despont quiz. Well done Jack.
Well, Jack, real quick, share with us for all of those that want to check out parent protect,
give us all the platforms, all the places. Where can they find you? Because we're going to make
those spots available over at dudesanddadspodcast.com as well. But tell us where can we find
you? Yeah. Yeah. So it's just www.parentprotechprotec.com. We're pretty much on everything
parent protect as well. Twitter X now, Instagram, LinkedIn, if you want to see some behind the scenes
business stuff. We're relatively active on everything. And we also have some interviews
with kids on our YouTube as well. Just talking about, you know, kind of, you know, front lines
of all this stuff. But yeah, parent protect everywhere. Yeah. Hop over the YouTube channel
as well. So hop over there too. You got to get your video fix. Oh, yeah. Awesome. Awesome.
Well, Jack, big, big, big fan of yours now. Thank you so much. As always, you can head over to
dudesanddadspodcast@gmail.com. You can email us at dudesanddadspodcast@gmail.com
or at the website dudesanddads.com. Dudesanddads.com. You can leave us a voicemail.
If you're into that, just dial a number. It's fine. It'll find its way to us. I caught Andy
off guard. Hey everybody. We're so grateful for you hanging with us, checking out all the good
stuff. Make sure you like, subscribe, share, share the love, all that good stuff. Hey,
until next time, we wish you grace and peace.
(Music)