Teens, parents and neighbors. Three groups who often may not see eye to eye about their goals and how to spend their time. But Aaditya Kamat, a 10th grader at American High School in Fremont, designed a website that lets teens earn some extra spending money while helping out neighbors and staying safe enough not to give their parents anxiety.
Like many inventions, Blockwork started with a problem. “A lot of teens in my area want to earn money, and a lot of neighbors need help with small jobs like raking leaves, washing a car, walking a dog or getting homework help for their kids.” says Kamat. “But there wasn’t an easy way to connect them that parents felt comfortable with. You either knock on doors or hope someone posts on a neighborhood group.”
While Kamat had taken a few programming classes, he learned a lot in the process of building the website. “It taught me a lot about how real apps handle accounts, payments and data, and how much work goes into the details people never see,” he says.
In addition to the how-to of building a website with a payment system, Kamat had to carefully think through all the legal ramifications of his platform. “I started by imagining everything that could go wrong for a teen, a parent or a neighbor.” he says. “And then made a rule for each one.”
Payments are managed through Stripe, and no money is released until both teen and neighbor sign off on the work. No teen can sign up without a parent’s approval, and parents have access to the account for monitoring.
Kamat also researched child labor laws by state, occasionally reaching out to state labor departments, following the stricter law whenever there was ambiguity. “For example,” he says, “teens under 16 can’t take jobs with power mowers, and no one under 18 can do ladder, roof or driving jobs. The app also tracks hours so teens stay within the limits for their age.”
Many bemoan that the digital age has produced hyper-monitoring that discourages young people from getting out and taking initiative to learn skills and interact with their community. But sometimes technology is also the solution to create a win-win for all.
blockwork.online
