Clearly children want to use social media, and the evidence suggests
that they will do so despite COPPA (The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) or the many justified parental fears that helped create it. Parents can, however, make the experience safer by directing their children to one of these five age-appropriate social networks.
Club Penguin – is the No. 1 virtual world for children with a reputation for providing fun for kids and peace of mind for parents.In March 2005, the founders of Club Penguin set out to create an ad-free, virtual world where children could play games, have fun, and interact. Club Penguin is privileged to be part of the Walt Disney Company, which shares its unwavering commitment to creating a fun and safe online entertainment experience for children and families.
Disney.com/Create – is a creative platform offering tools that enable children to develop original works of art, including digital paintings, video mashups, comic books, animated pets and more.
Disney.com/Games – is a kid-friendly online destination with casual games featuring a number of favorite Disney characters.
Disney.com/Videos – is a family-friendly destination featuring original Disney web series, Disney music videos and videos of favorite Disney characters.
What’s What is a fun Facebook alternative for kids, complete with face-recognition login.This kids-only social network is fun, safe and secure. A webcam is required to log in with biometric facial recognition for added account security. Once logged in, kids can customize their MePage, watch videos, play games, take polls and earn MePoints.
ScuttlePad - Age 7+ Social network with training wheels is safe but limited. The site shows only very basic profile information for its users, such as a first name, picture, and state and country. Users can upload pictures, send messages, create status updates and comment on other users' content. The site seems to guarantee a safe and appropriate environment for children to learn about social networking
giantHello - giantHello.com is a social gaming network for kids age 8 to 17.giantHello has all the features of a real social network.This online social network for kids (formerly known as Facechipz) requires parental consent for kids under 13, and it's a closed network. Kids can only communicate with people they have invited as friends, via email or a code printed and delivered in person.
Skid-e-Kids - SkiddyKids is an on-line social network exclusively for pre-teen girls ages 5-12.
it is safe, fun and educational. Our aim is to provide a safe harbor for the pre-middle school years that is an enriching and positive home for young girls to freely and safely socialize, share their ideas and achievements, play games and better understand what others their age are interested in.
Skidekids has been endorsed by (CIS) National communities in Schools and Georgia Board of Educators.
Imbee - A Free Social Networking Site for Kids.This site not only provides a safe place for 8-14 year olds to network, it also provides a way for teachers to help their students learn in a fun and unique way.
Children need a parents permission to participate on imbee. Once they sign up, imbee also provides activities that are fun for the whole family. Parents will be able to see their child's work and feel confident that their children are safe on this site.Kids can add lots of friends, but there is a special spot reserved for their top 6 friends. Friends can share photos, music, blogs, and can chat back and forth.
Club Penguin – is the No. 1 virtual world for children with a reputation for providing fun for kids and peace of mind for parents.In March 2005, the founders of Club Penguin set out to create an ad-free, virtual world where children could play games, have fun, and interact. Club Penguin is privileged to be part of the Walt Disney Company, which shares its unwavering commitment to creating a fun and safe online entertainment experience for children and families.
Disney.com/Create – is a creative platform offering tools that enable children to develop original works of art, including digital paintings, video mashups, comic books, animated pets and more.
Disney.com/Games – is a kid-friendly online destination with casual games featuring a number of favorite Disney characters.
Disney.com/Videos – is a family-friendly destination featuring original Disney web series, Disney music videos and videos of favorite Disney characters.
What’s What is a fun Facebook alternative for kids, complete with face-recognition login.This kids-only social network is fun, safe and secure. A webcam is required to log in with biometric facial recognition for added account security. Once logged in, kids can customize their MePage, watch videos, play games, take polls and earn MePoints.
ScuttlePad - Age 7+ Social network with training wheels is safe but limited. The site shows only very basic profile information for its users, such as a first name, picture, and state and country. Users can upload pictures, send messages, create status updates and comment on other users' content. The site seems to guarantee a safe and appropriate environment for children to learn about social networking
giantHello - giantHello.com is a social gaming network for kids age 8 to 17.giantHello has all the features of a real social network.This online social network for kids (formerly known as Facechipz) requires parental consent for kids under 13, and it's a closed network. Kids can only communicate with people they have invited as friends, via email or a code printed and delivered in person.
Skid-e-Kids - SkiddyKids is an on-line social network exclusively for pre-teen girls ages 5-12.
it is safe, fun and educational. Our aim is to provide a safe harbor for the pre-middle school years that is an enriching and positive home for young girls to freely and safely socialize, share their ideas and achievements, play games and better understand what others their age are interested in.
Skidekids has been endorsed by (CIS) National communities in Schools and Georgia Board of Educators.
Imbee - A Free Social Networking Site for Kids.This site not only provides a safe place for 8-14 year olds to network, it also provides a way for teachers to help their students learn in a fun and unique way.
Children need a parents permission to participate on imbee. Once they sign up, imbee also provides activities that are fun for the whole family. Parents will be able to see their child's work and feel confident that their children are safe on this site.Kids can add lots of friends, but there is a special spot reserved for their top 6 friends. Friends can share photos, music, blogs, and can chat back and forth.
Kidswirl - This website is an online social network for children to visit and have fun with friends. Kidswirl.com, is an online community for children around the world.This website lets you register as a member for free, create a free personal profile and then, interact with other members. On Kids Wirl you can also post comments, add photos, videos and chat with fiends.
Everloop - Everloop calls itself a “social looping platform” that works by allowing creating a “privacy loop” around kids’ connections. Inside the loop, kids can participate in collaborative learning and school projects, connect with friends by posting pictures and sharing comments and personalize and decorate their profile.In order to join the site, a child needs a parent to register, and registration even requires a credit card number for security. Parents can then set up and control how much of their child’s activity they can see when they log in to their own account.
Yoursphere - YourSphere is a social networking site designed for users under the age of 18. YourSphere offers a free 30-day trial period and then paid membership if you want to continue using the site.Price is $39.95 a year or $4.95 a month for membership. Registered YourSphere users can create personalized profiles, post images and videos, blog, and send and receive messages, and connect with people from all over the world. YourSphere offers age-appropriate games and contests. Children can create groups called “Spheres” to display their interests.
iTwixie - iTwixie is the safest, most empowering place for tween girls to express their real selves, share their dreams, and start changing the world together.That’s because when a girl joins iTwixie, she instantly becomes part of a powerful community of girls from all over the planet, dedicated to bringing out the best in each other. At iTwixie.com, 100 percent of all posts, pictures, messages and comments are moderated by iTwixieAdmin. So you can let your daughters hang out with the coolest girls on the planet, knowing that iTwixieAdmin is always there making sure that everyone is having fun, staying safe and is kind and respectful.
GiantHello - giantHello.com a social gaming network designed primarily for kids.The site’s many cool features include: friending, customizable profile pages, internal messaging, photo uploading, (home page) status updates, web based IM, fan pages and casual games. Online safety is of great concern to giantHello, and every effort has gone into making the site safe for kids to connect with their friends. If a child wants to add a friend all they need to do is send a special coded email or print an invite to hand deliver. Strangers are not able to contact kids on giantHello because the site does not allow “Search.” Kids are only able to communicate with are their real friends: classmates, teammates, kids from camp, youth group and cousins – no fringe friends.
Kidsocial - Jabbersmack, a new kids’ destination created by Kidsocial, Inc., has a revolutionary approach to the Internet’s opportunities and realities. Instead of adding another individual site to cyberspace, which kids need to find, parents need to vet, Jabbersmack has invented a vertically integrated online destination that will aggregate hundreds of micro sites for kids ages 6-13 into a single supercenter. It’s the functional equivalent of a one-stop mall that replaces stores separated by countless miles. For kids, Jabbersmack is a rich environment populated with scores of micro sites offering educational activities, games, virtual worlds, videos and music, while also allowing them to virtual purchase goods and interact with their real-world friends. For children under age 13, the site is aspirational: it’s their own “Facebook-ish” hub for playing and communicating – but with the safety protections Facebook lacks for under-13-year-olds. For content owners around the world, Jabbersmack is an opportunity to create critical mass to attract users, keep them engaged, and make money. It’s also an efficient and cost-effective way to reach a global audience.
Kidzworld - KidzWorld is full of fun-filled, age-appropriate environments designed just for your kids! These children's services are high-energy experiences that include games, toys, prizes, multimedia, and a caring staff. Kidzworld.com is an excellent, safe website for kids and teens aged 9-17. Part of the website it making a profile for people to see. Profiles should give people a good first impression of you, so take the time to make it good.
Sweety High - The site aims to offer a tween-friendly and safe incentive-based environment promoting leadership and fair play while engaging with the real world, real-time. Game play is built around quests and achievements that reward self-expression and creativity and virtual currency is applied to prizes and unique opportunities for young girls with big aspirations.Parents of girls under 13 must approve their child’s membership, are given account access to "delete" inappropriate content and receive email updates on their child's recent activity. Using video, photos and written quests focused on acting, singing, dancing, journalism and animation, girls earn rewards, harvesting virtual “Hearts” to unlock exclusive programming such as the six-times-a-year “Be a Star” contest, as they work their skills up the 40 plus levels in the game.
Whyville.com - Free, designed for kids 8-15. Like Kidzworld or ClubPenguin, it involves playing games to earn virtual money (in this case, "clams") for use in building an avatar. Rather than being represented as a cartoon animal, Whyville members create avatars that represent their physical selves. That's one step closer to the vibe of more grown-up sites, but it's still more a virtual world/gaming space than a true social networking site.
Everloop - Everloop calls itself a “social looping platform” that works by allowing creating a “privacy loop” around kids’ connections. Inside the loop, kids can participate in collaborative learning and school projects, connect with friends by posting pictures and sharing comments and personalize and decorate their profile.In order to join the site, a child needs a parent to register, and registration even requires a credit card number for security. Parents can then set up and control how much of their child’s activity they can see when they log in to their own account.
Yoursphere - YourSphere is a social networking site designed for users under the age of 18. YourSphere offers a free 30-day trial period and then paid membership if you want to continue using the site.Price is $39.95 a year or $4.95 a month for membership. Registered YourSphere users can create personalized profiles, post images and videos, blog, and send and receive messages, and connect with people from all over the world. YourSphere offers age-appropriate games and contests. Children can create groups called “Spheres” to display their interests.
iTwixie - iTwixie is the safest, most empowering place for tween girls to express their real selves, share their dreams, and start changing the world together.That’s because when a girl joins iTwixie, she instantly becomes part of a powerful community of girls from all over the planet, dedicated to bringing out the best in each other. At iTwixie.com, 100 percent of all posts, pictures, messages and comments are moderated by iTwixieAdmin. So you can let your daughters hang out with the coolest girls on the planet, knowing that iTwixieAdmin is always there making sure that everyone is having fun, staying safe and is kind and respectful.
GiantHello - giantHello.com a social gaming network designed primarily for kids.The site’s many cool features include: friending, customizable profile pages, internal messaging, photo uploading, (home page) status updates, web based IM, fan pages and casual games. Online safety is of great concern to giantHello, and every effort has gone into making the site safe for kids to connect with their friends. If a child wants to add a friend all they need to do is send a special coded email or print an invite to hand deliver. Strangers are not able to contact kids on giantHello because the site does not allow “Search.” Kids are only able to communicate with are their real friends: classmates, teammates, kids from camp, youth group and cousins – no fringe friends.
Kidsocial - Jabbersmack, a new kids’ destination created by Kidsocial, Inc., has a revolutionary approach to the Internet’s opportunities and realities. Instead of adding another individual site to cyberspace, which kids need to find, parents need to vet, Jabbersmack has invented a vertically integrated online destination that will aggregate hundreds of micro sites for kids ages 6-13 into a single supercenter. It’s the functional equivalent of a one-stop mall that replaces stores separated by countless miles. For kids, Jabbersmack is a rich environment populated with scores of micro sites offering educational activities, games, virtual worlds, videos and music, while also allowing them to virtual purchase goods and interact with their real-world friends. For children under age 13, the site is aspirational: it’s their own “Facebook-ish” hub for playing and communicating – but with the safety protections Facebook lacks for under-13-year-olds. For content owners around the world, Jabbersmack is an opportunity to create critical mass to attract users, keep them engaged, and make money. It’s also an efficient and cost-effective way to reach a global audience.
Kidzworld - KidzWorld is full of fun-filled, age-appropriate environments designed just for your kids! These children's services are high-energy experiences that include games, toys, prizes, multimedia, and a caring staff. Kidzworld.com is an excellent, safe website for kids and teens aged 9-17. Part of the website it making a profile for people to see. Profiles should give people a good first impression of you, so take the time to make it good.
Sweety High - The site aims to offer a tween-friendly and safe incentive-based environment promoting leadership and fair play while engaging with the real world, real-time. Game play is built around quests and achievements that reward self-expression and creativity and virtual currency is applied to prizes and unique opportunities for young girls with big aspirations.Parents of girls under 13 must approve their child’s membership, are given account access to "delete" inappropriate content and receive email updates on their child's recent activity. Using video, photos and written quests focused on acting, singing, dancing, journalism and animation, girls earn rewards, harvesting virtual “Hearts” to unlock exclusive programming such as the six-times-a-year “Be a Star” contest, as they work their skills up the 40 plus levels in the game.
Whyville.com - Free, designed for kids 8-15. Like Kidzworld or ClubPenguin, it involves playing games to earn virtual money (in this case, "clams") for use in building an avatar. Rather than being represented as a cartoon animal, Whyville members create avatars that represent their physical selves. That's one step closer to the vibe of more grown-up sites, but it's still more a virtual world/gaming space than a true social networking site.