WHEN Mary Roka's daughter was five, she asked the inevitable question that leaves many parents at a loss for words.
"Mommy, how are babies born?" Roka panicked. She didn't know how to answer. "So I started looking at books and websites and really going through the information," says the Deep Cove resident.
What she discovered in her research, she says, is the importance of opening the lines of communication early when it comes to body awareness and safety.
"Something as simple as teaching your child the scientific names of body parts can offer protection," Roka says, "because a predator is less likely to target a child who is confident and body aware because they're more likely to tell."
Roka teamed up with Squamish resident Jennifer Weidemann to create a digital tool to help parents, teachers and children talk about sex without feeling intimidated.
They founded their company GoTo Educational Technology Inc. a year ago and on Feb. 28 launched their very first product, Birdees, an interactive sexual education app for the iPad and iPad Mini.
Birdees is currently available in the Chickadee Module, for children aged two to five, and the Pipit Module, for children aged six to eight. Two more modules for kids aged nine to 12 and 13 to 15 are on the way.
Roka and Weidemann hired programmers and designers to develop the app, and created the educational content in collaboration with experts, such as Vancouver-based sexual health professional Saleema Noon.
The app's interface is split into separate parts - one for parents and another for kids. Parents have access to all content, while children can only access iBody, which provides information on body parts, and iTools, which provides information on behaviour, communication and safety.
Children are guided through the light-hearted learning experience by cartoon animals. Whiskers the Cat and Archie the Bird provide helpful facts, while Beetriz the Bee gives parents direct email access to sex educators who can answer additional questions.
Kids earn awards and achievements as they progress through the modules.
"The app promotes small talk along the way, bite-sized information, not just one big talk when it's always too late anyway," Roka says.
"It is probably one of the most comprehensive apps in the market," she adds, explaining the content covers everything from body boundaries to stranger danger to reproduction.
Unlike many sexual education books on the market, Birdees encourages two-way user participation.
"It offers kids these interactive tools, so it takes the pressure off the parents," Roka says.
Her daughter, now almost seven, has been using Birdees for a while now.
"She loves it," Roka says. "My son, he's four, he uses it."
Roka has heard other parents say "Let schools take care of the talks" or "I didn't get the talk and I'm fine," but she disagrees.
"What we have to realize is it's not the same world," she says. "Our children are constantly bombarded by sexual messages everywhere they go. It's on TV, commercials, Internet, music, it's all around us, and I think it's the parents' responsibility to translate those messages for the child and add their values to it."
In addition to launching modules for older children, GoTo Educational Technology also plans to make Birdees available for the iPhone. An e-book for each age group will soon be available at birdeesapp.com.
Birdees modules are $4.99 each, available at the Apple iTunes App Store.
