Second Life for Kids
October 28, 2009
Laurielle Olejniczak
Another form of social media that continues to grow in popularity and is especially effective for reaching children is online gaming and virtual worlds. On such web sites, people can connect with each other while escaping the realities of life, even if it is only temporary. One of the most well-known of these virtual worlds is Second Life, self-proclaimed “the Internet’s largest user-created, 3D virtual world community.” In Second Life, “residents” basically maintain a second life online, going to work, playing games, and communicating with fellow residents.
A great example of another virtual world is Disney’s Club Penguin. Launched in 2005, Club Penguin was created as a kind of Second Life for kids. Club Penguin began as an independent site for its first two years and joined ranks with Disney in 2007. Since joining Disney, Club Penguin has established itself as an online gaming community where children can interact safely without the bombardment of third-party advertisements.
To better understand the features of Club Penguin and its appeal to parents and children alike, I decided to play lead investigator for this post and opened a Club Penguin account myself. When creating your account, Club Penguin requires minimal personal information and a parent’s e-mail address is necessary to activate the account. Also, there is a great feature regarding chat options where you can choose between Ultimate Safe Chat, which only allows the use of a menu of communicative actions, and Standard Safe Chat, which is still filtered but allows for more personal interaction.
In exploring the virtual world of Club Penguin, I found it to be quite similar to Second Life in that members can decorate their own homes (igloos), play games, and chat with each other. In my opinion, the best part about Club Penguin is its lack of advertising on the site. Being used to seeing web sites full of advertisements, it was strange to see one without any flashing banners and obnoxious pop-ups. I think it’s great that Disney is helping provide a site that leaves third-party advertising behind and just lets kids be kids.
Below I’ve included a few screenshots of Club Penguin as well as an interesting video about the expansion of Club Penguin into a corresponding merchandise line in 2008.
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- A screen shot of my penguin with other members
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- My penguin playing a game with another member
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1.
Beth Feather |
October 28, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Computer programs like this have always rubbed me the wrong way. To be, creating a fake life on a computer seems unhealthy. Mostly this stems from the fact that people get so engrossed in it and it limits personal interactions, something that I think many kids lack today. I do like how this site has no outside distractions such as advertising. It definitely seems like a “safe” site to visit.
2.
Stefan Wisnoski |
November 1, 2009 at 6:37 pm
I don’t really know how to react to this type of program. I see both sides of the picture.
On one hand, like Beth has commented, these kinds of programs can be extremely addictive and unhealthy. I read a few weeks ago that the Blizzard computer game, World of Warcraft, can be more addictive than crack. So do we really want a program in that vein to be geared to kids who are still developing their social skills?
But then on the other, this kind of program allows children to interact with other kids from across the world that they wouldn’t have had the chance to otherwise.
Maybe if there were a feature built in to the program to limit the amount of time that it can be accessed by any given account during the day or week would be a good compromise?