ENTREPRENEURS

Mesa-based company creates app to monitor children's social media in simple format

Georgann Yara
Special for the Arizona Business Gazette
Cyber Dive was founded by Jeff Gottfurcht (left) and Derek Jackson, two dads who wanted to get a better grasp on their kids' social media.

Years before they met and launched Cyber Dive, a social media monitoring tech company geared toward parents, Jeff Gottfurcht and Derek Jackson were well aware of social media’s powerful and dangerous side.

Gottfurcht is the first person in the world to summit Mt. Everest with Rheumatoid Arthritis. When he returned home from that trip in 2011, he saw a news story about a young girl who was humiliated and bullied on social media after word got out about her being sexually assaulted.

Around the same time, Jackson was across the globe in the Army 1st Special Forces Group, where he spent time in Kuwait, Jordan and Syria. He was an intelligence officer looking into how U.S. adversaries and radical insurgents used social media to recruit members to their cause and perpetuate propaganda.

A few years later, Jackson had left the Army and was working for a cyber security company in Palo Alto and taught himself how to program. Gottfurcht, who had worked on Wall Street for 14 years before his historic Everest climb, was doing philanthropic work and speaking around the country, inspiring kids and adults to push through their obstacles and achieve success.

But Gottfurcht couldn’t get the young girl out of his mind. When his path crossed with Jackson, it created the perfect storm for Cyber Dive, which they started in Mesa in 2019.

“The company started out of tragedy. She was victimized in real life and then victimized on social media,” Gottfurcht said. “We wanted to take parents to places they cannot go and get them meaningful information while kids get independence.”

How the software works

Gottfurcht and Jackson have harnessed the tradecraft into Cyber Dive’s technology and user-friendly app that allows parents to monitor their children’s social media. In-house engineers built the proprietary software that enables parents to see their child’s online data in a simple and neutral manner without restricting features on their accounts.

Employees of Cyber Dive working on new project at their office in Mesa.

The software covers all platforms and the free membership option includes monitoring on indicators like recurring themes in language, dangerous or suspicious online activity and emotions indicated by analysis of their data. The $5 monthly premium membership allows greater access to features like friends lists, posts and Google searches.

‍When parents sign up for either membership, they must enter their child’s email address. Then, their child receives a message explaining that someone will use Cyber Dive to monitor their accounts. Parents are encouraged to discuss this with their child before signing up, Gottfurcht said.

“All of our tools are designed to maximize openness and minimize secrets,” Gottfurcht said.

The company is part of a global media monitoring tool market that is projected to be worth $7.25 billion by 2028, according to Fortune Business Insights. By 2027, the parental control software market size is projected to reach $1.7 billion.

Giving parents access, knowledge

Cyber Dive has amassed more than 70,000 worldwide visitors, Jackson said. The primary motivation may vary but they do have a commonality.

“We built it for modern parents who are modern technology adopters who want to get back into their kid’s life,” Jackson said. “They are families, they are real people. Not just users.”

Many Cyber Dive parents didn’t seriously consider their children’s social media activity until finding out about its software and what it does. Then, they realize the importance of being in the virtual loop.

Employees of Cyber Dive working on new project at their office in Mesa.

In a 2018 Statista survey, 52% of parents knew their child had a Facebook account. But only 32% knew of an Instagram account and just 22% were aware their child was on Snapchat or Twitter.

“They realize they want to know more about what their kids are doing but they don’t know how to get access to that and if they did, they wouldn’t know how to scroll through all of that,” Jackson said. “So, that’s what we do for them.”

Beyond what their children are doing or talking about on the weekends with friends or whether they are being bullied or undergoing an emotional crisis, there is a much darker side that parents want to shine the light on.

Data shows that 90% of all of human trafficking events started by initiation on social media, Jackson said of statistics from 2020. The average age of a girl who is trafficked is 12. If a parent sees that their child has a “friend” in another state that they don’t know or is having unusual communication with someone they do know, it’s worth investigating.

This is where Cyber Dive’s partnership with Phoenix Dream Center and its sister organization, StreetlightUSA, both of which offer rehabilitation services and support for girls and women who have been the victims of trafficking, is used to combat that darkness.

Cyber Dive’s collaboration on preventative measures that focus on the events initiated online is key to the organizations’ efforts, said Angela Salomon, StreetlightUSA director of programs.

StreetlightUSA serves females ages 13-17 who are victims of child sexual exploitation.

Statistics show that 98% of online predators are known to the child they pursue, whether it be a peer, family member or acquaintance, Salomon said. It also takes a mere 18 minutes for an online exploiter to develop enough of a connection with a child to ask for inappropriate information or photos.

“That (concept of) ‘Stranger Danger’ is lost,” said Salomon, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology and has treated victims of online sexual exploitation. “It’s a very manipulative way of luring the child.” 

These are among the bevy of statistics that underscore the importance of parents’ keeping an eye on their child’s online activity and how Cyber Dive can help.

“It’s a very significant resource and tool for parents to have as a prevention method,” Salomon said.

What parents have learned

Prior to meeting up, Gottfurcht’s search for a business partner who had the willingness, skills and experience was not easy. He had climbed with people in special forces and asked them if they knew anyone who fit the bill. This led to Jackson and, ultimately, Cyber Dive.

Both are fathers so their company’s model is more than professional. Gottfurcht has three children, ages 16, 14 and 12.

“Big tech, unfortunately, is the puppet master in their lives,” Gottfurcht said. “I can understand what other families are going through with social media.”

Jackson found out his wife was pregnant with their son while he was stationed overseas and seeing social media used as a weapon by adversaries. His son, now 3 ½, is one of the reasons he was so passionate about starting the company with Gottfurcht.

“I knew I couldn’t live in a world where it was so easy to log on to Instagram or TikTok and find something that could impact you in a negative way,” Jackson said.

The technology also works for parents who may not have a fear that their children will come into foul play but who are interested in leveraging social media as a tool to build stronger relationships with them.

For example, if parents have their daughter in ballet but her social media is stacked with stories and photos about basketball, they can address whether she prefers to be in basketball instead of ballet, Jackson explained.

One mother found out her son had a girlfriend by connecting to his Instagram account. Equipped with the information, she was able to start the dialogue with him. Some parents discovered their child was experiencing gender identity questions.

“Sometimes, you don’t want to hear certain things as parents. But they are able to have those kitchen table conversations with their kids,” Gottfurcht said.

Helping parents prepare for the gamut of situations to which social media opens the door has made their venture more valuable than the bottom line.

“We’re not just building some little widget for a software company,” Jackson said. “Seeing the great stories of how we affect parents in a positive way and be in a position to stop bad things from happening is really meaningful.”

What: Cyber Dive

Where: 4140 E. Baseline Road, Suite 101, Mesa

Employees: 18

Interesting stat: The global media monitoring tool market is projected to be worth $7.25 billion by 2028, according to Fortune business insights

Details: cyberdive.co