A CORK start-up is hoping to capitalise on the privacy backlash against Facebook by launching a service for parents to securely and privately share pictures and videos of their children.

Tweekaboo, established by consulting engineer Eugene Murphy, launched publicly last September, and has already signed up users in 28 countries despite no investment in marketing.

“The next wave of social networking is going to be private social networking,” said Murphy.

Describing the service as a “photo and video diary that tells the story of your child’s life”, Tweekaboo has developed an iPhone app that allows users to quickly upload photos and videos on the go.

Tweekaboo’s research shows that 80 per cent of the users of the site are using their iPhone as their primary camera.

Murphy, who has four children, said the idea for the service came to him after the birth of his first child and the amount of texts, photos and videos that he accumulated on his phone.

“Our mobiles tell a great story because they are where the stories are being captured, but we are not backing them up.”

He believes parents are reluctant to use services like Facebook to share pictures and videos of their children as they only want them to be seen by a small circle of family and friends. “Our service is 100 per cent secure and private,” said Murphy. “People can share just on Tweekaboo or put some of the content on Facebook.”

Murphy has funded Tweekaboo from his own resources to date, but said he has had “positive engagements” with angel investors and seed funds, and expects to secure an initial funding round early in the new year.

Tweekaboo will next release a version of its app for iPads and will follow that with an Android version. Nine people are working on Tweekaboo on a full- or part-time basis, and Murphy says he “has a team identified and ready to go when funding is in place”.

Tweekaboo will make money by selling additional services such as the ability to upload longer videos and printing physical diaries.