It takes a village to raise a child and two heads are better than
one. Our experts contribute to our content and allow our smarts
to stay up-to-date.
Our Experts
Estée Cockcroft
Founder

Screen Smarts was born in the Eastern Cape when one mom’s Google search for a digital life skills workshop aimed at teens, yielded no results. The need for this search stemmed from her teen daughter having a rather distressing WhatsApp-wobble when explicit content and defamatory voice notes were shared on a group.
"Our children are growing up in the 4th industrial revolution. Teaching them to live healthy, wholesome and balanced lives amidst rapid change is imperative for the overall mental health of society.” she says.
She holds a B.A. (Hons) Marketing Communication from the University of Johannesburg with Psychology as an extra subject.
She has 11 years’ experience working in advertising, branding, reputation management and PR. In 2016 Estée published her first novel: The Eye in the yellow bow tie, a coming-of-age tale with bullying as a central theme.
She established Screen Smarts in 2018 collaborating with Educational Phycologists, Social Media experts, Tech gurus and Educators to improve the media landscape our children grow up in. Estée is an avid public speaker and an enthusiastic trail runner.
Ajit Gopalakrishnan
Digital Wellbeing

Ajit Gopalakrishnan is the head of Odin Education, a division of Jendamark Automation. His work experience spans several industries and functions, such as education, engineering, marketing, factory and project management. Ajit holds a degree in engineering from UCT and a master’s degree from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
He is passionate about providing access to education technology to under-privileged children in South Africa. And has a keen interest in ensuring positive use of technology for all our children.
One of his favourite quotes is one by Sir Ken Robinson: "There is nothing social about social-media". He is driven by the goal to "Make a difference, or die trying" in society.
Elzaan Cothill
Educational Psychologist

Elzaan Cothill is a Counselling Psychologist in Port Elizabeth, working mainly with children and adolescents. Over the past 10 years, she has practiced in various contexts - private and organisational - but has entered the education space on a full time basis since 2021.
Being a mom of two and working with children and teens on a daily basis at Theodor Herzl Schools, she has a special interest in child and adolescent development and intervention, particularly with regards to how they cope in the school context. She comes face to face with teens in mental health crisis every day, and has experienced first-hand how social media and smart-phone usage has a profound impact on development, self-regulation and coping skills.
Her passion in this sphere has inspired her to contribute to academic research in order to better understand how we should assist teens to navigate the cyberworld safely and successfully
Prof. Kerry Lynn Thomson
Cyber Safety

Kerry-Lynn is a Professor in the School of Information Technology and the Director of the Centre for Research in Information and Cyber Security, or CRICS, at the Nelson Mandela University. She is also the national chair of the IITPSA’s Special Interest Group on Cybersecurity and an NRF C-rated researcher.
Kerry-Lynn grew up in Uitenhage and matriculated from Riebeek College Girls High School in 1998. After working in the Cisco Networking Academy at the University, she completed her Doctorate in Information Technology in 2008.
“Helping shape the next generation of professionals in information technology, and in particular cybersecurity, in our increasingly interconnected world is my passion, together with researching in the area of cybersecurity awareness.”
Elzabé Olivier
Psychologist

Elzabé Olivier holds a Masters Degree in counselling psychology from the University of Port Elizabeth and completed her internship at Hunters Craig Psychiatric hospital.
For the past 9 years she has been operating in a full-time private practice capacity consisting of an adult and child client base in Port Elizabeth. She has been involved in numerous programs including Employee Assistance, empowerment of unemployed youth as well as social and emotional skills training for children in group format.
Yolandi Allen
Digital Life Skills

Yolandi Allen is a social media expert and consultant with over 8 years of experience in the industry. During this time, she has helped a number of people and businesses build strong, authentic brands online.
She is passionate about training young graduates on the principles of social media best practices to help them navigate the digital landscape with thought and integrity. Her passion is fuelled by her assertive, 8 year-old daughter.
Louis Zietsman
Mental Health

Louis Zietsman has been working as a Registered Counsellor in private practice since 2017, and completed his training at the Nelson Mandela University where he qualified with a 4 year BPsych (Counselling) Degree in 2014, that included a 6 month internship at the Nelson Mandela University Psychology Clinic (Uclin) working with children of all ages. He also recently completed his Masters Degree in Counselling Psychology at the Nelson Mandela University, which included a 6 month internship at Life Hunters Craig Psychiatric hospital as well as 6 months at Nelson Mandela University Student Counselling Centre.
Louis has a particular interest in childhood/adolescent development as well as enhancing the learning potential of children from Grade R onwards and has been involved in life and study skills programmes in schools across Port Elizabeth for several years. He has alsobeen published in the SA Journal of Industrial Psychology in the field of career psychology. He is currently working at St. George’s Preparatory School, as part of their Learning Support team as well as the Child Wellness Centre, which is a multidisciplinary child therapy centre focusing on childhood/adolescent assessments and therapeutic interventions developed and implemented by a multidisciplinary team of health professionals in Port Elizabeth
Naomi Holdt
Educational Psychologist

Naomi Holdt is a mom of two inspirational little humans. She holds a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology from the University of KwaZulu Natal.
She also holds a Bachelors degree in Primary Education, and prior to studying her Masters, she was an educator for seven years, teaching children in various contexts. For the past 12 years she has been in full-time private practice and has a special focus on Parenting Consultations. She also conducts therapy with young adults, teens and children. Naomi is a passionate writer and a dynamic speaker, and regularly speaks at events for parents, educators and corporate sectors.
Emily Smith
Kidfluencer

Emily Smith is a twelve year old girl who is passionate about Jesus, family, dancing (ballet), adventure, sports, drama and people.
Her favourite subject in school is maths.
Emily's passion for reading lead to her being a book reviewer for various publishing companies in South Africa! Yes, books can open doors.
Emily is a Kidfluencer on Instagram and content creation is how she tells stories. You can follow her on Instagram @emiliedjie
Words she lives by is:
I am who God says I am
Epehsians 2:10
Natalie Macleod
Tech-wise parent

My name is Natalie Macleod and mother to two beautiful busy boys.
My biggest moment to remove myself from social media was when I was pregnant and all I did was scroll Facebook. What example are we showing our children?
It was then that we decided to live life as present as possible, without having the need to show the world what we or our children are doing, to live in the moment for the moment, not for the comments or likes.
I never wanted my children to place their value of themselves on screens.
We believe in as much outdoor activity as possible, we spend money on experiences not things. We believe that by exposing them to real life as much as we can we are creating happy healthy minds.
I do see the difference immediately when my boys have too much screen time, they are frustrated and agitated.
Dinner time, we sit at a table, no tv, no phones, we are strict with that as this is precious family time. We believe this enables stronger family bond.
We as parents try limit our screen time ourselves so that the boys do not stare at two parents stuck behind a screen , as it’s all very well if you not letting your child on a screen but if you not setting the example, our actions speak louder than words.