Family IT Guy Podcast

Family IT Guy
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Parenting

Ben Gillenwater helps families protect children from digital dangers, bringing 30 years of cybersecurity expertise to the parenting journey. His background includes working with the NSA and serving as Chief Technologist of a $10 billion IT company, where he built global-scale systems and understood technology's risks at every level. His mission began when he gave his young son an iPad with "kid-safe" apps—only to discover inappropriate content days later. Despite his deep technical background, Ben realized that if protecting children online was challenging for him, it must be even more difficult for parents without his expertise. Through Family IT Guy, Ben creates videos and articles that help parents and kids learn how to leverage the positive parts of the internet while avoiding the dangerous and risky parts. His approach bridges the knowledge gap between complex technology and practical family protection, making digital safety accessible to everyone.

  1. 3d ago ·  Video

    How to Report an Online Predator: Two Ways to Get Help

    If someone targets your child online, here's who's already looking for them and exactly how to report it. I'm Ben, the Family IT Guy - a dad and a cybersecurity expert with 30 years of experience. I made this video in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Know2Protect campaign. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is the part of DHS with dedicated federal agents and computer forensic analysts who spend every day finding and stopping the people who exploit kids online - but they can only act on threats that get reported. In this video I walk through a real case: a teenage boy was sextorted (an online predator posed as another kid, got him to send a private photo, then threatened to share it unless he paid). He told his mom, she reported it, and a federal agent was at their door within 48 hours. That's the system working - the piece missing for most families is knowing it exists. If a predator targets your child, there are two ways to report it: Know2Protect Tip Line: 1-833-591-KNOW (5669) NCMEC CyberTipline: https://report.cybertip.org Before anything happens, go to https://know2protect.gov and take the Pledge2Protect with your kids. It walks your family through how predators actually operate, the warning signs to watch for, and practical safety steps you can put in place together. Chapters: 0:00 A message to predators 0:32 A message for parents 1:02 Meet Ben, the Family IT Guy 1:23 You're not alone: meet HSI 1:48 A real case: sextortion stopped in 48 hours 2:43 How to report: two ways to get help 3:25 What you can do right now 4:04 Take the Pledge2Protect, then share it Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Website: https://www.familyitguy.com Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g #Know2Protect #Pledge2Protect #parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

  2. Aug 20 ·  Video

    Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Weekly Q&A - Aug 19 2026

    Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Weekly Q&A - Aug 19 2026

  3. Aug 13 ·  Video

    Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Weekly Q&A - Aug 12 2026

    Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Weekly Q&A - Aug 12 2026

  4. Aug 11 ·  Video

    You’re the Product, Not the Customer (The Paid, Private Internet)

    The apps are free, the games are free, email and search and videos are free. But free is not really free. The payment is your family's data, time, and attention. There is another internet where you pay a few dollars and become the customer instead of the product, and here is what it costs and where to start. One question sorts the whole internet: how does a company make its money? If the answer is advertising, the product being sold is your attention, and the app is built to collect as much of it as it can. If the answer is subscriptions, you are the customer, and the company stays in business by keeping you happy. Ben walks through the paid, privacy-respecting options by category: email like Proton or Fastmail for about ten to twenty dollars a month, search like Kagi for about five dollars a month, messaging like Signal, which is free and run by a nonprofit, and paid kids' games without the ads and tracking built into free ones. He also explains how to check a "we're private" claim: open source, which means the app's code is public so outside experts can inspect what it actually does. You do not have to switch everything at once. Start with one, like search, then try getting your close friends and family onto Signal with you. Proton: https://proton.me Fastmail: https://www.fastmail.com Kagi: https://kagi.com Signal: https://signal.org Chapters: 0:00 Free isn't free 0:37 The one question that sorts the internet 1:07 The paid alternatives, category by category 1:47 How to tell honest apps from dishonest ones 2:20 Start with one change Watch the whole series, How the Internet Really Works: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc3jDQHQdQek More in this series: It Started With Bacon (How Free Apps Make Money): https://youtu.be/FQbVOHcQRME The Cloud Is Someone Else's Computer: https://youtu.be/NsYAPKyJhXg Should You Accept or Reject Cookies?: https://youtu.be/EEt33DXh--g You're the Product, Not the Customer: https://youtu.be/UWBA-VcLOGE Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are. iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass: https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass Website and free guides: https://www.familyitguy.com Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g #parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

  5. Aug 6 ·  Video

    How to Make Video Games Safe and Actually Good for Your Kids

    Most parents feel stuck on video games: ban them and your kid feels left out, allow them and you worry about who's on the other end of the chat. Devyn Ricks has spent her whole life in games and now runs Miss Devyn's Video Game Universe, where a team of teachers hosts moderated online gaming clubs for kids. She's also a mom of four. In this conversation she walks through how she decides which games her own kids play, why she's a hard pass on Roblox, the simple signal that tells you a game is doing more harm than good, and how to check whether any game is safe even if you've never picked up a controller. We also get into why a console beats an iPad, which system to buy at each age, and why teaching kids the "why" protects them long after the rules stop working. If gaming is a fight in your house, this one is for you. Chapters: 0:00 Meet Miss Devyn and her video-game clubs 2:14 What the clubs actually do (and why community matters) 13:23 Games are neutral: how you use them is everything 15:16 Why she's a hard pass on Roblox, and reading your kid's cues 18:38 If a game is free, your child is the product: console vs iPad 24:52 How to vet any new game (research, chat settings, observe) 31:03 The hard truth about who's online, and staying involved 34:32 Skills, not rules 38:16 What game system to buy at every age 48:09 The biggest misconception about kids who game 53:49 One piece of advice: play the game with your kid Find Devyn: Miss Devyn's Video Game Universe — missdevyn.com YouTube: @MissDevynsVGU TikTok: @MissDevynGames Classes on Outschool: search "Miss Devyn" Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication. Learn the problems, protect your family, start with yourself. Get the iPhone Parental Controls guide: familyitguy.com

  6. Aug 4 ·  Video

    Should You Accept or Reject Cookies? What the Pop-Up Does

    Every website asks you to accept or reject cookies, and most of us click Accept just to clear the box. Clicking Reject barely helps either. Here is what the pop-up actually does and the free change that does more for your family's privacy than the button ever will. A cookie is a small file a website saves on your device so it can recognize you. Some cookies are useful, like the one that keeps you logged in or remembers your cart. Tracking cookies are the problem: they follow you from site to site and build a profile of what you read, shop for, and watch, which advertisers pay for. The pop-up is left over from privacy laws the ad industry has already worked around, so even Reject leaves you tracked in other ways. The real fix is a browser that blocks trackers for you on every site. On iPhone, iPad, and Mac, Safari already does this. On Windows or Android, use Firefox instead of Chrome or Edge, and set it as the default on your devices and your kids' devices. Then tell your kids why you changed it. The lesson is bigger than cookies: everything you do on the internet should be treated as public. Chapters: 0:00 The cookie question 0:28 What a cookie actually is 1:03 Why clicking Reject barely helps 1:32 The free fix: a private browser 2:12 What to tell your kids Watch the whole series, How the Internet Really Works: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc3jDQHQdQek More in this series: It Started With Bacon (How Free Apps Make Money): https://youtu.be/FQbVOHcQRME The Cloud Is Someone Else's Computer: https://youtu.be/NsYAPKyJhXg Should You Accept or Reject Cookies?: https://youtu.be/EEt33DXh--g You're the Product, Not the Customer: https://youtu.be/UWBA-VcLOGE Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are. iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass: https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass Website and free guides: https://www.familyitguy.com Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g #parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

  7. Jul 28 ·  Video

    The Cloud Is Someone Else’s Computer (Where Your Data Goes)

    When you save something to the cloud, it does not float in the sky. It goes to a real building full of computers that a company owns, and that company can usually read what is stored there. Ben spent years designing and running data centers, including one for the F-18 fighter jet program, so he can show you what "the cloud" actually is: warehouses full of servers in real cities, keeping copies of your photos, messages, and files. You cannot realistically quit the cloud. What you can control is whether the companies holding your data can read it. That comes down to encryption, which means scrambling your files so only a private key can unlock them, and who holds that key. If you hold it, only you can read your files. If a company holds it, they can too. Ben shares the services he pays for and uses himself for this: Proton for email, files, photos, and passwords, and Signal for private messages and calls. Start by moving one thing you care about to a service that hands you the key. Proton: https://proton.me Signal: https://signal.org Chapters: 0:00 Where your data really goes 0:40 What the cloud actually is 1:12 Watch the data leave a computer 2:52 How to keep private things private 3:32 Why this matters for our kids Watch the whole series, How the Internet Really Works: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc3jDQHQdQek More in this series: It Started With Bacon (How Free Apps Make Money): https://youtu.be/FQbVOHcQRME The Cloud Is Someone Else's Computer: https://youtu.be/NsYAPKyJhXg Should You Accept or Reject Cookies?: https://youtu.be/EEt33DXh--g You're the Product, Not the Customer: https://youtu.be/UWBA-VcLOGE Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are. iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass: https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass Website and free guides: https://www.familyitguy.com Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g #parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

  8. Jul 21 ·  Video

    It Started With Bacon: How ”Free” Apps Make Money

    Almost everything online is free because the internet is a marketing engine, and the fuel it runs on is your family's data, time, and attention. In the 1920s a bacon company hired a man named Edward Bernays to sell more bacon. He got physicians to endorse a big breakfast, newspapers ran their opinions as news, and bacon and eggs became "the American breakfast." That method, borrow a trusted voice, hide who is paying, and make the message look like advice, built the modern advertising industry. For most of the last century it had two limits: advertisers could not see exactly who got their message, and they could not change it per person. The internet removed both. Every tap, every pause while you scroll, every video you half watch is measured, and the message adjusts to you in real time. Ben explains why that makes the internet dangerous for kids. The real problem is not screen time, it is marketing exposure time. Youth suicide is now the second leading cause of death among young people, and for kids aged 10 to 14 the rate tripled between 2007 and 2018. He gives you one question to ask about anything your kids use for free: who is paying for this, and what are they buying? If the answer is advertisers buying attention, that is a red flag, and a lot of the most popular apps fall into that category. Tell your kids the bacon story. Once a kid can spot the hidden sponsor in their breakfast, they start spotting it everywhere. Chapters: 0:00 The bacon story 1:07 The method behind modern advertising 1:42 How the internet changed the game 3:11 Why this is dangerous for kids 5:18 What you can do Sources: Meta's advertising revenue, about 98% of its total: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000162828026003942/meta-20251231.htm Edward Bernays and the Beech-Nut bacon campaign: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays Youth suicide statistics, CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db471.htm Watch the whole series, How the Internet Really Works: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc3jDQHQdQek More in this series: It Started With Bacon (How Free Apps Make Money): https://youtu.be/FQbVOHcQRME The Cloud Is Someone Else's Computer: https://youtu.be/NsYAPKyJhXg Should You Accept or Reject Cookies?: https://youtu.be/EEt33DXh--g You're the Product, Not the Customer: https://youtu.be/UWBA-VcLOGE Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are. iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass: https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass Website and free guides: https://www.familyitguy.com Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g #parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

Ben Gillenwater helps families protect children from digital dangers, bringing 30 years of cybersecurity expertise to the parenting journey. His background includes working with the NSA and serving as Chief Technologist of a $10 billion IT company, where he built global-scale systems and understood technology's risks at every level. His mission began when he gave his young son an iPad with "kid-safe" apps—only to discover inappropriate content days later. Despite his deep technical background, Ben realized that if protecting children online was challenging for him, it must be even more difficult for parents without his expertise. Through Family IT Guy, Ben creates videos and articles that help parents and kids learn how to leverage the positive parts of the internet while avoiding the dangerous and risky parts. His approach bridges the knowledge gap between complex technology and practical family protection, making digital safety accessible to everyone.

Information

  • Creator
    Family IT Guy
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    69
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Family IT Guy Podcast

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