TWIST chatted with Zack Marks founder of GromSocial, a social networking website for kids! With the help of his family and friends, Zack created the fun and safe website for "Groms", which are kids under the age of sixteen! Zack told us all about how he came up with the idea for GromSocial, his favorite features on the website and what it means to be a Grom! Check out the exclusive convo below!
XOXO,
TWIST
TWIST: Can you tell us about GromSocial and how it differs from other social networking sites?
Zach Marks: It's created by kids for kids. All my brothers and sisters created it and we drew all the characters. It's what kids like.
TWIST: What inspired you to start the website?
ZM: It all started when I convinced my dad to let me go on Facebook. I had it for about a week or two and I built up about 683 friends. I was seeing adult language I shouldn't have been seeing, so my dad deleted my Facebook account. About a week later I made another account and I got caught doing the exact same thing. My dad and I got in a pretty heated argument and I told him that there's no safe social networking site out there for kids that's fun, safe and educational. So me, my brother's and sisters after that sat down at the dinner table and started drawing the logo, coming up with a name, drawing out what we wanted the website to look like and then we got permission from my mom.
TWIST: Why should TWIST readers be using GromSocial?
ZM: GromSocial is a kid's website, so it's probably your first experience on a social networking site. It's all kid content on there. It's all stuff that we post, what we like. It's all videos that we like and we have games for kids too. It's monitored 24/7. You can't curse. We have anti-bullying, anti-smoking and anti-drugs policies. We're always watching it so if someone posts a bad picture we delete it within seconds.
TWIST: What makes someone a Grom?
ZM: A Grom is a person under the age of sixteen. You get called a Grom where I'm from. It's like me, I'm a young and upcoming surfer, athlete, gamer...so under sixteen you're a Grom. We get called a Grom all the time that's why we picked the name GromSocial.
TWIST: What is your favorite thing to do on GromSocial?
ZM: Chatting or posting pictures. I like seeing what all of the other kids post. Playing games on there is really fun too.
TWIST: Thanks for chatting with us!
ZM: Thank you!