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Children and adolescents are nowadays spending more time online than ever before due to a lack of safe outdoor playgrounds and the Covid-19 pandemic as digitalisation in the age of globalisation makes finding required content easier. This situation is not going away soon.
They are now learning, creating their world of imagination and developing their social network through computers, smartphones and online games.
However, children are stumbling onto inappropriate content, and becoming victims of cyber-bullying, sexual predators, invasion of privacy and identity theft, which are damaging to their mental and physical health both.
At the same time, many of them are also becoming more prone to get involved in criminal activities.
Under the circumstances, parents have been searching for a unique online platform dedicated to providing education, information and entertainment to children, as well as adolescents, to ensure their safety and proper mental growth. The idea for the solution came from the mind of young entrepreneur Samim Asraf.
On November 23, 2020, Samim and his associates launched the video-sharing website BabyTube, creating a safe and healthy online educative and entertainment choice for both children and teenagers. The BabyTube app is also available on the Google Play Store.
“Over 30,000 users have downloaded the app so far and 3,558 people have opened individual channels on our website. Some 3,000 videos have already been uploaded on BabyTube,” said Samim, the platform’s founder and CEO.
The platform has already become an online recreation hub for children and adolescents with videos on sports, cartoons, rhymes, education, movies, dramas, stories, songs, ghazals, travel, vlogging, technology, etc.
“The videos on our site have already managed to reach 20 lakh people, which means we are on track,” said Samim.
Talking to The Business Post, the mother of Simon Jakaria, a fourth-grader at Mirpur’s Monipur School and College, said, “My son was addicted to games like Freefire and PUBG. I wanted to veer his attention to something educational but I was unsure whether the cartoons available on YouTube would be good for his mental health long term.
“Then I found out about BabyTube. I found it interesting and effective for my child. Now he watches good videos and cartoons related to Bangladeshi culture and language. It’s helped a lot,” she added. Simon said he has made a video of him playing with school friends and uploaded it on BabyTube. “You can watch it on the app as well,” he added excitedly.
Shaping the dream
Reminiscing on the beginning, Samim said he grew up in a lonely atmosphere but that surprisingly helped him in the later years think differently when it came to children’s education.
“Working for the Dream Divider organization was my first step into co-educational activity,” he said.
After completing his honours and master’s in social welfare from Dhaka University, Samim gathered an expertise in addressing social issues, skill development, presentation, reporting, correct pronunciation, communications and technology.
He has also gathered extensive experience by participating in many workshops and training sessions on these issues in and outside of Bangladesh.
“While working on Mr Mentor, I realised that the lives of many youngsters and teenagers were web-based. They spend more time watching videos online. From there, I developed the concept of a separate video platform for children,” he said.
Afterwards, Samim brought his friend and co-founder Sajjadul Islam into the fold. Together, they studied and observed the needs of a large number of children, adolescents and parents. They also watched hundreds of videos on YouTube, many of which they found contained some adult stuff that is inappropriate for children and adolescents.
After doing intensive research on the contents, Samim and Asraf figured out the negative aspects and avoided them suitably when they launched BabyTube in November 2020.
How to use
Samim said that one would have to download the BabyTube app from the Google Play Store to get started on watching or uploading content in line with their rules.
They can also do it directly on the BabyTube website — baby-tube.com. All necessary information is available on the website.
“The key requirement is that the content will have to be suitable for children and adolescents,” he said.
“BabyTube has made it easier for children and teenagers to share and watch safe, entertaining and informative videos,” he added.
For content creators, BabyTube provides a simple monetization system. It reimburses the creators who upload child-friendly content through advertising.
For the children
A total of 75 people, including ambassadors in different districts across the country, currently work at BabyTube. Fifteen of them work in the main team based in Dhaka, Samim said.
“Almost all of them are very young in age and students. That immensely helps us because these youngsters know what the children nowadays like to watch.
“That helps us easily figure out the contents that will be beneficial for them and weed out the bad ones,” he stressed. Over the past year, the BabyTube team has also carried out campaigns at schools at the district level and organized numerous seminars to spread more awareness among children and parents.
“In this world of technological marvels, we want every child and teenager to be healthy. Let BabyTube look after their wellbeing. Parents should be able to give their children smartphones or digital devices without anxiety,” Samim said.
“We plan to make the internet safer for every child and teenager in the country. I believe that children and teenagers from other countries will also become Babytube users one day,” he expressed hope.
