· No worries social media for children ·

No profiling algorithms, no tracking cookies ->
no worries …”

blinx4 apps offer an age-appropriate introduction for children into the world of social media giving them time to mature into wise digital residents.

Children reflect their active lives in many online communities – be it at school, at home or at one of their many clubs.

blinx4 apps help prepare children for their present & their future in a child-friendly way by prioritising safeguarding in protected online communities

[Meta/Zuckerberg] knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won’t make the necessary changes because they put their astronomical profits before people.

Frances Haugen (former Facebook employee)

blinx4 apps: age-appropriate social media you will be encouraging children to use

blinx4school

blinx4school, is a phone, tablet & web-based app specifically designed for schools to build protected online school communities.

blinx4school, school media, enables schools to strengthen their secure communities “inside the gates” by connecting through the sharing of photos, pdfs & video clips.

blinx4school, is available on a monthly subscription.

blinx4myclub

blinx4myclub, is a phone, tablet & web-based app specifically designed for clubs to build protected online communities for children.

blinx4myclub, club media, enables clubs to create a secure space online for youngsters to connect by sharing photos, pdfs and video clips. Building lasting friendships through an online club community. 

blinx4myclub, is available on a monthly subscription.

Attend a club? Download the app today!!

blinx4home

blinx4home, family media, is a free, phone & tablet based app for friends & families to connect and share pictures safely online.

GET THE blinx4home APP HERE!

The social media conundrum for schools, clubs and parents

· Why are we doing this for you ·

This bit is really important for you – so there is a little bit of theory & detail

Social media is indeed a triumph of the 21st century and has many benefits – including many positives for children. Young people can and do benefit in many ways from social media:

  • Wider connection and understanding of the outside world.
  • Developing communication and technical skills.
  • Strengthening relationships.
  • A place to seek support.

Its now widely accepted that there are real trade-offs associated with these benefits. A caring responsible society should be extra vigilant and prepare our children for a world of social media. In the same way as when they learn to ride a bike, we teach our children in stages as they progress through balance bikes & training wheels to a bike that suits their needs as they grow –  we should open up the world of social media to them at an appropriate time and in an appropriate way. Although this time will be different for different children the tools, skills and maturity they need to navigate social media safely is not different and nor are the potential risks.

We know if you are not paying for something you are not the customer – but you (and your children) are the product. This “truth” leads to the inherent risks, specifically for our children, in traditional social media’s business models as outlined above. This was the catalyst that led to the development of the blinx4 software suite with the safeguarding of our children designed-in, not designed-out.

  • A closed invitation-only online community.
  • A positive decision on which communities children join, be it at school, at home, or at after-school activities.
  • Providing a dedicated and protected environment for children to learn and mature into responsible digital citizens. 
  • We do NOT harvest your data, and we do not engage in surveillance marketing.
  • We do NOT run potentially harmful cookies or algorithms controlling the content that is presented for impressionable young minds to consume before they have the maturity to put these messages in their proper context.

Traditional social media is designed specifically for adults. The following risks for children are designed-in, not designed-out:

  • Unfettered access to the whole wide world – the good the bad and the ugly.
  • Too early an exposure to troubling/damaging images and messages potentially leading to destructive behaviours and self-harm. 
  • Pressure to be socially perfect – chasing approval leading to self-esteem and mental health issues.
  • Cyberbullying.
  • Grooming.
  • Excessive use – the business models are designed to “hook” users. Children are particularly susceptible to cleverly designed engagement strategies.
  • Profiling – algorithms running in the background to facilitate micro-marketing and user manipulation. These algorithms decide what content is seen by users – sometimes with very harmful effects.

There is an “old” adage in Silicon Valley,   “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product…”
When it comes to our children’s safety & mental health, we prefer to use an “old”, tried and tested, transparent business model. One based on integrity, trust and a meeting of minds.

Marcus Keohane – Founder

·What’s on offer for you·

blinx4school

  • “One School Only” means you control who participates.
  • Allow children the space to mature and learn by using social media in a protected environment.

blinx4myclub

  • This is the only social media you will need to run your club effectively and safely.
  • Our “Trusted Club” technology means you can communicate with young club members free of the risks inherent in traditional social media.

blinx4home

  • Our unique “Handshake” technology ensures your family controls absolutely who your child communicates with.
  • Takes away all the risks inherent in traditional social media such as Facebook and TikTok.
To safeguard someone means to protect them from being harmed, lost, or badly treated.
Collins English Dictionary

·How blinx4 works·

·Getting to know blinx4·

What is a blinx?

  • A blinx™ is a photo, a video clip or a PDF. 

  • Messages and vemo™ (voice messages) can be attached to a blinx.

What is a blinxbook?

  • A blinxbook™ is where the blinx™ are stored and viewed.

  • You will probably enjoy having more that one blinxbook.

Who sees what?

  • The community, or the in-crowd for blinx4home, are the other people who have access to the blinxbook™ where the blinx™ are stored and viewed.

·Roles on blinx4 apps·

blinx heroes

blinx heroes, they are who the blinx4 apps are designed for – blinx heroes are at the core and blinx4 apps prioritise their safeguarding.


blinx heroes are able to receive blinx, comment on blinx and given authority by the blinx champion they can also send blinx.

blinx4school

The school children are the blinx heroes.

blinx4myclub

The junior club members are blinx heroes.

blinx4home

All users are blinx heroes. All blinx heroes have the ability to create blinxbooks and send blinx.

blinx partners

blinx partners are the owners of the blinx account for the school/club.

 

blinx4school

The blinx partner is likely to be the head of IT/IT Admin at the school.

blinx4myclub

The blinx partner is the person who runs the club communications.

blinx4home

There is no blinx partner role for this app as blinx4home is designed for individuals.

 

 

blinx champions

blinx champions are blinx heroes with the added capability of being able to create blinxbooks and create communities. For example, this might be for a class or a team in a school or a squad in a club.

blinx4school

blinx champions are likely to be the teachers at the school.

blinx4myclub

blinx champions are likely to be team coaches and perhaps team captains.

blinx4home

There is no blinx champion role for this app as blinx4home is designed for individuals.

 

 

blinx guardians

blinx guardians are the respective guardians of their respective blinx heroes and consequently have two main roles. As part of blinx4 prioritising safeguarding blinx guardians are copied in on all messages sent to their blinx heroes – but are not able to write (join conversations) in these blinxbooks. They also have a community to themselves and clubs and schools can create blinxbooks especially for blinx guardians to interact with ONLY other blinx guardians.

blinx4school

The parents/guardians are the blinx guardians.

blinx4myclub

The parents/guardians are the blinx guardians.

blinx4home

There is no blinx guardian role for this app as blinx4home is designed for individuals.

·How to get started ·

blinx4school

  1. blinx partner, the school, joins our blinx community and create blinx champions (teachers).
  2. blinx heroes (classmates) go to the website and register with blinx and download the app (where appropriate).
  3. blinx champions create blinxbooks with associated communities and share blinx!

blinx4myclub

  1. blinx partners, the clubs, join our blinx community and create blinx champions.
  2. blinx heroes download the app and register.
  3. blinx heroes “join” their trusted clubs online.
  4. blinx champions create blinxbooks with associated communities and share blinx!

blinx4home

  1. Download from the blinx4home app store and start using immediately with your friends and family.

·How much will blinx4 cost you·

· Subscriptions ·

Remember – you can cancel your subscription at any time with a notice period of only one month

blinx4school

blinx partners

Following the 30 day free trial period – you will be invited to continue to benefit from using the blinx4myclub website and app for a monthly subscription of based on the size of your school.

£75 per month for schools of less than 150 pupils.

£150 per month for schools of between 151 and 300 pupils.

£225 per month with schools of more than 450 pupils.

blinx champions

There is no individual subscription for blinx4school.

blinx heroes

There is no individual subscription for blinx4school.

blinx guardians

There is no individual subscription for blinx4school.

blinx4myclub

blinx partners

Following the 30 day free trial period – you will be invited to continue to benefit from using the blinx4myclub website and app for a monthly subscription of only £9.99.

blinx champions

The monthly subscription is £0.50 collected via your app store. For this you can be a blinx champion for any number of clubs.

blinx heroes

The monthly subscription is £0.50 collected via your app store. For this you can be a blinx hero for any number of clubs.

blinx guardians

The monthly subscription is £0.50 collected via your app store. For this you can be a blinx guardian for any number of clubs.

 

blinx4home

blinx4home has more limited functionality (no video content) and so is a free app for all to use.

· Joining fees ·

blinx4school

In addition to there being NO joining fee we offer a 30-day free trial.

blinx4myclub

In addition to there being NO joining fee we offer a 30-day free trial.

blinx4home

blinx4home has more limited functionality and so is a free app for all to use.

I’m here today because I believe Facebook’s products harm children…

Frances Haugen (former Facebook employee)

Who are we

Who is bringing you blinx4 ?

We, box&rox Ltd,  are a concerned group of entrepreneurial parents coming together with some creative technologists to build protected online spaces for communities for younger children.

Safeguarding for children in these communities is at our core and so is designed-in, not designed-out.

Where is blinx4 from?

“I’m a Dad. I’m a Dad who luckily gets to look after his daughters. Over a period of time I looked for a healthy & safe social media platform that I was comfortable for my children to use. I searched in vain. I decided to do something about this and so designed the blinx4 software suite with the safeguarding of children at its core.

Simply put, blinx4 apps are age-appropriate, no worries,  social media apps designed for children.

Stay safe, be healthy and enjoy receiving your first blinx!”

Marcus Keohane – Founder.

· Want to know more ·

The fundamentals of blinx

The blinx4 software suite of social media applications was designed with the safeguarding of children at its core.

Children should only be using age-appropriate social media. Traditional social media was and is continuing to be designed for adult users.

Children should be able to expect to have fun, share opinions, learn about themselves and the world in a dedicated and protected online environment. This should be a given no matter the community, be it at home, at school or at one of their clubs.

  1. blinx4school™ – for the age-appropriate introduction to social media for KS1, KS2 & KS3. School media.
  2. blinx4myclub™ – for those after school activity. Club media.
  3. blinx4home™ – for friends and family. Home media.

The blinx4 team (a project team of box&rox Ltd),  is group of dads, mums, sons, daughters, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters and grandmas & granddads and friends from all over the globe.

The blinx4 team contribute our different skills and passion to develop safe technology that supports the relationship between children and their friends, family, classmates, clubmates in a liberating and non-intrusive fashion. 

One mum wanted to know what adventures her daughters had been on during the day. She wanted to know whether they had enjoyed the puddles and the rainbow that rainy afternoon. Two young girls, whose lives and thoughts moved very quickly, wanted to try and remember the escapades of the day to share with their mum even though she was at work. One decided to blink her eyes and make a ‘picture’ when she was ‘making a memory for mama’. The other one called this a blinx. Very soon, Mum looked forward to chatting with her daughters and sharing in their blinx that day.

I searched in vain for a platform that would help preserve and share these escapades. I was uncomfortable to allow my young children to use any of the social media solutions that existed at the time. Being someone who wants to model positive behaviour for my kids, I decided to do something about this. I have developed a way for our children to capture and share their spontaneity in a safe way with their family and community. 

blinx4 designed and built blinx4home to give our children a chance to curate their own memories in a protected place,  to organise our  own proliferating collection of digital photos and to keep our in-crowd  involved even when they can not always be there.

Responding to demand, we built on this secure foundation to provide protected online communities for children whether those communities are at home, at school or at after school clubs. 

We really hope you enjoy using blinx4!

Safety, Security and Privacy

We pledge to offer you fun & engaging child-friendly social media with safeguarding & integrity at it’s core.

  • NO harvesting of children’s data.
  • NO tracking algorithms “deciding” what our children “should” see.
  • NO worries.

All data passing between your phone, tablet, laptop and/or desktop and our third party secure servers (located in the UK) are protected by the SSL.  Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private and integral.

All passwords are encrypted.

For blinx4home – no – there is no lasting digital footprint.

blinx4 believes in supporting groups of friends and families with technology and wants to alleviate any fears the concerned may have over lasting digital footprints of personal content. The blinx4home app acts like a post box (mail box). We store the blinx on our secure servers for a maximum of two days (or until all of the in-crowd has downloaded a blinx – which ever is sooner). Any blinx and associated information is then deleted from our servers – forever! The information is stored on your phone (and the phones of your in-crowds) for as long as you want.

You always have the option of using the “re-publish” function to send your blinx again if anyone in your in-crowd misses out the first time around..

blinx4myclub and blinx4school are our enterprise versions of the software suite and work slightly differently. They are designed for organisations to share information and are essentially web-based (although accessible via an app). As it is envisaged that there will be a need for classmates to access blinx4school from say the ICT suite the content has to be accessible from there and so is stored on secure cloud servers.

For further information on how box&rox Ltd stores your personal information please refer to our privacy policy.

blinx4school

blinx4school  is a protected, secure, dedicated school media app that enables schools to help children prepare safely for their digital present and future.

blinx4school is designed for schools with safeguarding at its core.

It is not designed as a “very social” media for adults with unfettered access to the online world and then shoe-horned perilously into an offer for school children.

Do you see benefit in KS1, KS2 & KS3 being educated to use social media safely?

Need to feel more confident to be able to introduce it into your safe & secure school bubble?

Then blinx4school is for your school.

Traditional social media brings benefits – yet there is no doubt now that it makes our children vulnerable. Children do not have the maturity and confidence to manage the risks they are exposed to when using social media. Predominantly these are the dangers of: grooming, excessive use, cyber-bullying, inappropriate content, pressure to be “socially perfect” & the erosion of self-esteem when feeling the need to chase “likes”.

blinx4school is the positive, protected and dedicated alternative for schools.

blinx4school is the age-appropriate sharing app for classmates and teachers alike:

✓ NOTHING is in the public domain – the app and your content is secure within your school bubble
✓ Only people sanctioned by the school can have access to your environment – effectively there is a virtual school gate
✓ There is no public digital footprint
✓ We do not engage in surveillance marketing
✓ There is no “like” feature or followers on blinx4school – it has been designed with children’s health in mind.

Pupils love it, teachers love it – simple, effective, and fun to use. Helps classrooms & classmates communicate by creating pictures, videos or documents adding captions & vemo and then sharing only within their secure community.

For newswire stories about sports teams, arts events, competitions to working collaboratively on projects and many other uses. blinx4school works as a closed community so protection from the outside cyber world is a given. This makes it safe for all ages and is a safe and secure preparation for pupils’ journey into the world of social media.

blinx4school gives them a great grounding in the safe use of social media before moving outside their immediate community – crucial learning for the next generation.

blinx4shcool is a protected & kind social media playground.

When using blinx4school the blinx partner (school IT director, admin) is in charge of the account.

The blinx partner will create blinx hero accounts for all the classmates using school email accounts. 

The blinx partner can then assign the blinx hero into the community.

The blinx hero can see who else is also in the community – but will not be able to contact the other people privately using blinx4school.

For safeguarding reasons the blinx partner has access to all content. We advise that at least two people at the school have access to the blinx partner account at any school.

blinx4myclub

blinx4myclub  is a protected, secure, dedicated club media app that helps clubs build enthusiasm, loyalty and community by allowing them to engage safely online with their younger club members.

You have the valuable role (invaluable from a parents perspective!)  of running a club for younger children and pre-teens.

Are you worried about using social media for club communications for these youngsters? Juggling many communication channels? Need to feel more confident to fully introduce social media into your safe & secure club bubble?

Traditional social media brings many benefits yet there is no doubt now that it makes our children vulnerable.

Children do not have the maturity and confidence to manage the risks they are exposed to when using social media. Predominantly these are the dangers of: grooming, excessive use, cyber-bullying, inappropriate content, pressure to be “socially perfect” & the erosion of self-esteem when feeling the need to chase “likes”.

blinx4myclub is the positive alternative!

blinx4myclub is the age-appropriate sharing app for clubmates and coaches alike:

✓ Nothing is in the public domain – the app and your content is secure within your club
✓ You are in control and your young club members are safeguarded – only people you invite can read and post content
✓ The secure handshake – your young club members can only be contacted by you on blinx4myclub they have selected your club as one of their trusted clubs
✓ We do not engage in surveillance marketing, there are no algorithms
running in the background profiling users
✓ There is no “like” feature on blinx4myclub– it has been designed
with children’s self-esteem and mental health at the core.

Coaches & clubmates love it alike. Simple, effective, and fun to use. Coaches build up a history over time – this app captures your club members’ journeys and is a wonderful way to build a memory bank for parents and importantly is a great coaching tool.

blinx4myclub – newswire stories about sports teams, to posting training times, to working collaboratively on athlete development. blinx4myclub works as a closed community with its unique “handshake” – safeguarding is designed-in.

This all makes blinx4myclub safe for all ages and a versatile and more powerful alternative to traditional social media for all your more functional and even your more creative club communications.

When using blinx4myclub the blinx partner (the netball club, football club etc) is in charge of the account.

There is a security “handshake” between the individual (blinx hero) and the club (blinx partner). The blinx hero has to identify the club as a “trusted” club and the blinx partner must have the blinx hero’s email address.

The blinx partner can then invite a blinx hero into the community – even then the blinx hero has the opportunity not to join.

A blinx hero can see who else is also in the community – although critically in the interests of safeguarding will not be able to contact the other blinx heroes privately using blinx4myclub as all blinx are also shared with the blinx partner.

For safeguarding reasons the blinx partner has access to all content. We advise that at least two people at the club have access to the blinx partner account at any club.

blinx4home

blinx4home is a protected, secure, dedicated “invite only” app that helps families capture & organise memories.

You can take pictures, add captions & vemo and then share them with only your in-crowd.

Are you concerned about your young children using existing social media? Do you wish the memories that are  captured on your phone were better organised? Do you wish that you could more easily share these memories with those, and only those, who are close to you – your immediate friends and family?

blinx4home is designed to be used by young and old alike. It is a safe app for children to use – designed specifically with children in mind. From the busy working mum, to the distant grandparent – blinx4home is for anyone you want to be a part of your and family’s adventure.

blinx4home is simply for sharing among your group of close friends – your in-crowd

Keeping it family!

Capture and share your family’s and friends’ memories in a safe place – be there when you are not.

Does your busy life mean that, as much as you’d like to, you can’t always keep in-touch with the fast moving life or your child? Your young child spends their time in many different places – home, school, clubs, grandparents, aunties and uncles and their experience and thoughts & views develop daily… Are you uncomfortable with your children using existing social media? Stay connected with your children’s spontaneity even while you’re at work. Give your children a voice – keeping it family!

Or simply use blinx4home to share the fun with your close friends and family.

Your in-crowds are exactly that – your in-crowds. It only contains people you invite. Only invite people you know. Only invite those who you are comfortable to have in your in-crowd. You can only invite people who are already in your contact list – so you will know them. You can remove people from your in-crowd at anytime and add them back again if you wish.

You set up the in-crowd for each of your blinxbooks. You can have different blinxbooks and consequently in-crowds for different circles of friends or occasions. You can change any in-crowd by adding or deleting names whenever you wish. You are in control.