Subscribe
Sign in
Torch — Smart wifi router made for parents of young children
22
Replies
@jcutrell One of the co-founders here. Email me at wayne@mytorch.com and we will work something out.
Can you shed some light on why hardware when this can be done using a SaaS tool like OpenDNS.com?
@akramquraishi thanks for checking us out. The short answer is that while here are plent of technical options to deliver these functions, all of them are super cumbersome to the average parent. So we have simplified and centralized. The hardware choice was made so we could ensure a quality product to our (mostly) non techie audience. To be honest, it's quite flattering how much the tech/early adopter community has supported us here on product hunt and on Kickstarter. Thanks again!
@akramquraishi To shed a little more light, Akram, As a parent I became overwhelmed and frustrated with existing solutions, and they weren't really built for someone like me (with no technical background). I looked into OpenDNS (and other software) but it was too hard for me to understand. The router is something most people conceptually understand they need, even if they don't understand how it works. When combined with a killer Ui, it's a lower barrier of entry. Hope this helps. Thanks for looking!
have you all seen those videos? absolutely hilarious. excellent marketing.
i'm shocked something like this doesn't already exist. it's 2015... did it really take us this long for someone to build a simple router to protect children from the dark web?
hopefully the makers will hop on this thread. im curious, are they parents? did they make this router out of their own necessity? i think it's a great idea and would love to know more about how/why this product came about.
@benhoffman_ Yes, we are nerds and parents trying to protect our own kids online, and help them find more cool, creative things to do with the internet. Torch was born out of my personal struggle with my very techie kid.
The product seems top-notch and useful, however, there are things about the approach and communication I feel is simply bad parenting. Examples; "And when you find things in their history that you don’t like, you can banish sites from your home.", "Block unsavory content, or anything you don’t want your kids seeing."
Instead of "block" and "banish" this should be promoted to opportunities to discuss what kids did (already) see, what it does mean and set it into perspective. Then, if you as a parent feel that blocking is the right thing to do - then that is an option (or does it just mean that the tech savvy kid see it as a challenge to find another destination of similar content). In the end IMHO is that it is better to teach kids how to deal with the world rather than blocking them from it and have them be dysfunctional once they are old enough to need to deal with this on their own.
I do understand that this approach is of course connected to culture and tradition where e.g. more secular regions like Western Europe probably are different compared to more religious cultures like the US and Middle East.
@stpe Stefan, I could not agree more! There are as many nuances to parenting as there are parents alive today. And that complexity is hard to navigate. What's OK in one family isn't OK in another. My hope is that we give parents more information, therefore more conversations with their kids. But yes, there are some things on the web many some don't want in their house. We give them that option as well. Thanks for checking us out!
@ryanholmes was this on Kickstarter a few months ago, and you got taken down because you got funding? Am I remembering that correctly? I think I purchased and the funds weren't taken.
Hey everyone! Shelley here, CEO of Torch. Let me know if you have any questions!
This is really a great idea, especially for kids into tech and programming. I've found Apple's built in Parental Controls do a good job on both desktop and mobile. How does Torch do it better? Or - how would you differentiate Torch from what's already built into an Apple OS? I can definitely see advantage in setting things up in one place vs. on every device.
@adrianherritt you nailed it. Parenting is the most stressful phase of adult life, and most people don't have time to spend hours configuring a router and hours configuring each device - and God forbid they have an apple router and a google device... That's why torch can be fully setup (with profiles and custom bedtimes) in about 10 minutes.
@adrianherritt Yep! We're offering centralization and simplicity. For example, we have 12 devices in our home of 5 people and managing devices was getting ridiculous.
This is exactly what my non-technical friends are going to need soon! With a three-year-old who's already into technology, my husband and I have been talking about how we could set up limits and controls on his web experience. We have the technical know-how to do it on our own, but most of our friends don't. Great job.
developer tea