Grom Social: Addressing Safety and Entertainment for Kids and Families in the Digital Age

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash

The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

Technology brings a great deal of wonder to the world, and it links people with each other and with information in a way people have not been able to connect in the history of humankind. As much good as technological advances bring to the world and the people who live in it, accessing the internet creates a degree of vulnerability — especially for kids.

Cutting children off from the convenience, connection, knowledge and entertainment available online carries a risk of stunting their growth in the modern age. On the other hand, it’s vital to keep kids as safe as possible while enjoying the positive things the internet offers. Luckily, companies like Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. GROM exist to address this issue for children and families.

Social Media Platform for Kids

By working to adhere strictly to guidelines of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)) for kids under 13, Grom developed a social media and educational platform that uses algorithms to protect children. This design keeps kids away from bullying, racism and negativity while educating them what they should and shouldn’t do online.

Grom Social ensures that parents know exactly who their kids are connecting with and that they’re only viewing age-appropriate content. Plus, the app features live monitoring and easy parental oversight to keep children safe as they explore the online world. But if you think all the monitoring and censoring means kids lose out on experience, consider this list of features on the Grom Social app:

• Recording and sharing videos
• Live commenting
• Using hashtags
• Streaming videos
• Direct messaging other kids
• Watching exclusive Grom TV content
• Communicating with cartoon characters

These features offer just a glimpse of the world inside Grom Social, all nestled in a safe environment for kids who crave social interaction more now than ever before, as evidenced by the 200% traffic growth since September 2020.

However, safe social media for kids is just one of four key businesses for Grom. The company now offers original IP, animation production and web filtering schools across the US rely on to keep kids safe.

Original Storytelling Intellectual Property

In April, Grom announced its planned acquisition of Curiosity Ink Media, an original kids & family storytelling production company, founded and led by former Nickelodeon President of Animation & Live Action, Russell Hicks. Recognizing the scarcity of programming libraries and the game-changing possibilities presented by original IP, Hicks set out in 2017 to cultivate compelling, story-driven content -- TV series, theatrical films, e-commerce, consumer products and publishing, just to name a few -- that now sit firmly in the Grom family of assets. 

The company recently unveiled plans for the Q4 debut of Santa.com, a virtual North Pole in which kids and adults can visit Santa, browse curated lists of great gifts and streamline the path-to-purchase this holiday season. The company also announced the franchise debuts of Baldwin, a pre-school series with global distribution goals and Thunderous, a franchise that will debut in Q2, ‘22 as a publishing entry into the red-hot graphic novel category. 

Curiosity and Grom are expected to unveil more revenue-generating IP in the coming weeks and months. 

World-Class Animation Studio

To produce the award-winning animation located on the platform, Grom relies on a team of over 500 artists at its subsidiary, Top Draw Animation, Inc., in the Philippines to create top-notch animations. In fact, you might already know their work from the impressive animations they supplied for Walt Disney Co DIS, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros., Scholastic Corp SCHL and Hasbro, Inc. HAS.

And to top it off, the animation company recently updated its technology to allow the team to work safely and remotely, giving them an edge over competitors and allowing the show to go on during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Education and Protection

As you know, the internet is an unmatched source for education, and kids worldwide have come to depend on its information access and reliability. So, in line with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), Grom Educational Services, Inc. incorporated a web-filtering solution that monitors online activity for kids as they learn. NetSpective web filter has served thousands of schools and has reached millions of children since its inception and includes a proprietary Digital Citizenship License Program. This contains not only exclusive educational content but also monitors online activity for kids as they learn.

Safety, Learning, and Entertainment for All

As with most companies during the pandemic, Grom took a dip in revenue. But with the excellent and much-needed products targeting the growing population of online kids, it has returned to pre-COVID revenue levels. Not only is that a testament to the flexibility and strength of the company, but it also highlights the quality of the products they offer to kids and families.

In the past several weeks, Grom has welcomed several new executives, including the aforementioned Hicks as well as Paul Ward, both of whom are acclaimed veterans of ViacomCBS’s Nickelodeon. With a unique brand position in safe social media for kids, fresh IP for a variety of kids and families, Internet safety for school and top-shelf animation production for global entertainment providers, the new Grom is poised and ready to become a force in kids and family entertainment.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.