networking your kids

About two weeks ago I had to baby sit my two younger cousins who are both still in primary school. Like most kids their age they spent their leisure time watching TV and mucking about on the internet. On the internet the boys played mindless flash animated games and then googled just about everyone they knew. It got me thinking about how I spend my leisure time on the internet, I spend it on Facebook, gmail chat and googling potential love interests and ex boyfriends.

So besides being a stalker I spend my time wanting to interact with other people on the internet. So why should my kid cousins not want to do the same? Devon who is 12 had heard about Facebook but didn’t know exactly what it was. When I showed him I could see that he was soon interested but not exactly too thrilled because there weren’t any games.

So this got me thinking to kids’ social networking and virtual community sites. Surely there has to be sites that are dedicated to it. So I googled around and found Imbee. The site is like Myspace and Facebook rolled into one but only kids between the ages of 8 and 14. It works the same as the two sites, you add friends, create an avatar, join groups, blog, message people, listen to music etc. Like Myspace kids can even add celebrities to their list of friends.

Imbee, created by Industrious Kid, has taken precautions so that kids can network in a safe environment. Unlike other social networking sites Imbee is not free, this means that parents have to take out their credit cards in order for their kids to join after a free trial period. Parents also have access to a control panel so they can monitor and restrict their kids to whatever they want or deem safe. This way parents can have a big brother eye on what their precious darlings are doing. This way Imbee is protecting the site from becoming the Pick ‘n Pay for paedophiles.

So far over 25 000 active members use the site, so clearly kids think its cool and parents think it’s safe.

To read more check out these articles:
Imbee Launches MySpace for Kids
Imbee - Disney Is Investor