FaceMetrics secures $2 million in funding to flesh out their parental control app

The company is combining AI and gamification to provide a better experience for parents and children

Unlike many of us that grew up without many of the connected tech devices growing up, parents now have to find a balance between letting kids by kids, letting them use the tech devices and apps that heavily influence their life, and making sure that time is being spent at least somewhat wisely.

Parental control apps accomplish those tasks. FaceMetrics is one such company, with some unique twists. Those same twists are partially why the company was recently able to snag $2 million in funding.

The funding comes from Viktor Prokopenya of VP Capital and Larnabel Ventures, Said Gutseriev's fund.

FaceMetrics reimagines parental control apps by using AI and gamification to make not only make it easier for the parents but by making it more engaging with children, as well. FaceMetrics will monitor not only time usage, but you can set it up to where a child must read for a certain amount of time before going back to games or other fun activities. 

It does this by monitoring and learning about the child's habits while using the front-facing camera to make sure the child is focusing on the screen and their assigned reading. It will also provide prompts to children and send in-depth reports to parents.

“The app is not a supervisor but a friend,” FaceMetrics CEO Mikhail Boiko said. “If you ban games, it will simply make them more appealing to kids. But with artificial intelligence, a trade-off like ‘read an hour and play for an hour’ is actually possible to implement and track. After all, it's not just about getting kids to read, but making sure they do it regularly and mindfully.”