San Clemente teen starts a social media site for kids that’s grown up into a bigger business

It’s not often that a 12-year-old creates a small business that eventually swells into a corporation with a $60-million market cap.

But Zach Marks is not your average kid.

A traditional child in many ways, Zach is a zealot for surfing, skating and motocross. Where he departs from the aggregate is his creation of Grom Social, a social media website with family-friendly content and filtering to act as a training ground for children before they venture into the lawless wilds of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

“It teaches these kids how to be good digital citizens,” said Darren Marks, Zach’s father and CEO of Grom Social Enterprises. “We show them how to deal with the many issues that can arise online.”

The website functions with 37 employees, who work on teams such as content, chatting, posting and monitoring.

Darren Marks described the website as a hybridization of Facebook and Instagram, though it has its unique traits.

Kids can create profiles and post messages and photos like those popular social media channels, but content is regulated by Grom employees who essentially act as educators.

When a child posts something unwise on the website — like his address —moderators will connect with him and explain why that practice is ill-advised.

“If they did that anywhere else then nobody would tell those kids that it was wrong,” said Zach, now 17, of San Clemente.

Employees post under fictional, Disney-esque characters with cartoon avatars, some of whom promote various agendas.

Charred Charlie, an ashen-looking character engulfed in flames, is the obligatory anti-drugs and smoking spokesman.

“Learn from my mistakes,” Charred Charlie’s bio reads. “Don’t let the wrong friends peer pressure you into making bad decisions.”

Trevor, the anti-bullying tsar, has a prism for a head.

Other characters are geared toward sports, entertainment, nutrition and science, among others.

The idea for the website spawned from an act of rebellion.

At age 11, Zach convinced his skeptical dad to let him create a Facebook account.

After Zach became “friends” with hundreds of random people online, Darren Marks dismantled the profile. In an early display of the kind of natural rigidity that fuels many great entrepreneurs, Zach created another profile.

Again, deleted by his father.

So, Zach came up with the idea of starting his own social media website, one strictly for kids.

His dad’s response: “Good luck with that.”

Zach and his five siblings began to develop some of the characters of the website, sketching a mock-up on scratch paper.

The name, “grom,” was adopted because the family was, at the time, living in a small Florida surfing town called Melbourne Beach. A grom is a young surfer.

Zach got permission from his mother, Sarah, to borrow $2,500 from his older brother and a basic form of the website was created. It launched in 2012.

“At the beginning it was just a fun, family project,” Zach said.

Currently, the website has 13 million users worldwide.

Over the years Grom Social Enterprises, a public entity, began acquiring other companies. The entire umbrella company has about 600 employees.

Aside from the social media website, the group owns Top Draw Animation in the Philippines, which produces “Tom and Jerry,” “My Little Pony” and Disney’s “Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero.”

Zach said they’re planning to roll out a Grom Social mobile app in the coming months.

In between his homeschooling through Lighthouse Christian Academy, Zach acts as the utility man of the business.

“My role changes,” Zach said. “In the beginning, it was being the face of it and creating fun content. Now I am transitioning to a more business-related role. I do a little bit of everything and work on all our major projects. I put my little two cents in when I can.”

Slated for graduation in May, Zach said he hopes to continue expanding and eventually take the helm of the business. In his view, preparing children for the potential dangers of social media is a vital enterprise.

“Social media is such a big part of our everyday life and kids are getting on younger and younger,” Zach said. “We want to make sure that when they make the leap to the next social media channel, they know how to use it properly.”

benjamin.brazil@latimes.com

Twitter:@benbrazilpilot