WildDad Founder Rob Cope
About WildDad
"Many of our kids are growing up online — having thousands of adventures in a fantasy world, but almost none in the real one.
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And while many parents hope their children will grow up resilient, resilience isn’t something that magically appears. It’s something that gets built through challenge, adventure, risk and real-world experience."
— Rob Cope
How WildDad Started
WildDad started with a simple idea:
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Many of us dads want to get our kids off the screens and back into real life — we’re just not always great at connecting with other dads and actually making it happen.
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WildDad helps connect dads, locally and across New Zealand, to get out with our kids for real adventures — exploring rivers, lighting fires, camping, learning skills and making the kind of memories kids carry for life.
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WildDad was started by Rob Cope, a father of four from New Zealand.
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Rob has always loved adventure. Years ago he created Project Wildman, encouraging men to gather around fires and talk honestly about life. He later hitchhiked around New Zealand — and across the United States — with a fridge to launch two books.
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In 2020 Rob and his wife Zareen released the documentary Our Kids Online, after travelling the world interviewing leading experts about how easily children are exposed to adult and harmful content online — and how easily predators can access them.
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Since then Rob has spoken to more than 40,000 parents across New Zealand, becoming one of the country’s leading parent educators on helping families navigate the digital world.
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WildDad grew out of that work.
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Because it’s not just about protecting our kids from the harms online.
It’s also about getting them off the screens and back into real life.
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