Kids and smartphones: 'It's a kind of Wild West. Guidance is desperately needed'

Marjolein got the idea for the app through her own teenage daughter. 'She woke up once with 250 unread messages. Of those, there were also 100 voice messages, mostly in group conversations. That made her feel weird: should I read and listen to all this back? Am I not informed enough if I don't? You see children don't yet understand what all those messages trigger in others.'

Guidance essential

At school, children are sometimes given an hour of media literacy, but otherwise the school does not feel the responsibility to guide children through the online world, Van Tilburg noted. 'You basically put the whole internet in your child's pocket. They are still learning to communicate and then suddenly they have a device with unlimited possibilities.'

Moreover, it is a different way of communicating. You don't immediately see the effect it has on the person you are sending a message to. 'When you are 10 or 11, you don't see that danger. They send adolescent texts to each other. It's still very innocent, but you also know it can escalate later. It's a kind of wild west. That's where kids need guidance and you have to give them that as parents.'

What does ChatLicense do?

The app ChatLicense guides children in using their smartphones through games, videos and quiz questions. The aim is to teach them what they might encounter and how best to deal with it. In addition, the app also provides parents with the necessary information and tools to guide their children. Marjolein: 'Our goal is for ChatLicense to be the first app worldwide that all children have on their smartphones.'

The most important element of the app for parents is knowing what is going on. Marjolein: 'If you ask a child: what do you do on your smartphone all the time? Then they often say: nothing! But if you ask: do you also have a Gossip Girl account at school? Then you do get a conversation about that. The most important thing is to build trust about what happens online. And not that you are just the parent who takes away the phone and sets screen time.'

Proud of EUR & Rotterdam
Van Tilburg is proud of her connection with Erasmus University Rotterdam, where she studied law after a brief period in business administration. The university played an important role in the development of ChatLicense. 'Erasmus Enterprise brings science and entrepreneurship together, which is essential for the success of start-ups like ours,' Van Tilburg said. ChatLicense won the first NL Start-up Competition in May 2024, co-organised by Erasmus Enterprise.

Scientific insights incorporated into the app

Scientific insights were used for the content of the app Chatlicense. These come from communication scientist Esther Rozendaal's EUR research group Movez Lab. 'Among other things, we do research into the online world of children, the opportunities and risks they experience in it, and what they need to deal wisely and resiliently with those risks. Based on the outcomes of that research, we formulate insights and advice for societal stakeholders, such as policymakers, media coaches, and developers of educational materials who want to work on children's digital resilience. Such as ChatLicense.'

Rozendaal: 'For example, we shared which themes children find important online (such as safety and social contact) and which factors can contribute to their digital resilience. ChatLicense implemented that knowledge into the app as it saw fit.'

According to Rozendaal, Chatlicense's app nicely translates children's daily experiences with digital media into a fun educational game: 'Moreover, the app offers parents of children who are just getting a smartphone a handy tool to start the conversation about safe phone use. Whether it actually helps children become savvy online is hard to say. That the app-makers are trying to incorporate insights from scientific research into their product is at least a step in the right direction.'