New website launched to help children from broken homes

Sept. 1, 2011 - PRLog -- www.MyOffspring.com is the brainchild of Danish entrepreneur Lars Lemming who came up with the idea when several friends were going through painful divorces and separations. Lars saw how the divorce was impacting on the friends and their children and it struck him that millions of young people around the world were probably being affected by their parents’ communication difficulties.

MyOffspring founder and Chief Operating Officer Lars Lemming explained: “In the UK over the last 10 years, on average 200,000 parents of children between the ages of 0 and 15 have parted company each year. But these break-ups do not only touch the parents – they also involve grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, teachers etc. We estimate more than four million people are affected at this moment.

“Many divorces and separations are acrimonious but they don’t have to be. We believe that MyOffspring can help make these situations more amicable, through the 3 Cs - collaboration, communication and consensus - which can only be good for the children involved. We are also looking forward to working closely with the judiciary system in England and Wales as the site will be extremely useful in family law cases where children are involved. All traffic to the site is logged which will be helpful for evidence gathering purposes.”

The website, which is SSL (1)  encrypted and extremely secure, offers a set of free tools that allow parents to store vital information about their children in one place. The free features include a child’s calendar and a child’s book. Other parts of the site can be accessed for less than £1 per week and include a financial tool, a child’s address book, reviews, activity suggestions, special offers and a market place. There is also an on-line community where parents can participate in discussions as well as seek advice on issues such as parenting, relationships, divorce etc. from a panel of professional experts. Participants can even rate the advice given.

The need for a site like MyOffspring is being endorsed by a range of professionals including Parenting expert Sue Atkins: “We know from experience that communication between separated parents is a huge issue” says Sue, “and using a tool like MyOffspring will really help parents and their children and protect them from being used as messengers or weapons between parents. It will also help reduce arguments, misunderstandings and conflict. I will be actively encouraging clients to use the site and take advantage of all the resources it offers.”

Another benefit is that MyOffspring has been designed for use by parents who are only communicating through mediators and collaborative family law solicitors. Providing both parents approve, advisers can view the Child’s Area and make suggestions to reduce conflicts.

The UK’s leading Relationship Expert Francine Kaye is also supporting the need for the site. She says: “The estimated average legal costs for a contested divorce are £5000 to15,000. Sadly one in three of us will experience a relationship breakup and one in four children in this country now live in split families. We all know someone whose divorce culminated in a complete breakdown of communication between the couple. Often this impacts the children involved. We also know of a great many stories about parents who withhold access to the children in return for agreements in their favour.  And, in some cases, information regarding their children’s health and wellbeing or school open days and events are kept from the other parent.

“The impact on the children is that they are often confused and upset and torn in their loyalties towards their parents. My Offspring uses the internet to streamline communication between parents who are unable to communicate verbally with each other. This will be incredibly useful for parents who find it potentially upsetting to speak directly to each other, by ensuring that both parents are kept in the loop about their children on-line.”

Suzy Miller, creator of the www.startingovershow.co.uk, confirmed the need for a system that has the interests of children as its central purpose: "Post break up it is vital to not let the kids become pawns in adult power struggles.  MyOffspring offers parents a safe way to maintain a 'working relationship' based on the welfare of the children, without having to actually meet up with each other. It is going to be a very useful service indeed," she said.  

MyOffspring is also encouraging large companies to purchase subscriptions for their staff.  “We know that the stress caused by divorce and separation has a real impact on people’s productivity in the workplace. We are planning to do some research into the real cost of divorce to industry but, in the meantime, we are talking to several corporations about offering MyOffspring as a staff benefit,” Chief Executive Officer Lars explained.

Having access to key information relating to a child in one place will also be useful for extended families like grandparents who have caring responsibilities. For instance details like medication, the child’s doctor and dentist, teachers’ numbers and activities can be stored. MyOffspring is also useful for parents who are not separated.

“We’ve had enquiries from busy working parents who are still married but need a safe place to store and share information and reach consensus about their children which they can access anytime, anywhere. MyOffspring is a much better way of keeping track of things than pieces of paper, Post It notes and white boards,” Lars added.

The MyOffspring idea is not completely new as similar sites have been running successfully in the United States and Scandinavia for several years. MyOffspring has built upon and adapted the most popular features on the two sites to suit UK users and legislation and added a host of new features and applications. Developers are already working on version two of the site which will include mobile applications. The site will also evolve with feedback from parents, experts and partners.

MyOffspring is supported by family law solicitors, many of whom are Resolution members (2), mediators, counsellors, life coaches, financial advisors, psychologists etc. The company’s headquarters is in Brighton.  
(2) Resolution is an organisation with 6,000 members who are family lawyers committed to the constructive resolution of family disputes. The members follow a Code of Practice that promotes a non-confrontational approach to family problems and encourage solutions that consider the needs of the whole family - and in particular the best interests of children.

ENDS

(1) SSL is short for Secure Sockets Layer, and it is a protocol initially developed for transmitting private documents or information via the Internet. It essentially works through a cryptographic system that secures a connection between a client and a server. Many websites use this protocol to obtain confidential user information and it is supported in all modern browsers.

For more information, a press pack or interview requests, please contact Suzi Christie on 01435 830031 or e-mail suzi@blueberry-pr.co.uk  The press pack is available on request with more background information, statistics and details about the MyOffspring team.

Notes to editors:  A launch event will take place at 12 noon on September 1st at The Sussex Innovation Centre www.sinc.co.uk , Science Park Square, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9SB Tel: +44 (0)1273 704400. Reporters and photographers are welcome to attend. Let us know and we can arrange parking. Alternatively, the venue is a few minutes’ walk from Brighton’s Falmer station.