BCC’s Booming youth VWs

But casual games and the appearance of the Nintendo Wii have changed that profile and now it looks like it is about to change again.

Research suggests that there are about

158 online games and virtual worlds in development or up and running designed specifically for children.

While some of that total are recognisable games, most should be classified as virtual worlds, said Joey Seiler, editor of Virtual Worlds News, who drew up the exhaustive list.

Although these worlds, such as Club Penguin and Neopets, have games in them they are more an environment children can explore via their avatar.

“There are things to play with, like monkey bars or virtual snowballs, but it’s up to the kids to figure out what to do with them,” said Mr Seiler.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Boom times for virtual playgrounds

There’s tons to that article.  Go read. 

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Club Penguin’s Ways…

“I think one of the biggest challenges is the irresponsible nature with which our industry has taken care of kids for a long time - so there’s a great cynicism out there, and understandably so,” Merrifield told GamesIndustry.biz.

“I’m a parent myself, and part of why we created Club Penguin was my own frustration with what was out there.”

Merrifield also thinks that there is an over-reliance on technology that ignores the human element, which is why they’ve decided to devote two-thirds of the company’s staff to positions such as safety moderators and customer service.

“We know the limits of technology, even though I would put our filtering software up against anybody’s, especially because of that human element - we’re adding 500 to 1000 words every day to the filters, simply because of slang that works its way into the language.

“And every new pop song that comes out is inevitably going to reference something that was innocent the week before, but isn’t so much now,” Merrifield said.

The company faced a challenge trying to explain the concept to people who would try to compare it to Facebook or MySpace - the antithesis of Club Penguin, which encourages kids not to reveal any personal identifiable information.

MMO Week: Industry has been irresponsible with kids // News // GamesIndustry.biz

WOOT.  This is a solid, compact report from CP (thanks co-worker Brian, for passing this along). 

The #’s for their filters does NOT surprise me.  They have extensive chat choices in CP, and it almost feels at times that you can say just about anything.  They have a HUGE staff in their fortified HQ, all of whom spend their days just thriving with the site, rolling continuously with the punches, etc.  Rock stolid team. 

And the great thing about VW’s like CP is that it’s about identity exploration.  You are expected NOT to be you-as an identifiable individual- but you as you want to play.  It’s the imaginary you-as-a-penguin-blob.  All visual judgments are based on how you present yourself (which is usually as wacky as possible - I am in a squid suit at all times, some times with a tie, some times with a tennis racket…).  

Anyway, I thought the content of this article (namely the word to filter #’s) were impressive and great to share.

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Live Conference: Global Kids’ Digital Media Initiative

[conf] Live coverage of Logging into the Playground: How Digital Media are Shaping Children’s Learning

Watch the live stream from the First Annual Joan Ganz Cooney Center Symposium focusing on the Impact of Digital Media in educating children event “Logging into the Playground: How Digital Media are Shaping Children’s Learning” here:

Global Kids’ Digital Media Initiative

Go check it out if you have the time today.  Apparently there’s a possibility of The Electric Company making some sort of return? 

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