Ever hear of Stardoll.com,
Zwinktopia, or Club Penguin? Your young kids probably have.
And if they have an Internet connection, your young ones
may have visited these Web sites and set up a profile. These
fun-filled sites have a lot in common. If you visit them,
you'll find bright colors, endearing cartoon characters,
and lots of chances for kids to "express themselves."
What exactly are these Web sites, and why are kids visiting
them in droves? They're social networking sites that look
and feel like candy-coated versions of MySpace for the grade-school
set.
MySpace and other social networking sites like Facebook,
Xanga, and Friendster have become phenomenally popular with
teens and young adults. MySpace alone has more than 100
million users, and Rupert Murdoch's international media
empire, News Corporation, laughed all the way to the bank
when they bought it for a mere $580 million. Why pay so
much money for a site where teenagers post pictures and
messages for their friends? MySpace is one of the places
where most teenagers hang out every day. Murdoch knew MySpace
would draw jillions of young eyeballs and hence jillions
of advertising dollars targeted at a prized demographic.
A quick tour of MySpace will convince any parent that the
site is not an appropriate Internet hangout for younger
kids. But the lure of new friends just beyond the computer
screen is strong for all kids, so cyber-entrepreneurs have
rushed to build social networking sites for toddlers, elementary-schoolers
and kids in middle school.
The sites are a mix of games, chat rooms, and virtual worlds
intended to introduce youngsters to age-appropriate social
networking. Kids can create cartoon versions of themselves,
make friends, decorate home pages, play games, and chat.
Some sites charge a monthly subscription, while others,
like Webkinz, link the sites to toys that kids and parents
buy in the real world.
The sites promise a safe environment for kids. The chat
modes limit the young visitors to a menu of greetings or
else screen for inappropriate language. They also block
any personal information. And the kid-friendly design seems
to be paying off. The small fry sites are taking off like
MySpace did with the teens. Club Penguin, for example, already
has four million subscribers.
While these sites may provide a fun introduction to the
Internet, MediaWise parents should take the following steps
to make sure social networking is okay for their kids. 1)
Avoid sites with advertising. Kids are already bombarded
with "buy me!" messages - they don't need more.
2) Remember there is no such thing as a perfectly safe site.
Make sure your kids know all the rules of Internet safety
and check up on their cyber-activity regularly. 3) Enforce
time limits so that Internet activity remains a small part
of kids' daily routines.
Used safely, these sites can be healthy fun for kids, and
an exciting new part of a MediaWise world.
David Walsh, Ph.D. is the founder of the
MediaWise Movement, a program of the National Institute
on Media and the Family (www.mediawise.org).
His latest book, No: Why Kids - of All Ages - Need to
Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It (Free Press) is
available in bookstores.
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