App for families: With Maya the Bee to digital maturity?

WHow can children learn to use digital content responsibly in a playful way? The founders of the Totoli media platform are trying to solve this challenge with an app that is going online today. The promise is that children should be able to access a range of games, videos and audio books that have been tested in terms of developmental psychology and are tailored to their needs, and that parents should be able to limit screen time. In this way, the start-up with its 20 employees wants to reduce the potential for frustration on both sides.

Philipp Hartmann, one of the three founders, has been active in the tech scene for more than ten years. The father of two daughters discussed the time their children spend in front of the screen with friends and many parents: “Everyone talks about it, but nobody really knows what content and how long it is appropriate for small children,” says the industrial engineer.

After a survey of parents confirmed his intuition, Hartmann brought Steinunn Arnardottir and Adham El Muntasser to his founding team. In addition to companies from the games industry and the media world, he names the venture capitalist BlueYard Capital as the main investor.

Many parents overwhelmed

His motivation, says Hartmann, is to take up the recurring questions from parents in everyday life: How do I teach my child that they can’t watch videos indefinitely? How do I react to resistance? How can I be sure my child is safe from pornography, cyberbullying and online violence?

The approach that distinguishes Totoli from Hartmann’s point of view: Parents can choose between three screen times for the day. When the time is up, neither audio books nor videos can be played. A child sees how much time is left while using it. When it pauses a game or audiobook to choose other content, it only shows what matches the remaining pre-determined screen time. Neither autoplay nor fast forward and rewind are possible. Advertising and in-app purchases should be taboo.

“We want the children to develop a feeling for why their parents set limits for them,” says Hartmann. The aim is to reconcile the parents’ need for control and the children’s fun. According to Hartmann, the offer is primarily aimed at children between the ages of two and five. The start-up developed the app on the basis of an island concept consisting of five building blocks: cognition, culture, creativity, emotions and mobility.

Expert team with a lot of experience

In order to fill the developmental psychological approach with appropriate content, the founders were supported by a team of experts. Astrid Carolus, Professor of Media Psychology at the University of Würzburg, advises on questions of media use in early childhood. Carsten Göttel, former program director at Super RTL, is also part of the team. In addition, the educator and educational psychologist Alexandra Gunnlaugsdóttir and Karen Mitrega, a former producer and developer for RTL and Disney, are available as advisors to the product and content teams.