Communities NOT for Kids/Tweens

A few weeks back I posted several Worthy Tween Sites (and since have added more). I received a fantastic response regarding the list (and still encourage you to add more in the comments if you believe them rockin’ & safe for the U13 set).Well, this weekend I was talking to some parents that had NO idea that certain “youthful looking” sites were not for their children. Hmm. This was problematic to me. It’s great to make sites aesthetic and appealing, but sometimes you’ve got to be really clear who your safe audience is, ya know?

So parents— Here are some sites that could be misconstrued as being for the tater tots, but in fact, are not for anyone under the age of 14:

• Meez
• WeeWorld
• Gaia
• GoPets
• Myspace
• Bebo
• Youtube
• Flip
• Runescape
• Cyworld
• Zwinky/Zwinktopia
• Facebook
• MTV Laguna Beach/Pimp My Ride/ The Hills/ My Super Sweet Sixteen
• Kingdom of Loathing (even though I love this game)
• Puzzle Pirates
• Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim (You MUST be 18+ for this site)
• AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), or MSN’s Live Messenger, or Yahoo’s Instant Messenger, or Skype, etc.
• dodgeball.com (which is owned by google– AND DOESN’T ASK FOR AGE UPON REGISTRATION!!!!! Be forewarned)
• Google chat/email
• WordPress, blogspot, livejournal, etc (you’d be surprised how many Club Penguin cheaters I get posting their cheats on their own blogs… and they’re only like 9, yikes)
• Habbo
• Teen Second Life/Second Life
• WOW: World of Warcraft
• flickr
• Twitter
• Doppleganger
• There.com
• Faketown
• Zigvid

More to come as I think of them. Best of luck!

Clarity: I genuinely like most of these sites. I’m only calling attention to them because they are SPECIFICALLY NOT FOR ANYONE UNDER 13 YEARS OF AGE (and sometimes 14/15/15 years of age). It’s always good to skim the privacy policy for info on age limitations. You don’t want your 8 year old talking to some 27 year old guy. Ya know?