About Nick + Jessica
Nick and I have been together for 14 years, have 2 wonderful kids (10 + 7) and live in Southlake, Texas. Nick currently works at Microsoft and prior to that was with Verizon for 12 years. I am in free lance Marketing, Web Design, Photography and Social Media Consulting (you can view my website here). Between Nick's technology experience and device knowledge and my countless hours doing social media research, the two of us bring to the table both sides of the safeguarding spectrum.
Our passion for safeguarding and protecting kids from devices and the harms of having social media too young, started with our own children. As years progressed and I was inundated with article after article, medical study after medical study and witnessing local teens in the community suffer greatly, God put it on my heart that I needed to share with friends what was really happening. Our sources include pediatricians, child psychologists, law enforment, the FBI, The national Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Child Exploitation and Online Protection, The National Crime Prevention Center and many more.
Originally I started blasting my friends and Facebook feed with story after story of news, which led to parents continually contacting Nick and I for help. Which spiraled into parents asking us if we could hold a class, then our kids' Christian school asking us to host a seminar for the parents. I have to clarify, we are by no means an authority figure. We have no medical degree. We are not child psychologists. But I promise you, what we share is truth. We credit every single source we pull from, and provide direct links, so you can see the source it comes from and hear straight from the horses mouth. We do not make money or gain anything from sharing this information, other than the satisfaction of knowing that we are helping others.
I have to say I was BEYOND NERVOUS to bring this information to the masses. No one wants to be the bearer of bad news, or be seen as a judgmental mom waving her finger. I promise you that is not our intention AT ALL. Honestly, we know so many parents simply don't know what's going on out there. We came from a simpler time when these issues didn't exist, and because these aren't problems for us we all assume "surely our wonderful, well balanced, mature child" won't have these issues either. After all, we are raising them right, aren't we? Give yourself some grace! It's NEVER too late to change the rules in your home, or change out devices.
We are in a unique position that a wave of parents came before us and paved the way with their Millennial children, and oh so innocently gave them free reign to devices. Unfortunately for them, a large group of 20 somethings saw major negative outcomes from it. And here we are 15 years later reading all of the Pediatric and Psychology journals with research from their kids' lives to warn the upcoming generations. We beg of you, learn from these mistakes, arm yourself with knowledge and rally together to encourage one another, build each other up and HELP fellow parents protect their children's innocence.