Every so often, another technology breaks through that is both a look to the future and a throwback to the past. If you don’t have young children, or possibly grandchildren, you may not be aware of the Yoto. But it has taken the world by storm and its inventor is a Brit by the name of Ben Drury.
Listening, learning, entertaining
Yoto is an interactive, screen-free audio platform for children that delivers stories, music, radio and podcasts for families with complete safety. Yoto smart speakers put children in control of their own listening, learning and play. As the company’s mantra has it: ‘No microphones. No cameras. No ads’. The tech entrepreneur and his friend Filip Denker created the portable audio player specifically for children. Stories, lullabies and educational items are stored on plastic cards that are slotted, cassette style, into the machine. The audio is brought to life by a coloured pixel display panel and the unit has an eight-hour rechargeable battery.
Yoto’s launch, just weeks before lockdown began in March 2020, was a massive stroke of good luck. With schools and offices closed, parents were desperately seeking new ways to occupy their children. Hundreds of thousands of the devices have been sold and one in 50 British households with a child under 12 is thought to have one. The firm that makes them, in which Drury and Denker have ‘substantial stakes’, has been valued at almost £100 million.
Inspiring young imaginations
There are two reasons why I love this story. Firstly, it’s a great advert for the design and creative skills that Britain today still has in abundance – a fact which we sometimes forget. Secondly, it’s a great illustration of how we can control the ever-growing menace of screen time addiction in our children and young people. Audio for me wins every time over video, in that it harnesses the power of the imagination. Long hours staring at a screen can clearly dull the very minds it is supposed to sharpen. Free the mind and let it begin to flex the muscles of original thought and inventiveness.
Of course, there’s also a big advantage for business in all of these developments, as we are helping the minds of future generations to be independent, creative and original – I feel the implications of this simple little device may well have far-reaching consequences which even Mr Drury did not foresee.