UPDATE: Understanding all sides of U13 communities

There are 2 main areas that I often see glazed over when designing communities that may be used by (or attract) people under 13 years old (U13), specifically in the US:Legal Concerns

• COPPA legislation is about access to private info for a specific population (U13’s). It is not about the content on your site (unless of course that content is the personal info of U13’s). The heart behind it is protecting kids, but the actual items on the checklist you need to verify that exist on your site are about limiting the access to those
  under 13.

• Because of this, in order to stay on the right side of the law, site operators need only to put the minimum barriers to entry they can and still stay in the right according to the law.

• This usually means a check box certifying that you are over 13, a message that says you have to be over 13 to join or a limited drop down menu for only ages above 13. By doing this, you are “restricting
  access” to only those people above the age of 13.

Yet, this does nothing to deter lying and it certainly does little for an explanation as to why you are putting this hurdle up in the first place. Which leads me to the other area that is often simply forgotten in the design process:

Ethical Concerns

• The other side of this is to really believe in the heart behind the legislation and make up for where it is lacking.

• If you are not able to manage an audience of under 13 year olds, this means putting the same barriers to entry up mentioned before, but explaining WHY they are there, urging the users not lie about their ages, detailing what will happen if they do and then actually caring out those consequences when needed.

• If you are targeting under 13 year olds, you need to decide whether you have everything as canned communication, whether you have the ability to monitor all the content before it goes live, whether you have the ability to obtain verifiable parental consent and the ability to keep a staff managed and up to date on how to best manage and help your community.

The Legalities and Ethics of U13 Community Hurdles « Joi Podgorny

MAKE SURE YOU CLICK THAT LINK TO READ THE REST OF JOI’S THOUGHTS REGARDING THESE ISSUES. She’s brilliant and knows her stuff.

Here are several links to my thoughts on similar Tween/Community (each play out like a field diary from someone who HANDS ON deals with protecting and empowering a kids community) issues form the past:

“Sow Good Services…”

“Level With Your Child…”

Media Responsibility, Myspace, and Youngin’s

Virtual Life, The Sims, and Teaching the Future

More Kids Social Networking

“To Find a Friends One Must…”

User Generated Content Is Totally Square Man

“Some Jerk Infected The Internet…”

“If Our American Way of Life Fails…”

“We Worry About What A Child”

Tween Rule: TV & Web

Dodgeball Gives Me An Ulcer

Youtube and Companies That Cater to U13 Crowds

IM Stalking Takes a Whole New Level

Zwinktopia Stomps into Tweens Virtual Worlds

Worthy Teen Sites

Kajeet’s New Buddy…

Hanging With the Tater Tots

The Cyber of Cyberbullying

CNet’s Guide to Kid Safety for Parents

Teen Crunch, ahead of th curve?

The Educational Coolness of Various Kid Virtual Worlds

Teens Are Going to Mess Up Regardless!

Teens And Virtual Worlds More on the Future

MTV’s Virtual Madness, How Long Can It Last?

Teens + Tech = Present & Future

Corp Thoughts On Tweens and Social Networking

Age Verification & Parental Control…

Money and Social Networking for Kids

Curious: Parents Trust Moderators?

Testing and Improving Communities and Websites

Youth Marketing & UGC, Is It Right?

UGC and the Community

Branded Communities and the Things To Know

Screening Youth: Good or Bad

Danger! That in-ter-net is after your children!

Online Community Department Vs The World

Virtual Goodies

Biz Eye Of Mordor on Your Children

Communties NOT for Kids/Tweens

technorati tags:tweens, safety

In honor of my chronic Harry Potteritis

The “Harry Potter Effect”

Via Cynopsis: Kids!, a new press release came out today from The Nielsen Company providing a handy run-down of the impact Harry Potter has had on the entertainment industry since his first appearance (which they’ve dubbed “The Harry Potter Effect”). Here’s an excerpt of some of the key stats:

– Book sales (Nielsen BookScan) - Since 1998, when Nielsen began measuring book sales in the United Kingdom, the six Harry Potter books have sold more than 22.5 million copies in the UK alone. In the United States, the Harry Potter titles published after 2001 have sold more than 27.7 million copies.
– Box Office sales (Nielsen EDI) - Combined, the first four Harry Potter films have grossed more than $3.5 billion worldwide. The first film, “Harry Potter and The [Philosopher's] Stone,” is the fourth all-time highest grossing film worldwide.
– Advertising (Nielsen Monitor-Plus) - In the U.S., ad spend for all Harry Potter branded merchandise (including books, movies, DVDs and other promotional products) totals $269.1 million from 1998 to date. Outside of the U.S. from 2000 to date, $119.3 million was spent on total advertising for all Harry Potter branded merchandise in Canada, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, and the U.K.
– DVD/Video sales (Nielsen VideoScan) -All three Harry Potter DVDs/Videos - [Philosopher's] Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Prisoner of Azkaban - debuted at #1 and remained the #1 family film for the first 3 weeks of each release.
– Internet Traffic (Nielsen//NetRatings) - The Warner Bros. “Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix” Web site drew 446,762 unique visitors in May 2007. — Internet Buzz (Nielsen BuzzMetrics)
– On blogs, the final book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” is generating more “buzz” than the latest movie installment, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” — Music sales (Nielsen SoundScan)
– The four Harry Potter soundtracks combined have sold more than 1.1 million copies in the U.S. and almost 100,000 copies in Canada since the initial release back in October 2001. There have been a total of 180,000 downloads of individual songs that tied to the four Harry Potter soundtracks.
– TV ratings (Nielsen Media Research)
- Since 2002, the Harry Potter movies have aired on U.S. television a total of 366 times.
– Moviegoer Profile (Nielsen Cinema)
- A recent survey of moviegoers shows 51% of persons age 12+ are aware that the new book is coming out next month. Twenty-eight percent of persons 12+ in the U.S. have read one or more of the previous Harry Potter books, and 15% have read all of the Harry Potter books-to-date.
– Consumer (ACNielsen)
- More than $11.8 million has been spent by U.S. consumers on Harry Potter-licensed trademark cookies, candy and gum products since June 2002.

Gamine Expedition: The “Harry Potter Effect”

Many thanks to Sara over at Gamine Expedition for pointing the way to that fun tidbit.  As always, Sara, you rock!!

So, I spent the weekend ill (thanks to a Citrus allergy) and planted in front of the television to watch ABC Family’s Harry Potter weekend.  And MANY do I remember why I love that series.  It’s funny to watch the progression of the movies & the talent.  Chris Columbus, first to helm the movie franchise for Warnerbros, did a reasonable job.  I saw him at both world premieres in London, but in Typical “izzy” fashion, I freaked him out with my odd ball knowledge (I asked how often he gets back to Chicago… his wife is from the area. How I know that? I have no bloody idea).

As for the books– HOLY COW I AM SO PUMPED FOR THE 7TH.  I refuse to speak any further of my theories about who did what is who and how and will he die?  I also refuse to ride the band wagon of “me first, me first”.  I will watch the movie when the crowds die down.  I will read the books when I can (and not stress out about being the first to finish).

Anyway– my only sad comment is… WHY ON EARTH DID DANIEL RADCLIFFE MAKE THE STUPID MISTAKE OF TALKING ABOUT HIS PRIVATE LIFE in a magazine while promoting a youth branded movie?!  Don’t know what I’m talking about?  Check out this article on femalefirst.co.uk (let’s hope they misquoted).  Here is a general idea of what his speaks about (gets a bit more in detail on that site):

The 17-year-old actor insists he is too young to settle down and is keen to take advantage of any groupies he has.

Dear lord. I bet WarnerBros had a FIELD DAY with that interview.  At least Emma Watson (Hermoine) figured out which friends to keep and which to get rid of– thanks to her so called “buddies” leaking pictures of her underaged drinking a year or two ago.  Gotta love the Rupert… he seems to be the only one I’ve not heard of as making any public mistakes.  But I could be wrong.

Alas, let’s end this on a bright note… HARRY POTTER MONTH ROCKS!  Lol.

technorati tags:warnerbros, harrypotter, jkrowling, entertainment, danielradcliffe, emmawatson