Bullying. Grooming. Sextortion. Sexual Exploitation.

Kids with cellphones (and let’s face it, that’s pretty much all kids today) are exposed to these very real dangers through online platforms — but most of the time, parents simply aren’t aware of it. Don’t think this could happen to yours? In a study of more than 2,000 kids between the ages of nine and 17, one in three minors reported having an online sexual interaction in a 2021. 

You’ve heard you need to be vigilant — to have the password to your child’s phone, to impose limits on when they can use them, and to stay aware of who they’re talking to at all times. But that’s a 24/7 job, and you’re likely exhausted from working your 9-5 job. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some help monitoring what’s taking place on your child’s devices — maybe a kind of digital watchdog to be there when you can’t?

By the end of 2024, you could have exactly that.

SpyderWatch — a new app designed to head online dangers off at the pass before your child becomes a victim — is the brainchild of former Navy SEAL Jeremy Mahugh and Greg Switzer, a former medical device sales executive.

“SpyderWatch gives parents real time notifications when their child encounters a threat of sexual exploitation, nudity, bullying, self-harm, school violence on social media platforms, DMS so that they can act immediately,” says Mahugh.

No Shortage of Threats

Mahugh spent 10 years with the SEAL teams, and five and a half contracting with the CIA the Middle East before cofounding an organization that identifies human traffickers on domestic soil and helps law enforcement locate, arrest, and prosecute them. Switzer also worked at that nonprofit.

Together, they examined the digital tools they were using to find the traffickers, and decided they didn’t go far enough.

“[We] left there with an idea that we could do something better and get upstream of some of these problems before kids ever became a victim,” says Mahugh.

In 2022, Mahugh and Switzer came up with a way idea to do that.

“There’s no shortage of these threats that our children face, especially when they’re on social media and apps,” says Mahugh. “We realized very quickly that to be able to create that tool gets so far ahead of the problem if something’s happening, a parent [needs] a real-time notification so they can take action immediately prior to that child really being victimized.”

SpyderWatch detects nudity and specific terms associated with bullying, grooming, sextortion, and/or sexual exploitation on the child’s phone, and then send a notification to the parent’s phone, informing them of the problem — in real time.

“[Exploiters] are smart, they’re savvy, they kind of weasel their way in,” explains Jeanne Parker, a former detective who joined the SpyderWatch team in 2023 after spending 30 years investigating crimes against children. “And children are not equipped to fight these battles for themselves.”

Parker wishes that children and their families would “never have to go through that victimization process. It is much easier to have conversations if we never get to this spot, ever.” 

SpyderWatch: Empowering Parents

That’s why SpyderWatch is revolutionary. It gives parents control over what their kids see. Kids need cell phones and some independence, but parents often lose sight of the fact that “children lack the skills, they lack the maturity, and they need help and guidance” to navigate the digital world with skill, explains Parker. “It’s giving parents the ability back to have conversations early, to engage in that open communication to stop [victimization] from ever happening.”

It’s not about policing kids, says Mahugh; it’s about saving them — maybe even saving their lives.

“As soon as a child sends an illicit photo or video of themselves, they find out the person on the other end [of the conversation] was not who they thought — and that person immediately demands money,” he explains. “They say, ‘Give me $1,000 or I’m going to share this with your church, with your parents, with all your friends.’ And so, the desperation and the guilt has even the quarterback of the football team committing suicide.

“If the parent can see that, get notified of it, hopefully they can stop it before it happens. And then at a minimum, they can intervene before their child really does something bad. By doing what we’re doing in SpyderWatch, we’re empowering parents to keep their own families safe.”

Switzer agrees. “We don’t want parents to watch conversations that their kids are having with other kids,” he says. “We want to hit threats that are more a risk to their safety or their mental health. We want the kids to be just as informed as the parents are about what these risks are.”

Resources and Guidance for Parents

Should kids be exposed to a danger or threat online, SpyderWatch has resources and guidance for parents, listing the next steps to take to handle it and who they can report it to, if necessary.

“[We’re] giving parents the option of whether they want to report it to a law enforcement agency or just have a conversation with their child,” explains Parker. 

“We have the ability and the right to parent our children. We want to be involved and we want to have that engagement,” she added. “And SpyderWatch is an engagement tool that helps you guide and mentor your child.”

SpyderWatch will be available by the end of 2024. You can help launch it during the crowdfunding campaign beginning in September. For more information, go to SpyderWatch.com. 

Nancy Flory, Ph.D., is a senior editor at The Stream. You can follow her @NancyFlory3, and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.