Family Zone gains support in school cyber safety

Family Zone Cyber Safety (ASX: FZO) is rapidly gaining support from schools for its cyber safety products as it launched in New Zealand this month.

The Australian technology company said by the end of 2017 it will have signed up more than 120 partner schools, including 10 from New Zealand.

Family Zone’s products involve a cloud-based solution that allows for parental or teacher control of devices to keep kids safe online. For instance, settings and accessibility can all be managed by a zone manager.

The Partner Schools program includes subsidised access to specialty cyber safety and security services and the ability to offer a common safety platform to the entire school community.

The company only entered the education market this year and has already reported more than A$4 million in contracted revenue.

In total, Family Zone has signed up more than 30,000 subscribers including 5000 international accounts. It attributed a majority of its international subscriptions in the past month to the marketing efforts of its new Asian telco partners such as Indonesia’s Telkomsel, with which it inked a commercial services agreement in July.

“Family Zone’s rapid growth in subscriber numbers provides a strong endorsement and support for the company’s marketing and commercialisation strategy, as well as the commitment of staff to achieving commercial targets,” the company stated.

“The company expects Family Zone’s user and revenue growth trajectory to increase throughout 2018,” it added.

In addition, Family Zone reported it had rolled out its School Zone platform to more than 130 schools in West Virginia in the United States, where the company’s Sonar school filtering platform was already being used.

The School Zone model is specifically aimed at schools with “at risk” students and includes digital citizenship programs, wellbeing and pastoral care services and firewall technology for safe networking.

Shares in Family Zone were up 5.4% on the news by afternoon trade.