By Russell York, Founder & CEO
Russell York is the Founder & CEO of Cosmo, one of the fastest-growing brands in family technology; one that’s pioneering a new generation of purpose-built, safe solutions that inspire kids, empower parents, and connect families. A father and tech advocate himself, Russell noticed the gap in a market filled with devices that didn’t meet the real, every-day needs of kids and parents. He created Cosmo in 2020 to fill the void with data-secure solutions to keep families connected and kids safe with the brand's JrTrack line of kids’ smartwatches.
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The sun is rising on a new era of parenting.
There is no longer much disagreement over whether kids should have unlimited access to technology. That debate is over. Many parents are now grappling with the fact that the smartphone, as we know it, is not a neutral object in childhood. Instead it is a portal into noise like social media, algorithmic entertainment, inappropriate content, constant distraction, and a set of social pressures most children are not ready to manage.
In fact, a Pew Research Center study found that a majority of parents (73%) believe it is acceptable for children to have their own phone only after they have reached at least the age of 12.
Just as parents have begun to circle the wagons and resist early tech adoption through movements like Wait Until 8th, school phone bans, and family tech pledges — a new and uneasy feeling has crept in…
I call it Techxiety.
“Techxiety” is the growing pressure parents feel as they weigh the benefits of digital connection against the risks of smartphones, social media, screen addiction, and online exposure.
Parents today are nearly universal in their uncertainty. Society has broadly aligned around the need to make better decisions about kids and technology, but consensus is still nowhere to be found. That lack of consensus matters. It means that almost any decision can feel wrong.
- Be too restrictive, and your child may be socially disconnected, harder to reach, or left without a reliable way to communicate when they need help.
- Be too permissive, and the consequences are already well documented.
This is the uncomfortable middle space a lot of modern parents now occupy. In that middle space, an entire new category is beginning to form: products, practices, school policies, family agreements, and community norms designed to answer one question:
How do we keep kids connected without handing them the whole internet?
When I started Cosmo in 2020, the idea was simple: connection is good. Kids being able to call their parents, get reminders, coordinate rides, or reach help in an emergency are all healthy, practical tools.
The real problem is not connection. It’s social media, unrestricted internet access, algorithmic feeds, and adult software ecosystems repackaged as “safe for kids.” Increasingly, it’s also AI systems children are not developmentally prepared to navigate.
Big Tech tried to take adult devices, adult app stores, and adult platforms and make them safe for children with parental controls. That was never going to work.
You cannot fence the universe.
Parental controls on adult ecosystems are ultimately a layer of reassurance on top of systems that were never designed for kids in the first place.
Where Techxiety comes from.
On one side, the most powerful technology companies in the world are saying, “we made this safe for kids.”
On the other side, schools, pediatricians, researchers, mental health experts, parenting groups, and parents themselves are increasingly saying the opposite: these products are not appropriate for young children.
That contradiction is the source of techxiety. Parents are not confused because they are uninformed, they are confused because they haven’t been offered a clear, trustworthy middle path.
They are being asked to choose between two limiting options: disconnect their child entirely, or hand them a device built for adults and hope the settings hold.
That is not good enough.
Our team started from a different premise. Not, “how do we make adult devices safer for kids?” but, “what would connection look like if it were designed for children from the ground up?”
For us that means intentional communication, parent-approved contacts, no open internet, no social media, no engagement algorithms, and certainly no hidden incentives working against the family.
Parents do not need another set of controls buried three menus deep. They need a new category of products built around the reality of modern family life. Kids need connection, parents need peace of mind, and childhood needs protection.
The REAL answer to Techxiety.
No more panic, no more absolutism, no more pretending the smartphone can be made harmless with enough restrictions.
The solution is a new approach to family technology, one designed to support the best of childhood instead of stealing from it.
Because parents are not anti-technology. They just want their kids to be safe, connected, independent, and still protected from the parts of technology that have already proven too powerful for even adults to manage well.
That is not an unreasonable demand.
It is the next frontier of family technology.
Learn how the Cosmo JrTrack Kids Smartwatch helps families stay connected without giving kids unrestricted smartphone access → https://bit.ly/4qW7J2y
