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Safe Social Networking Sites Kids Love

By Michelle Hainer

When Rachel Sarah, of Oakland, Calif, first heard about Club Penguin, a social networking site for kids, she had no idea what it was. "My daughter kept asking me if she could use it," recalls Sarah. Not sure if her daughter, who's under age 13, was too young to be on the web, Sarah started polling parents at her daughter's school.

"They all had terrific things to say about the site, so I decided to check it out," she says. "There aren't any ads and the site seems really safe and well monitored. It seems really fun and innocent." Sarah now even plays games on the site with her daughter.

Club Penguin is just one of a number of new social networking sites targeted at just preteens. Most of the sites allow kids as young as 8-years-old to create an avatar, or character, that roams through virtual worlds and interacts with other users by having real time chats. Some of the sites also include games that users can play to win currency to buy accessories for their avatar.

Before your kids log on to a social network, here's what you need to know about some of the leading sites and how they work:

CLUB PENGUIN

• Age group: 8-14, although older kids are able to join. Parents must sign their kids up if they're under 13. Membership is $5.95 per month for premium access, which allows kids to customize their penguins.
• How it works: Each user is given a penguin avatar that can interact with the other penguins on the site. Kids can play games and earn coins that they can use to buy accessories for their penguin or furniture for their igloo.
• What kids will like about it: The penguins are simple and cute. Kids can customize the look of their own penguin with colors and accessories. Plus, kids will like the very "grown-up" tasks of decorating their igloos and meeting penguin friends for coffee or tea.
• Privacy and safety features: Parents can choose between the Standard Safe-Chat, which allows kids to type their own chat messages, or The Ultimate Safe-Chat, which restricts them to pre-written words or phrases, like "Hello" or "What's up?" "Club Penguin has really strong filters, so you won't need to worry about kids swearing or going crazy," says Anastasia Goodstein, author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens are Really Doing Online (St. Martins Press).

WEBKINZ

• Age group: 6-13, although adults can also log on.
• How it works: In order to enter the Webkinz world, you need to buy an actual Webkinz stuffed animal. (Store info is available on the web site. They usually retail for around $14.) Each animal comes with a code that grants access to the site.
• What kids will like about it: Not only will they have a new toy to play with offline, but their stuffed animals will come alive online. They can buy food for their pet, decorate its room and win KinzCash by playing arcade games.
• Privacy and safety features: Like the other sites, WebKinz also has a chat feature. Parents can choose between the KinzChat, which uses pre-written words or phrases and the KinzChat Plus, where users are restricted to words or phrases listed in the site's dictionary. Children must have their parents consent to access this area. (Kids need to provide their parents email address and must wait for the parent to reply to Webkinz's request before they'll be let in.)

WHYVILLE

• Age group: The site's cartoon design appeals to kids, but anyone can register at Whyville. In compliance with a federal law -- the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) -- children under 13 are required to get their parents permission before signing up (this is true for any web site that solicits personally identifiable information from kids).
• How it works: Whyville bills itself as a virtual world for kids. On the site, kids create their avatars and can travel through Whyville's beaches, boutiques and clubs chatting with friends.
• What kids will like about it: In addition to purchasing face parts for their avatars, Whyville users can earn "clams," the site's currency, by starting their own business, playing games, or accomplishing tasks (like sorting food or recycling in the cafeteria). "Whyville is great for kids with imagination," says Goodstein. It's also educational. For example, a fictional hurricane hit Whyville as part of the launch of the site's Climate Center, which helps kids learn about global warming.
• Privacy and safety features: Before kids are allowed to interact with other users on Whyville, they must obtain what's called a Chat License. To do so, they need to pass a test, with questions like "If someone asks for your phone number, what's the best response?" Or if a user is behaving badly, kids can create a 911 report about them. Also, so-called City Workers police the site to make sure no one's getting out of line.

Sarah, for one, limits her daughter's Club Penguin use to a couple of hours a week, but overall she's happy to have found a web site that's both fun and educational. "My daughter is improving her math skills because she's learning to save money to buy things and she's typing notes to the other penguins," she says. "She's developing her online skills in a safe way."