Awesomely Interesting Article on Virtual Worlds

Youth-Oriented Virtual Worlds to hit 20 Million Users in 2011
53% of all American child and teen Internet users will visit virtual worlds at least once a month by 2011 says eMarketer Senior Analyst Debra Aho Williamson. Right now that number sits at about 24%, with only 9% visiting a virtual world weekly. In her new [...]

Opinions: Harry Potter Vs the Purists.

In a recent interview, a character actor from Scotland who portrays the popular Inspector Rebus has launched an odd attack of sorts on those in the education field who favor children reading the Harry Potter novels. The Scotsman reports that actor Ken Stott (who also appeared in “The Girl in the Cafe” directed by David [...]

Facebook ain’t so safe for the tater tots!

Facebook falsely advertises the safety of its social network and fails to respond to complaints about obscene content and sexual predators in a timely manner, says the New York Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo’s office has launched an investigation into Facebook, charging that the site is rife with “widespread” pornographic content and that minors are [...]

The Littlest Pet Shop joins Virtual Worlds…

Hasbro Joins the Toy-Based Virtual Worlds Race
Hasbro has announced that it will be competing against girl-focused, toy-based worlds like BarbieGirls.com, Be-Bratz.com, and Ty-Girlz.com. Hasbro calls its Littlest Pet Shop line the “fastest growing girl toy brand,” and it will now be bringing them online with the VIPs (Virtual Interactive Pets). The VIPs follow the [...]

Buy One, Get One Free: Laptops to Educate the world!

Buy a Laptop for a Child, Get Another Laptop Free
By STEVE LOHR
One Laptop Per Child, an ambitious project to bring computing to the developing world’s children, has considerable momentum. Years of work by engineers and scientists have paid off in a pioneering low-cost machine that is light, rugged and surprisingly versatile. The early reviews have [...]

Careful UGC fans– there’s a reason why you have to take it seriously!

Creative Commons (And Virgin) Sued For Teen’s Photo Being Used In Ad Campaign
from the sue,-sue,-sue dept
Stack writes in to let us know that the family of a teenager in Texas has sued Creative Commons, Virgin Mobile Australia and Virgin Mobile USA because Virgin Mobile Australia happened to use a photo of the girl in an [...]

Kid Nation gets PANNED!

Anthem for ‘Nation’: All hype, no entertainment
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY
Leave it to CBS to create a better fuss than a show.
Last year, the network stoked a free-publicity controversy with Survivor’s racial divide; this year, it’s child labor and kiddie exploitation for Kid Nation. And once again, the show turned out to be far more [...]

Watched: Kid Nation Highlights

I watched it, did you?
I know there’s been a lot of poo-pooing about this show from like moment one.  I’ve been skeptical & excited & worried & confused, etc.  But I was hit with this devil’s advocate-like epiphany last week.  There are so many lovely people concerned with the overall ethics surrounding the concept & [...]

Rock on! Yomod hits the net

Yomod, A New Youth Entertainment Network Aimed At 8-14 Year Olds Debuts
New site allows kids to post and watch cool videos, find friends in a safe environment
LARKSPUR, Calif. – September 20, 2007 – Yomod, LLC announced today that it has launched its new safe social media site for kids 8-14 years old, Yomod.com. Designed to [...]

The Mod Squad: I love My field of choice.

Okay… I have to say it.
Within the last few months I’ve had the priviledge to run into community people… most of which were in “the biz” (as in entertainment). You’d think rival ‘biz’ companies people would be a bit more cautious… a bit more dog-eat-dog… ESPECIALLY since communities are the “it” thing of the [...]