Mixing it up

The only time that I ever feel old and out of touch with technology is when people, or should I say kiddies, talk about Mxit . The mobile social networking site has never really taken off with me but maybe that’s because my oh-so-up-to-date Nokia 3310 (read sarcasm) doesn’t quite support it. Anyway once upon a time I did have a cellphone that had WAP and 3G and I didn’t use Mxit then either. Although I’m not part of the Mxit generation, plenty of others are, mostly being high school kids.

As it seems most kids dig Mxit because they can chat away with their mates (or strangers) for as little as 2c a message. And since its mobile, kids can chat anywhere. All of a sudden Mrs Botha’s double biology period doesn’t seem so bad. Mxit is ideal for the teen market because its cheap, it’s tech-savvy, and it’s on your cellphone which means mom, dad and nosy little sister can’t read your messages.

Mxit, which was created by a South African, has become a phenomenon in this country, with nearly 5 million users. Mxit has become such a craze that even media giants have taken notice. Recently Naspers bought a 30% stake in the company. And according ITWeb, Mxit will soon be taking over the world, as the company plans to expand internationally.

But then there are also the critics of Mxit mostly being parents and teachers. You can almost hear the whine of 5 million angst ridden teens complaining “ah man, my ballies just don’t want me to have any freedom, like why cant I just, like, you know, use Mxit, why do they, like, have to try, like, control everything I, like, do hey?.”

But obviously parents and teachers have a point. They are concerned about their kid’s safety. There have been reports of young boys being lured by paedophiles (see here), young girls becoming addicted to sex chatrooms and schools over the country have raised concern over pupils not being able to concentrate in class because of Mxit (see here).

What I think is that Mxit has its pros and cons. On the pro side it is a great way to communicate with your friends as it is a whole lot cheaper. But because it is primarily used by teenagers and tweens, it does become a hunting ground for sicko’s. But then I believe it’s up to the parents to educate their kids that they must be wary of people they meet in chatrooms, especially if they plan to meet these people in real life. I don’t have all the solutions to the cons of Mxit, I do however wish I knew of Mxit when I was in high school.

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