Communities NOT for Kids/Tweens
Posted by Izzy Neis on July 5, 2007
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
- 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
- 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?
mark said
Plz register for ClutterMe when it becomes available. I can guarantee that it will make the list.
Shaping Youth » Virtual Worlds As Learning Environs For Global Kids said
[...] along with her ‘worthy tween picks’ as well as a heads-up from Izzy on communities NOT for “U-13″ (’tater tots’ as she calls them) plus, a partial list of up and comer virtual worlds [...]
Kelly Czarnecki said
Teen Second Life is for 13-17 year olds: http://teen.secondlife.com/whatis
mogwog said
I disagree that that Dragon fable is not for kids, .There is no blue language, Being a single player game there is no interaction or worry of contact with other players. My son who is twelve plays the game and I rather him play that game then some Kid games where they interact with others not knowing if that pixel charactor being over friendly is actually a Adult stalking the site. Yes there is violence in the games battles but it is done with out the graphical blood and gore. The AE team keeps all there games profanity free aand make all there games in a clean manner.
Izzy Neis said
Thanks for the update, Mogwog. They have changed their policy with COPPA since the last time I was in their PP/TOS. Dragonfable has been removed. Thanks for the heads up.