Parents like you, one small step ahead

Being a parent in the digital world

To be honest, nobody trained us for this. As soon as we've figured out one game or app, the next one comes along.

We want to protect our children from danger. And we want to show them how to handle phones, tablets and the internet well themselves.

Some days it gets to be too much. Then we remind ourselves: our children don't need us to be perfect. They need us there, attentive and maybe one small step ahead.

Five minutes out of the room

Our eldest, 9 at the time, was allowed to write a document on the old children's laptop. We were out of the room briefly, maybe five minutes. When we came back, the browser was open, the search engine without any filter. A single search could have shown him literally anything.

First: phew. Then the thought: we can't stand next to them all the time.

And then came the evenings. We google what's behind the online game our eldest absolutely wants to play. We click through menus so our youngest's tablet is safe. And every time we think: this has to be easier.

At first we wanted to solve it ourselves

Fabrice is a tech person and thought: I'll build this myself. So he bought a mini PC that was supposed to filter our whole Wi-Fi. Setting it up alone took weeks.

And then the internet kept hanging, not only for us but also for the second household on our network. The mini PC has no screen. When nothing worked anymore, it meant walking to the office monitor just to get the box back on the network.

Looking back, it was much more work than expected. Protection that runs reliably is no accident. But when the concept is right, it runs very well. What we learned along the way is in our guides today, so you don't have to tinker for weeks.

What really helps us

The advice we found was mostly extreme. Block and ban everything. Or let everything run and hope that talking is enough. Neither works for us. What really helps is the mix:

• •Protection that runs in the background. We give the children the laptop with a clear conscience and no longer have to stand next to them all the time.
• •A media use agreement that we wrote down together. It hangs on the fridge where everyone can see it, and we talk it through again during the school holidays.
• •Instead of negotiating screen time anew every day, we take time regularly: what does everyone need? We discuss it, write it down and then actually live it.
• •We talk about dangers, for example when strangers try to make contact via the phone. Even on a stressful Tuesday evening.
• •And still, sometimes we let things slide.

Things aren't perfect for us either. But today we talk about media more calmly, and there are far fewer arguments about screen time.

Why NUNIVIA exists

Again and again, other parents asked us: can we have that too? Back then we had to say no, because our solution only ran in our own home. We wanted to change that.

That's why NUNIVIA exists. We explain the technology so that you can set up protection for your home network yourselves, even without prior knowledge. And we show you simple routines and conversations that get your family fit for everyday digital life.

We don't want to be parents who scold with a raised finger. For us, protection in the background is the basis that lets trust grow. Everything else children learn by talking with us, for example recognizing dangerous content themselves and responding well.