Grom Offers Increased Controls For Parents and Online Protection –and Fun– For Kids

COPPA-Compliant App Ensures Ultimate Online Protection For Kids

BOCA RATON, Fla., Aug. 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: GROM) (gromsocialenterprises.com), a leading provider of family-friendly entertainment, media, and technology solutions – and the company that helped usher in safe social media exclusively for kids – today released its eagerly anticipated and completely updated Grom Social Media App, the social media platform exclusively for kids. Offering unparalleled safety, the Grom App invites parents to actively participate in their child’s social media activity. Designed for first-time social media users, Grom serves as important “training wheels” for users before they turn 13, the general threshold age to access accounts on many social apps. The app is now available in the Apple Store on IOS, with an Android version soon to follow.

The new Grom app launches in an era of unprecedented national attention on kids and digital safety, where concerns are focused on several harmful effects of social media on self-esteem, inappropriate content, and user privacy. Unlike most apps, Grom proactively insulates its young users in a positive environment through a combination of live monitors and algorithms that intercept, and ultimately prevent, the posting of inappropriate content – including hate speech and abusive language – and never collects, exploits or sells user data, a practice common among most apps, in which user data is often sold to third-parties and marketers seeking to reach consumers directly.

Since its establishment in 2012, Grom Social has been working tirelessly to ensure that it operates well within the guidelines of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, commonly known as COPPA. The new version of the app has been certified under the Children’s Advertising Review Unit’s (CARU) COPPA Safe Harbor Program, following a thorough audit of its safety and security protocols. As federal and state legislation comes to fruition, Grom is committed to fully complying with all laws that help protect kids even further in the digiverse.

With the Grom app, kids can express their individuality and creativity with other Grom users like never before, with such features including:

• A library of 3D avatar assets (called Gromatars) featuring hundreds of custom options.
• Access easy-to-use video recording and in-app editing functions.
• Interactive feeds and the ability to post in a kid-only social forum.
• Positive in-app messaging including how to use and enjoy social media safely.
• Promotion of responsible screen time through the nightly shutdown of the app wall feed.
  

For parents and caregivers, Grom offers a suite of tools to help them monitor their children’s online activities, such as:

• A separate in-app parental platform for full access and visibility to each child's online activity.
• New video authorization system to ensure each user has parental consent to be on Grom.
• Parents can fully control notification settings for their child's account.
• Parents can set daily time limits for their child's account to limit screen time.

Said Darren Marks, Chief Executive Officer of Grom Social Enterprises, Inc., “This new Grom is all about fun, entertainment, and discovery for kids – while providing assurance for parents that their children are happily engaged in a safer, secure online environment. We are poud to have the Grom Social media app COPPA certified by CARU to ensure it complies with the COPPA rule.”

“Grom is the perfect social media ‘training wheels’ for kids, preparing them to become positive online citizens. The all-new version of Grom underscores how we strive to play an essential role in social media just for kids through our combination of live monitors and advanced algorithm technologies that prevent inappropriate content and behavior on the platform. The new Grom represents the culmination of twelve years of dedication to empower kids to experience a fun and safe online social media experience,” said Zach Marks, Chief Content Developer for Grom.

About Grom Social Enterprises, Inc.
Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: GROM) is a growing social media platform and original content provider of entertainment for children under 13 years of age, which provides safe and secure digital environments for kids that can be monitored by their parents or guardians. The Company has several operating subsidiaries, including Grom Social, which delivers its content through mobile and desktop environments (web portal and apps) that entertain children, let them interact with friends, access relevant news, and play proprietary games while teaching them about being good digital citizens. The Company owns and operates Top Draw Animation, which produces award-winning animation content for some of the largest international media companies in the world. The company owns an 80% stake in Curiosity Ink Media, which is a global media company that develops, acquires, builds, grows and maximizes the short, mid, and long-term commercial potential of Kids & Family entertainment properties and associated business opportunities. Grom also includes Grom Educational Services, which has provided web filtering services for K-12 schools, government and private businesses. For more information, please visit the Company’s website at https://gromsocialenterprises.com.

Safe Harbor Statement:
This press release may contain forward-looking statements about Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. activities that are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those anticipated or expected, including statements related to the amount and timing of expected revenues and any payment of dividends on our common stock, statements related to our financial performance, expected income, distributions, and future growth for upcoming quarterly and annual periods, and other risks set forth in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Actual results and the timing of certain events could differ materially from those projected in or contemplated by the forward-looking statements due to a number of factors. Among other matters, the Company may not be able to sustain growth or achieve profitability based upon many factors including, but not limited to general stock market conditions. We have incurred and will continue to incur significant expenses in the expansion of our existing and new service lines, noting there is no assurance that we will generate enough revenues to offset those costs in both the near and long-term. Additional service offerings may expose us to additional legal and regulatory costs and unknown exposure(s) based upon the various geopolitical locations where we will be providing services, the impact of which cannot be predicted at this time. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or other information contained herein. Stockholders and potential investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that our plans, intentions, and expectations reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements in this report are reasonable, we cannot assure stockholders and potential investors that these plans, intentions or expectations will be achieved. Except to the extent required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, a change in events, conditions, circumstances or assumptions underlying such statements, or otherwise.

Media Relations Contacts:
Steve Syatt: Steve@ssapr.com
Paul Ward: Media@gromsocial.com