MySpace not their space
Sarah Viren
Houston Chronicle
February 4, 2008
Last year, Megan found herself in a predicament. Too old
to play with dolls, the 12-year-old was also too young,
by her mother's standards, to sign up for MySpace or
Facebook, online networking sites her older brother had
joined.
Then she discovered Stardoll.com, a Web site targeting
girls between 9 and 17 that morphs Internet gaming
features with a social networking format. Each of the
nearly 13 million members gets a "MeDoll" they can dress
up, take on shopping trips at a virtual mall and
accessorize. With written parental permission, she also
started making "friends" online, messaging other members
and joining clubs, all features common to MySpace, which
discourages those younger than 14 from joining.
The compromise satisfied Megan's mother. Stardoll.com is
one of three networking sites she has allowed her
daughter to join.
"I am pretty much a Stardoll addict," Megan said from
the family's suburban Houston home.
The site is one of a growing number of social networking
options that appeal to children as young as 6 on the
Web. According to Nielsen Online data, 5.5 percent of
social networking users in December were between 2 and
11 years old; 14 percent were between 12 and 17.
"Think of us in terms of MySpace or Facebook with
training wheels," said Tim Donovan, one of the founders
of Imbee.com, a networking site specifically for 8- to
14-year-olds.
The Web site ties each child's home page to a parent
account, and allows parents to get daily updates on
their child's online networking and to censor anything
they post.
But, as with other such Web ventures, it hasn't been
free of criticism. This week the Federal Trade
Commission announced a $130,000 settlement against
Imbee.com for violating the Children's Online Privacy
Protection Act, requiring parental consent before
collecting information on anyone under 13.
Senior FTC attorney Phyllis Marcus said her agency began
noticing more social networking features at kid-oriented
sites two years ago. In the case of Imbee.com, she said,
site managers let youngsters register too much personal
information — full name, date of birth, gender and
e-mail address — before getting parental permission.
Donovan said it was a mistake made by a start-up company
that has been fixed.
Virtual identities
Donovan's site allows the under-13 set to create home
pages that include pictures of themselves and online
journal posts, although such information is monitored
and accessible only to their parents and approved
friends.
On other sites, children create avatars to represent
themselves. At Stardoll.com, that is a MeDoll.
Webkinz.com gives members an animal persona for each
stuffed animal they buy at the store. Clubpenguin.com, a
Walt Disney site popular among the 6-to-14 age group,
provides children with a virtual penguin and
corresponding igloo they can decorate. Megan, who also
belongs to that site, put her penguin in a "split-level
igloo" where it plays games and chats with other
penguins, who can request to become her "buddy."
Anne Collier, co-author of MySpace Unraveled: A Parent's
Guide to Teen Social Networking, said the progression
from online games to social networking is becoming a
normal, and not necessarily harmful, reality of
childhood and pre-adolescence.
"The online social world is here to stay, and the
driving force is young people," she said.
Virtual worlds involving penguins and dolls can be a
safe training ground for parents struggling to develop
age-appropriate online rules, she said. Nearly all sites
require parental involvement and monitor chatter for
profanities or cyberbullying.
In fact, the biggest issue with these sites is not
safety but their commercial bent. Many advertise toys or
games or offer virtual currency, sometimes paid for with
parents' real dollars, that youngsters swap for digital
gifts for their avatars.
"This is my closet, which is right now kind of empty,"
Megan said after school last week. The seventh-grader
was giving a tour of her "suite," a home page at
Stardoll.com. The suite spanned three rooms, each
cluttered with purchases including her brunette MeDoll's
wardrobe, virtual hamburgers and band posters.
Nearly all of it cost money, or "stardollars," which
trade at a rate of about 10 stardollars for one real
greenback. Megan tries to budget but on birthdays and
holidays always asks for more.
"Every time there is something new, I buy it," she said.
Online clubs
Other parts of the site are shop-free. An animal lover,
Megan runs a club with 300 members dedicated to helping
them. She adds polls for members, usually posing
questions such as "What's your favorite animal?"
Right now, Megan says MySpace still scares her a bit.
But even her mother acknowledges the soon-to-be teenager
will probably want to join it eventually.
At her middle school, Megan said, all her friends have a
page at the site. But many also still keep their
Clubpenguin.com account up.
Last week, she got a late-night text message from one of
those friends with an important question:
"Do you want to get on Clubpenguin?"