SocialShield, a startup that helps parents monitor their kids’ online behavior without violating kids’ privacy, is announcing a new CEO today, George Garrick.
Garrick, who was an investor in SocialShield, is a seasoned technology exec that was most recently the CEO of Offerpal (which is now TapJoy) as well as Mochi Media. Garrick was also previously the CEO of Jingle Networks, Wine.com, PlaceWare (which was acquired by Microsoft), FlyCast Communications, Information Resources and A.C. Nielsen.
Founded by Noah Kindler and Arad Rostampour, SocialShield gives parents high level visibility into what kids are doing online and on social networks, and who they’re interacting with online and via mobile phones. SocialShield, which requires that both parents and children opt-in to the service, monitors kids’ picture sharing, social gaming and other social activity on networks that kids use the most (currently Facebook, Myspace and Twitter). Rather than giving parents access to kids’ accounts or copies of their online communications, Social Shield sends parents alerts when activity indicates potential danger.
The startup, which raised $10 million in funding and inked a licensing deal with AOL, was also recently invited to The White House to participate in a Presidential Summit on CyberBullying.