Both parents and children have found on the Internet an opportunity for education, entertainment and leisure time to have an absolutely different, innovating and enriching face, as compared to previous generations.
Four Latin American online companies offer products that revolutionize the daily life of children and, at the same time, stand as a solution for parents.
Aula365 Speedy has been acknowledged with several awards, such as the Latin American Award to the Educational Quality (2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 on the Education Category), and it’s described as the most important educational social network in Latin America. Created by Argentinean Pablo Aristizbal, Grupo Telefónica’s educational and entertainment social network counts on over 1 million users in Argentina and more than 5 million around the world.
Why is it so popular among parents and children? Because it’s a trans-media learning solution based on new educational models that combine knowledge, participation, learning, innovation and creation.
Aula365 Speedy includes over 4,000 multimedia and interactive resources, which cover the main school subjects. It also offers such tools as Kids News –the first primer 3D and Enhanced Reality newspaper- and Creápolis, the first trans-media creation game in which children are in charge of building and taking care of an entire virtual city. Aula365’s contents are based on each country’s curriculum.
Created from both sides of Rio de la Plata, this successful Montevideo-based application, with representations in Brazil and Argentina, is headed by Martín Larre and Alan Kind. The app provides safe, entertaining and educational Internet for children from the whole Latin America and Spain.
Why is it popular among parents and children? Because it solves out a worrying situation for parents of children (ages 2 – 8): safe access to the internet. KidBox delivers a web service that displays Internet contents (websites, videos and games) in a safe framework that cannot be quit by children without their parents’ authorization.
In a customized way, depending on the profile, the contents are chosen with the support of professors and psycho-pedagogues and offered to each kid depending on preferences and needs. The choosing process takes into account such aspects as nationality, gender, age, interests and it limits, for instance, the access to specific materials on devices or websites that are not suitable for them. The application has been certified “kidSafe® Seal Program”, an independent certification that assesses security in websites for children.
The Chile-based online project, created by Pablo Ambram and Ecuadorian Maritza Lanas, opened a niche in Latin America: it’s the first web platform on financial education for children (ages 5 – 15).
Why is it popular among parents and children? The goal is taking abstract financing concepts to the world of children. The platform gives parents the opportunity to pay their children a monthly allowance and suggest them task so as to obtain more points or virtual money.
Furthermore, each family can created unlimited accounts for their children and establish parameters and rules. For example, they could have a savings account, but the parents control it and they cannot touch it. Donations can also be made.
Since 2012, the company has developed several programs for different age brackets in schools. Over 5 thousand children have participated in their financial education programs.
The Argentinean company chaired by Emanuel Goldschmidt is specialized is the production of enjoyable and educational audiovisual content for children of ages 1 – 5.
Why is it popular among parents and children? The company produces short-format videos, e-books and apps for smartphones, tablets and smartTVs that are distributed under the Toobys brand.
Spanish Toobys channel on YouTube already counts over 13 million visits and more than 23 million of played minutes, which is the equivalent to over 45 years of visualizations from Mexico -leading-, followed by Argentina, Spain, United States, Chile and Colombia, among other countries.
As its content can be translated into any language –children learn similar topics during the first childhood, in spite of the geographical location –, the brand has gone global; so it’s presently working on the European market by means of a strategic alliance with company KidzinMind de Buongiorno, a possibility to reach out to Italy, Spain and Great Britain.
