Episode 305: Bill Brady

Episode 305: Empowering Parents and Kids with Safe Tech with Troomi

Fonz: Hello everybody. And welcome to another great episode of my ed tech life. Thank you so much for joining us on this wonderful day and wherever it is that you're joining us from around the world.

Thank you as always for making us part of your day. As you know, we do what we do for you to bring you some amazing conversations and amazing guests. And today is no different. I am so excited to welcome to the show, Mr. Bill Brady. And I am excited to talk about this amazing product that [00:01:00] he is definitely going to be telling us all about, but this is something that is near and dear to me as far as working with parents.

So Bill, how are you doing this evening?

Bill: Wonderful, Fonz. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here with everyone.

Fonz: Well, I'm definitely looking forward to this conversation, Bill, because when I saw what it is that you're doing and, uh, you know, following you on LinkedIn and I know you, uh, I recently saw a clip of you speaking with, uh, I believe it was Josh from Parent Pro Tech and they're doing some great things as well through the work that I do within my district.

I am always looking out for platforms that are not only going to help our students but also might be an answer for some parents that may be feeling a little anxious as far as, uh, screen time. Uh, obviously a lot of, uh, with cyberbullying, a lot of apps, a lot of things that are going on out there. And so I'm really excited to talk a little bit more [00:02:00] about Troomi, but before we get into it, I would love to have my audience get to know you a little bit more, so I would love for you to give us a little brief introduction and then obviously what your context is within the education space as you work with parents and you work with students alike. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

Bill: Wonderful. Thank you. So, as you mentioned, I'm the co-founder and the CEO of Troomi.

My most important job is that I'm the dad to five incredible kids. Our oldest is 20. Our youngest is eight. And I love to share that because it kind of lets people know as we talk about all these issues relative to kids and technology and everything that's going on with that these days. I'm right in the middle of it with you.

Like every family in the country is dealing with questions around kids and technology and what and how much and when and [00:03:00] I'm right there with you. This opportunity to be a dad is just the greatest part of my life and has frankly brought me into this whole space of looking for better ways to introduce technology to kids. I've always had a sensitivity going back 20 years.

I mean, long before we had cell phones everywhere and certainly before social media, I've always had this sensitivity about the effect of technology in humans. And I studied in school, you know, how does technology potentially change us or dehumanize us and change the human experience.

And I jumped into this space after a career in marketing, got into this about six years ago and really with the goal to help kids everywhere. And in that process, support parents, support teachers. We'll talk about some of those things today.

Fonz: Yes, absolutely. And that's such a great backstory to know, and for our audience members actually, just to again, connect with [00:04:00] you just to see where it is that you're coming from, and especially being a father as well.

So, you know, and you can relate to a lot of the things that parents are facing right now with, obviously with social media and yeah. Like you mentioned before, I grew up in an era where we didn't have cell phones. But I do remember, you know, in seventh grade, eighth grade, junior high beepers were the big thing.

And so I was like begging my parents, "Hey, can I get a beeper?" And then when I got into college, it was like, okay, you know, your first cell phone. And then of course, from then on, it just took off. But, uh, one of the things, like I said, that I was really excited about is to talk to you, to get your story about Troomi, how it came about, because I know that this is gonna be an episode that's gonna be very beneficial not only to my audience of educator parents, but the parents that I get to work with in our district as well, who are sometimes [00:05:00] just at their wits' end, as far as not knowing what to do, battling the parental controls, how do we do this? What are some tips? What are some resources to have? And so I'm excited that we get to share your experience with Troomi today. So I want to know when, or what was it that sparked, uh, you know, just the start of Troomi. Where did this come about? Tell us that little backstory and leading us up into the conversation.

Bill: On a very personal level, you could call it a midlife crisis. And I'll explain that. I got into my 40s and I'd had a successful career in marketing. In 2020, I turned 45. The pandemic started, my mom passed away, all in the month of March.

I had some exposure to this category of kid-safe technology. And just kind of got to a point in my life where I said, "I've got to do something more with the rest of my [00:06:00] career." With my wife's blessing, I stepped away from everything I was doing to start something new and to look at the landscape.

We looked at the landscape. I've got a great co-founder named Dave, Dave Priest. We looked at the landscape at the time and on one end of the spectrum, you could give your kids a 1,200-dollar iPhone that does anything and everything. As a society, we've learned the dangers of that after a brutal 15-year experiment.

On the other end of the spectrum, there were some safe things that had evolved, but they were so locked down as to be impractical. We recognized that if the solution that's given to the kid is so impractical that they either refuse to use it or they outgrow it in six months, we really haven't helped that family and that family really hasn't found the solution that they need.

So we determined to come up with a solution that was frankly safer than anything out there, but also more [00:07:00] flexible and also with a bigger view on the whole digital wellness picture. Safety's obviously the huge aspect that we talk about every day, but you can't decouple digital safety from positive mental health for kids. They go hand in hand. And so we said, "Let's tackle this problem in a way that we're addressing all of it."

Fonz: Absolutely. And you know, that's something that is great that you talked about. And I want to highlight something that you mentioned, because as a former classroom teacher, before I landed in this role, being a digital learning coordinator, this is my eighth year in this role, and seeing some students - they are walking around with these very, very high-end and expensive cell phones. But even while I was in the classroom and you're talking about maybe 12 years ago, when, you know, iPhones were coming out, iPads were coming out to [00:08:00] see some of my fifth and sixth graders with phones that at that time were a lot higher end than mine and so on, but that can do everything in all things.

I know as an educator, one of the things is I did leverage that technology in my classroom for learning and making sure that it is used to document learning and so on, but then that is when I started learning and seeing some of the dangers and some of the things that were happening because of the conversations that my students were having. And sometimes, you know, they don't realize that they may be saying the quiet part out loud. And then I'm hearing like, "Oh my gosh, we were up at two in the morning sending messages to one another" and so on. And this was pre-pandemic. And I know during the pandemic, social media, a lot of communication back and forth, whether it's through students or other people or entities, there were a lot of students that were very hurt [00:09:00] and had some issues because they were just on social media continually.

And so I want to ask you, you know, you talked a little bit about sometimes that societal pressure on families and, of course, the students coming and saying, "Well, why can't I have a cell phone? If Bobby or Susie have a cell phone, why can't I do that or have that?" What are some of the things that you advise parents as far as how to resist that pressure and to determine when is the right time to get them a device?

Bill: All great questions and questions that we talk with people about every day.

Um, the first counsel I give to people is be very intentional. Um, there's a speech that I give sometimes and I have a slide that shows, uh, you know, a bunch of lemmings jumping off a cliff. And I have this caption that says, "Just because everyone else is doing it" was [00:10:00] never the right reason to do anything.

And so I counsel parents, um, really stand back and look at the need, you know, is there a practical need for your child to have a device? That need varies from family to family and circumstance to circumstance. So it's hard to apply an age to it. Um, but you know, what is the practical need that a phone would meet?

What's the maturity level of the child? You know, some kids at a younger age are ready to have the discussion of the why behind a cautious or graduated approach to technology. So if you're ready as a parent to have that why conversation with your son or daughter and say, "Hey, we're going to try a phone, but it's going to be a limited device, and we're not going to do social media at this point" because of the things I'm concerned [00:11:00] about - have a respectful, constructive conversation with them and help them understand the dangers around predators, bullies, the effect of screen time on loneliness, stress, anxiety, depression. Just have an open conversation.

If your child's ready to have some of those conversations, hey, maybe it's time if there's a real need to be met. But, um, yeah, I always counsel people just don't go rush out and get a phone because everyone else is doing it. The other aspect of it is it's getting easier now. More and more parents are aware of some of these dangers, and more and more parents are saying, "You know what? Maybe we gave our first child the phone when they were nine or eight or whatever age, but we're going to do that differently this time because I've learned" or maybe it's, "Hey, we let our older kid have social media. I'm going to hold off on that this time." Um, [00:12:00] as more and more parents are doing that, it's becoming easier for more and more parents to do that. It reduces some of that pressure. So you see groups like Wait Until 8 who are, you know, coming together, bringing parents together, saying, "Let's wait." And, uh, I think that's a positive movement.

Fonz: Yeah, you know, and you're absolutely right on that, and especially with the work that I get to do with our amazing parent engagement specialist too, is that there is that need just to find a source and resources that are available. And one thing that I do want to highlight is that I always do speak with the parents that I work with also in giving them resources and telling them like, "These are not 'I got you' resources, but these are resources for you as a parent to really have that open communication" and not just say, "Why can I have a cell phone?" Well, just because, well, just because why, and actually like you stated perfectly [00:13:00] giving them those reasons and those concerns that are out there and some of the ones that you highlighted. I mean, there's a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression, a lot of stress with our students because of social media.

I'm not getting enough likes. I want to check how many likes I have or how many DMs that I'm getting and who are you getting these DMs from. And obviously now too, as recent as last month or a little bit prior to that, we heard about the case with Soul Sets or, you know, and the Character AI, and a lot of these platforms that are coming out where you have these chatbots and students are engaging and now there's this parasocial relationship or there's the anthropomorphization of AI, where they think it's an actual person or a mate. And like you said, that they're dealing with that loneliness, but they've got this bot here that they're chatting with. And then, of course, some of those dangers that come with these platforms that don't have those guardrails [00:14:00] to help, uh, you know, in the student safety and data privacy aspects. So now you're layering a lot more, not only on the student but on the parent too, because the technology is moving so fast.

So now I want to ask you, let's talk a little bit more about Troomi and how does Troomi address some of these issues, like we're talking about a little bit of that anxiety, depression, and stress, because this is a mobile device that we're talking about, but what are the benefits of that? Not only for the student but for the parent as well?

Bill: So Troomi's an operating system that we put on Samsung devices. Nice phones, great cameras, phones the kids are happy to use. And it just feels and looks like an Android phone. It doesn't scream like this is a kid's phone. No, it feels like an Android phone and it is an Android phone. It just has our OS on it. We start by keeping kids just out of some of those danger zones. So if it's [00:15:00] true that, say for example, addictions to inappropriate content, spending nine hours a day on a screen, being bullied, being chased by a predator - if those are things that, and all the stuff on social media, that comparison culture, if those are things that lead to negative mental health outcomes, well, the converse is true, that if we don't let kids into some of those dark places, we don't have to pull them back out.

So at the basic level, we're helping stress, anxiety, depression, by trying to help kids remain kids, let them use technology as a tool without becoming a tyrant. Let them experience the benefits of technology without the dangers and learn from one stage to the next how to use that technology with discipline. So by the time they're leaving home, [00:16:00] the danger has largely passed because they've learned in a step-by-step way.

Then we've also got functionality built into what we're doing to give parents insight into their kids, and if there's ever anything that would be flagged for, hey, this child is dealing with some of these extreme stress, depression, heaven forbid, if there's ever any hint of self-harm, those things are going to be flagged and reported to the parent immediately.

We've also built in functionality that parents get this really unique window into their kids' digital lives, and we've all had the experience, every parent has had the experience where a kid comes home from school, "Hey, how was your day?" And it's "Good. Thanks." Like they necessarily say everything right. And so we have found our customers have found that with some of the insights we [00:17:00] provide in this window into their kids' digital lives, they are a lot more connected and it's easier for them to have those face-to-face conversations because they have a sense of how their son or daughter is doing behind the scenes.

Fonz: Yes, you know, and I love that security that a parent can have. And like you said, as a parent, you do have that ability to look into that usage. And that's something that is so important that I see that you're empowering parents to deal with the difficult challenges, but at the same time, like you mentioned, you're able to have those conversations too, as well.

You know, how is it being used? And one thing that I do love is that you have a selected app suite that is wonderful because it's very educational. It's very user-friendly and it's technology, like you mentioned, where it's not a tyrant, but it's technology that is going to be useful and educational for the student, which is [00:18:00] what I love.

And we'll talk a little bit about that. But what I love about this, Bill, is that oftentimes the conversations that I have with parents too, especially because they do have, let's say just the regular cell phone, is having those conversations and those talks with the students or their children, because I always say if we can just get them to pause for a second or two before they click send or share on that message, on that video, on that picture, whatever it is, because we know that there are consequences that can come either instantly or later on. And one of the things that I do mention is having a clean digital footprint that when students do apply for a job, a college, a scholarship, and things of that sort, that these things do not pop up. And so this is one thing that I do love. That during the time being, as the students are growing and developing and learning how to use the device in a mindful [00:19:00] and a very careful way, you know, that's something that can transfer over to when they do get just an all-out device and think about those things.

Bill: We feel so strongly about that. Some of those points that you just made, you know, we have a feature we built called content filtering. It blocks inappropriate things from coming in. You know, things like nudity are just automatically blocked. There's no, if you have this functionality turned on, that's just automatically done.

And from there, as a parent, you have the ability to adjust the sensitivity of what gets blocked or flagged and what doesn't. Um, but it's not just incoming content. We do the same for outgoing content. So if in a moment of poor judgment, a kid decides to send a nude picture of themselves, for example, it's not going to go out. It's going to get stopped. The person on the other end is [00:20:00] not going to receive it, and the parent's going to be alerted, "Hey, um, this just happened." And so we feel so strongly about having some of those guardrails in place that even in a moment of poor judgment, a kid can't do something stupid.

Fonz: Yes. Oh my gosh. That is something amazing because that's one of the things that a lot of my parents that I work with worry about the most, because we know that once you click send, I mean, there's no taking anything back at all whatsoever. I mean, once it's out there, it is out there and it's going to be very easy to find those things.

So I absolutely love that because I also talk to the parents about oversharing. And so in this case, like where the student may be sending either a picture or things of that sort, we know now that due to a lot of the platforms that are out there now, you know, we've got, we've seen on the news, a lot of AI apps that will [00:21:00] undress, you know, a subject in a picture. And now these pictures are being used and being sent.

I know that our parent engagement specialist, um, we're talking to a gentleman from ICE, it's a department of Homeland Security, but he works with students and he works with teens and talking about how some of the scams also, where, you know, students may be engaging with somebody on the other end that might be, you know, obviously a bad character, but faking their age and getting a picture sent and then saying, "Okay, this is ransom. Like, hey, if you don't want me to share this with your parents, or if you don't want me to share this with your school or on social media, you have to pay me 100 bucks, 500," and sometimes they'll go to an exorbitant fee, but he says that sometimes for as little as 50 bucks, they just, you know, they leave you alone. But the danger is that that is out there and that it can be used against you.

Bill: Stories of kids who get into those [00:22:00] situations and in one night, in a matter of hours, they go from sending the inappropriate picture to taking their life - like that happens. The number of times that's happened in this country is terrifying and parents have got to be aware of some of these dangers in educating their kids. Like that's a conversation you've got to be having from a very young age.

If your kid is going to be using the internet and using text messaging and whatever other channel, you've got to be having these conversations and not just assuming, "Oh, that would never happen to my child." No, it happens to the kid next door.

Fonz: No. And that too, like those conversation pieces, like you said, somebody's already had those conversations with your son or daughter, and it could have not been you. I mean, sometimes they think, "No, they're too young to talk about these things. They're too young," but [00:23:00] the chances are somebody has already had a conversation with them, or they've heard this from somebody either through social media or through their circle of friends.

So a lot of those things are just very important and it really breaks my heart because of, like you mentioned, there are so many students or so many young kids around the world that due to that embarrassment, you know, they end up doing something so drastic as taking their life. But what I love in the sense of what you're able to do is kind of, it's, I see it as that huge guardrail that is much needed during this time. And the fact that parents can have those conversations and with confidence say, "Okay, we are going to have a communication device. You have a cell phone. You have this device here that you can use." But the parent can feel safe in the evening, at night, during the day that they know that their child is, well, they can track what it is that they're doing, but at [00:24:00] the end of the day, the apps that are on there are not going to be apps that are going to be harmful or hurtful.

So I want to ask you to now, you know, because I know that with Troomi, one of the things is it's a phone that grows with the child. So I want to talk a little bit about that. So for example, you know, from a nine-year-old to maybe a 15 or 16-year-old, tell us a little bit about that progression and what can a child at that age range be able to find on their device? What can they have on it? And how can it be useful for them?

Bill: So we would always suggest that younger kids, if you've got a child who's seven or eight or nine, who has a need for a phone, start them with the very basic of what they need, which is talking and texting. And so you get a talk-text plan and it's literally $20 a month. That's it. Unlimited talk, unlimited text, all of the Troomi safeguards built [00:25:00] in - $20 a month. Super easy. And as that child learns how to talk and text responsibly, they learn proper etiquette. They learn an understanding of what are okay messages to send, what are not okay.

Then you would graduate them into group text and picture messaging. And then you'd graduate them into some additional functionality. For example, we have a safe web browser, which is awesome. Where some parents just prefer to say no browser, and that's fine. That's actually the default, is just to have it turned off. But with our safe browser, parents can determine the sites that kids can visit. They can't just indiscriminately surf the web, but can use approved websites.

In our new version that's coming out in January, just in a couple weeks, AI is used to vet content before it's served to the child. So a parent can say, "Hey, [00:26:00] my child can use the internet, but no inappropriate content, nothing that's considered adult, no violence, no gore, no profanity," whatever those things are. And then in real-time, the browser either serves it or doesn't serve it.

The best part about the new browser - and every parent who's listening, who has kids my age, I guarantee is going to be stoked out of their minds - we all have this love-hate relationship with YouTube. For me, it's mostly a hate relationship, but there are some content providers that I do love. For example, I've got a 12-year-old son and an eight-year-old son who love a guy named Mark Rober, who does these great fun science experiments with kids and clean, uplifting, motivational content. I let them watch Mark Rober and with our new browser, I can let them have the content [00:27:00] from Mark Rober's channel without giving them YouTube. Think of that. I give them a YouTube channel without giving them YouTube and they can have that content with no comments, no advertisements, no links to other videos. It's pretty game-changing.

And then on top of the safe browser and that third plan of ours, it's access to a suite, a collection of apps that we've put together, including, you know, we took a really hard look as we were filtering down from YouTube. Three and a half million apps in the Google Play Store. We really looked hard at what are the things that teachers are recommending, you know, because teachers have a fantastic view on the day-in, day-out of students and what they need and what's healthy and what's not. So that's part of that filtering process.

And, uh, you know, essentially with those apps, we can give kids what they need, but without the garbage. There's, you know, you can't do a social media app. You can't do [00:28:00] anything that's got any form of adult content - just a Troomi phone.

Fonz: I love it. You know, and it's so wonderful because again, at the same time, the students get what they need. They still get that phone. They still don't feel or have that fear of missing out because they still have a device. Yes, it may not have all that other extra stuff, but you know what? At the end of the day, it's still there. When the parent gets to sit down with their child, and like you mentioned, they can go ahead and hand select that YouTube channel without any of that extra stuff.

You get to download all that content that is safe for them or educational. That's still going to help them. I mean, it's great. And there's going to be a sense of peace also and at ease, because again, there's not going to be that anxiety, that anxiousness or depression at the same time, because what have the, the, there's no reason for the child to be able to get into anything that they're not supposed to.

And for the parent getting that peace of mind and, you know, it doesn't matter if you're eight or 15, or even if you were like, you know, 18, you know, I think that this is still such an amazing device to be able to have. So that children at that very young age can start learning how to use, uh, you know, these digital devices responsibly and understanding it that, you know, seeing it first as the tool that it can be for education purposes, obviously for communication and emergencies as seeing that and then later on, as they grow, you know, it could definitely change and impact the students in a positive way, because I know lately there's been a lot of teachers that have been posting about the anxious generation and the way that they see students coming into the classrooms and you remove a cell phone and you see students that just - it's like a completely different student when that cell phone is taken away and they become rebellious in many ways and other ways they just withdraw, they get upset. And at least

Bill: at least in the short term, you know, I follow some of the schools and some of the school districts and states where they've just said, "You know what? We're gonna make this easy and just make the rules around phones in classrooms far-reaching." And I've even read stories from students where the students were like, "Yeah, the first week was tough, but now we experience and they acknowledge we have less stress. There's less bullying. People are kinder to each other. And we're not distracted while we're learning." And so we can, well, we could talk more, but that's a whole conversation in and of itself. Uh, but I think there's a real benefit to letting teachers teach and letting kids learn.

Fonz: Yes, no, I absolutely agree. Well, I mean, Bill, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for joining me today and just sharing the work that you're doing, the passion and you know, I can't wait. You know, I'm definitely [00:31:00] going to put Troomi.com. We're going to put that all on our website. Definitely going to be sharing it even with the parents that I get to work with and share this as a resource.

So I want to ask you though, before we kind of start wrapping up the show, you know, tell us where - obviously I was at the website, but tell us anything I do see on the website. There's something here right now. So maybe for a parent that is looking for a device during this time, and they're thinking about, "Hey, like our, you know, they're asking for that $800, $1,200 device," maybe this is going to be a safer option. Right now, I'm seeing something here that it says holiday sale, free Troomi phone Pro. So tell us a little bit about that.

Bill: Yeah, right now we're offering a Troomi phone Pro, which is a Samsung Galaxy A15. So beautiful device. My 15-year-old daughter got one and went, "Whoa," because it felt like such a nice device. And it's got a 50-megapixel camera, which, you know, [00:32:00] that's the number one thing for kids - it's got to have a good camera. And we're making that available for free right now during the holiday season when you sign up for a new line of service. And frankly, I'll get you a promotional code that's evergreen, that'll get your listeners and your viewers a discount into the future as well. But that's something that we've got going on right now.

Fonz: That is wonderful. And as you can see, guys, those of you that are joining us and checking out the video, you do see here, Troomi.com, they do have their holiday sale here. But again, you go through this website, this website alone is amazing. As I was going through this throughout the day, just to see the resources that it has, I'm like, "This is every parent's dream. Every question that I have ever had from a parent, when they come to our webinar Wednesdays, they're in our district." As I was going through each tab and reading, I'm like, "This is the answer. This is the answer that a lot of parents are looking for." And that's why I was so excited to have you here on the show.

So please make sure that you do go visit Troomi.com. And of course, we will link that in the show notes. And also don't forget that we will be having that evergreen code too as well, so we can go ahead and share with you that'll stay there forever. And you know, just thank you, Bill. I really appreciate that. This is amazing. I appreciate your time. I appreciate this amazing work that you are doing with your company and I can't wait to see what else is coming in the future. Because like I said, you know, after today and being able to share this out with my community, I am more than certain that there's going to be a lot of parents and educators that are going to be looking at Troomi as a solution.

So thank you so much. All right, Bill. Well, thank you so much. And before we go, we're definitely going to be wrapping up with the last three questions here of our show. So are you ready? My friend? All right, perfect. Here we go. Question number one, as we know, every superhero has a weakness or a pain point. So for Superman, kryptonite was that one thing that kind of weakened him. So I want to ask you in the current state of education, what would you say would be your current edu-kryptonite?

Bill: We kind of just touched on it. It's this whole debate about phones in schools. And, um, I come from a family of educators. I'm kind of the black sheep in my family because I wasn't a teacher. And, uh, I hear the stories from my brother, for example, about how teaching changed with the challenges that came with kids being on devices and distracted and just kind of checked out, and I've read stories of, you know, teachers leaving the profession, great, phenomenal teachers who are like, "I can't do this," you know, because I don't have the kids' attention.

And so I think that's when we've got to just get to a place where kids can have devices, but they're left out of the learning environment and where teachers can do their best teaching and kids can do their best learning.

Fonz: Perfect. Great answer. Thank you so much. All right, question number two. If you could have a billboard with anything on it, what would it be and why?

Bill: It would be a big sentence in big capital letters with an exclamation point that says, "STOP GIVING KIDS SOCIAL MEDIA!" And the why behind that is so many of the challenges that kids get into with safety, with pornography, with mental health challenges, start with social media.

I heard a wise person that I know was once asked, "You know, the right age to give your kids social media?" And I was like, "Oh, what's he going to say?" And the person responded, "Well, it depends. How soon do you want your boys to be addicted to pornography and how soon do you want your girls to feel badly about themselves?"

And I was like, "Dang." Um, and I think there's a lot of truth to that. So that's a line that we draw at Troomi. We don't do social media and parents have got to understand the dangers there.

Fonz: Absolutely. No, I agree. Great answer. All right. Last question is if you could trade places with one person for a day, who would it be and why?

Bill: This is gonna sound funny. My 15-year-old daughter Ainsley. Uh, for one, I've always wanted to sing and Ainsley is a phenomenal, phenomenal singer and performer. That would be fun to experience. But number two is just to be in her shoes among her peers for a day and experience firsthand all the stuff that they're dealing [00:37:00] with and see it from their perspective. We spend a lot of time talking to kids, but to actually be in a kid's shoes for a day, that'd be pretty eye-opening.

Fonz: Yeah, no, that is for sure. Most definitely. Well, thank you so much, Bill. I really appreciate you being here with us and just sharing the amazing work that you're doing. And I'm just so thankful for this interview, thankful for the work that you're doing, because honestly, this really means a lot to me too, as well, just because now I have something wonderful to share with the parents that I get to work with.

So I'm really excited about this and seeing where this is going to go, because I know, like you said, January, you've got some new stuff coming out, you've got the new OS, you've got the AI vetting, and I can definitely just see this as something that's going to continue to grow, especially now with parents that are going to be not necessarily like, "Hey, like I got your parents," but just to have that peace of mind and then students also just that mental wellness and not have to worry about all that anxiety, depression and added stresses from social media. And they can just be kids. Like you said, at the very beginning. I absolutely love it.

So thank you so much, Bill. Thank you so much Troomi and thank you to all our wonderful listeners. Thank you so much for catching this episode and please make sure you jump over to our website at myedtech.life, where you can check out this amazing episode and the other 304 episodes where I promise you will find something that you can sprinkle on to what you are already doing.

Great. If you haven't done so yet, make sure you jump over to our YouTube channel. Give us a thumbs up and a like, we're trying to start 2025 with a thousand subscribers, that is our goal. And we're almost there, but could you be our thousandth subscriber, please make sure you jump over and let that be you.

And also, if you're not following us on social media, please make sure you follow us as well. At my ed tech life, you can find this on all socials. And of course the links are there on our website too, as well. So thank you as always for all of your support and my friends until next time. Don't forget, stay techie.