Kids, Coppa, and Communities

I get asked a lot in media interviews about how safe certain sites are for kids and tweens (under 13). What I say is that while no site is 100 percent “safe,” in that an adult could possibly sneak on posing as a child or that your child might be bullied in an online community. But I definitely think sites that are expressly for kids under 13 are going to do everything they can to protect the kids on their services. Why? Because if kids under 13 are their primary audience, they have to get permission from parents for them to collect personal information when they register (it’s the law), and because if something happens to a child on their site, it could destroy their business. Most of these sites restrict what kids can say to each other in text chats and have active community managers engaged on the site for kids to turn to if something doesn’t feel kosher.That said, I’m not saying the owners and operators of sites for teens 13 and up (where teens are their primary audience) aren’t doing what they can to make their sites safe. But it’s easier to put a lot more disclaimers out there when you have a site where 14 year olds can interact with 25 year olds on the same service. And, when you have millions of users like MySpace or Facebook uploading thousands of photos and videos or posting blog entries every hour of every day, you just can’t screen it all.

What’s confusing for a lot of parents are the sites that look like they are for kids but really aren’t. A lot of these virtual worlds use avatars that look like they would be popular with younger children and tweens. Sites like Zwinktopia, Gaia Online, WeeWorld, IMVU and Habbo Hotel. Parents: These sites are for teens 13 and up. You can find this out by reading the site’s privacy policy. Every site has a privacy policy — you can usually find it in a text link at the very bottom of the web page. It’s a lot of legalese and disclaimers, but it will say whether the site is for teens 13 and up, and if it does allow kids under 13, it will talk about the need to get your permission before they can collect your child’s personal information. The media might refer to the sites I listed as “tween sites,” but they are really teen sites. Part of being a totally wired parent means doing your own investigation (by clicking the site’s privacy policy) to make sure a site your child may be attracted to (because of how it looks) is really appropriate for them to hang out on. For a quick cheat sheet, check out this list.

Totally Wired

Amen! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMEN!

technorati tags:tweens, youth, social, networking, socialnetworks, virtual, world, parents, COPPA, safety

Zwinky is gaining speed

IAC/InteractiveCorp may have disappointed Wall Street with its second quarter results yesterday but the IAC Q2 2007 Earnings Call was revealing in that the company’s Virtual Worlds business was thriving. It’s Zwinky.com now has more than 8 million registered users who an average user session of 64 minutes and who have generated more than 15 million transactions using Zwinky virtual currency inside the virtual world of Zwinktopia. Zwinky is a $100 million a year business due to how it forces users to download a browser toolbar for Ask.com. And that is ad revenue only - not ecommerce or virtual item revenue.

From the Earnings Call:

* Zwinky.com now has over eight million registered users, spending on average 64 minutes on the site each session.

* The recent April launch of the Zwinky Virtual World, Zwinktopia, has led to over 15 million transactions using the Zwinky virtual currency called Z-Bucks. In addition to monetizing through search, there are clearly e-commerce opportunities with Zwinky, as well.

From the NY Times:

The catch is to use any of Zwinky.com services, you have to download a toolbar that will install in your Web browser that prominently features a box for searches (by, of course, Ask). The advertising revenue from these searches has become a $100 million a year business, said the chief executive of IAC’s consumer applications and portals division, which includes FunWebProducts.

Virtual Worlds News: IAC’s Zwinky.com Tops 8 Million registered users, $100 Mil In revenue

Yay! Congrats Zwinktopia & Zwinky.com! I have not jumped deeply into your world, I apologize. Why? Because to get INTO Zwinktopia you must download the app into your browser, where it traces your movements online and such.  THAT, my friends, is a creepy/marketing invasion.  Not so cool.

However, 64 minutes?! 64 minutes is fantastic (still got a ways to go to reach Second Life’s 2 hours, or WOW’s eternity– that’s a joke).

Some people rate websites on unique visitors– to me, that’s just marketing. It’s the average amount of time on the site that I find important. Why? Because it means that not ONLY are staying online because they have found something worthy of (wasting) time. If you don’t like a site– you usually don’t stick around for hours.

I certainly hope this time average doesn’t have anything to do with the browser add-on. Fingers crossed. I’ll have to dig deeper on that question.

I DO see Zwinky commercials all over the place– well done marketing team. This is kinda exciting! Why? Because virtual worlds are gaining real world power. They’re worth notice. They’re worth invitation. They’re worth advertising in a medium other than the web.

But I do have to stress– Although Zwinktopia is making strides with the promotion & value of online communities & virtual worlds, it is NOT for Tweens or kids. U13 are NOT allowed into Zwinktopia (but they lie because it looks like they should be able to join… and parents don’t stop them, because– again– it LOOKs like it’s meant for U13). I apologize for pointing this out randomly– but it’s important to note for people of the parental persuasion, ya dig?

technorati tags:virtual, worlds, virtualworlds, zwinky, zwinktopia, parents

Monday Ramble: Sign of the Times…

“The Preserving Virtual Worlds project will explore methods for preserving digital games and interactive fiction. Major activities will include developing basic standards for metadata and content
representation and conducting a series of archiving case studies for early video games, electronic literature and Second Life, an interactive multiplayer game,” announced the Library of Congress last week. The argument made for metadata standards is that they “increase greatly the chances that the digital content of today will survive to become America’s cultural patrimony tomorrow.” Although the Library is looking to include all forms of electronic content, that’s one more argument for exploring open standards in virtual worlds. To explore content preservation across multiple industries, the initiative was awarded $2.15 million.

Virtual Worlds News: Library of Congress to Preserve Virtual Worlds

Thought it was worth sharing. It’s kinda mind-blowing to think about all the possibilities that Virtual Worlds, Online Communities, and the current tech trends of today are affecting our youth…

Part of me thinks, “Oh, what a wonderfully spoiled generation to have EVERYTHING at their fingertips.” And the other half knows that today’s youth will always be striving for the next best thing… spoiling future generations with their geniosity.

With all of the importance put on community & worldly socialization… you can’t help but wonder… what will these implementations be on youth? What importance will they draw? What will become retro, and what will become survive the test of time?

When I was young– the big thing was cultural diversity. It had this “new trend” feel to it (that and the fact my parents would tell us, as they taught us new things, how it was different for them).  Teaching kids spanish, interacting with different cultures, etc…

And now… Now you see wonderful families of all sorts… and no one blinks an eye.
I grew up in a prodominanetly white community… but with a good moral foundation from my parents and Jim Henson’s Sesame Street (don’t laugh, I’m serious– Pigs & Frogs in love… inconcievable! Or is it?), I never thought much about the introduction of new races into the various elements of my life. It seemed exciting (and to this day, I crave travel because I see the value in diversity).

Simple child mentality: I loved Sesame Street, watched it all the time, saw muppets of every hue interacting… learning from one another, socializing and getting to do new things together… Seeing one another’s differences and loving them for it.  That was a profound effect on me as a child.

Today, there is still emphasis on diversity… but it’s not so seperate. All kids get to watch & interact with Dora as she speaks other languages, and Sesame Street– it’s not them telling us about kids who speak spanish, they actually have spanish speaking main-character muppets.

The thread of progression & learning was started years ago, and it’s still spun today.

And now we have this emphasis on worldly communication through socialization and technology– what will happen with this thread? How far will it go? How fast? What next?

When you actually sit and ponder the excitement today, it’s worth a heavy-hearted sigh… oh the children today, how wonderfully spoiled they are!!! May they plunder and progress with the best of intentions and the greatest of goals!

technorati tags:youth, virtual, worlds, online, community, kids, technology, sesame, street, muppets, henson, language, 80’s, progression, life, learning, education