According to a Sunday article from the LA Times via SLToday.com, Disney is expanding its virtual empire. While the media and advertisers are fixated on Second Life and other virtual worlds aimed at adults, Club Penguin and Webkinz are drawing in huge numbers of kids. "As many as 20 million children and teenagers will visit virtual worlds by 2011, up from 8.2 million in 2007, according to research firm eMarketer Inc."
What does this mean? Well, first Disney will spend between $5 to $10 million dollars for each of the 10 virtual worlds it plans to create. (Note: Disney already owns Club Penguin.) Disney calls their new investment "virtual theme parks," noting that they will be "much more accessible. You don't have to get in a car or a plane." So for those kids whose parents won't take them to Disney World, they can make avatars that let them become Mickey and Minnie.
The difference between many of the sites aimed for kids and say, Facebook, is the fee. You can't log on to some sites without a fee, and for others, like Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean game site, you can play for free, but you have to pay to get access to the tools to win. One parent cited in the article noted that he decided to pay for the site rather than face the immient "meltdown" from his daughter.
How do you feel about kids becoming members of these online communities? They are designed to hook kids in by playing lots and lots of games to earn points. I have a friend whose daughter begs and begs to play Webkinz for hours because she has to play the games to earn stuff for her Webkinz. (At least I think that's how it works.) I know it's not that much different than the kid who really wants to beat a video game, but at least that seems to have a set ending. These activities go on forever.
I don't have kids, so I don't know what I'd do in this situation. On the one hand, I love virtual communities. I enjoy using Facebook, and I do play video games. I even love to watch TV more than reading a book for fun (I think it has to do with reading for school and work and the need to do something different - don't kick me out of library school!) :) But at the same time, I really worry about kids playing online for hours and hours. We all need to do a variety of things, whether it's playing on the computer, reading a book, watching tv, or playing outside. Perhaps I worry more about the specific medium than the act of sitting still. I feel as if a lot of kids don't just go play outside and make up games the way I did - there are too many choices. What do you think?
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3 comments:
I just learned of another virtual environment aimed at young teens. This social community is called Zwinktopia, www.zwinky.com. It includes 29 unique locations. Games and different activities like shopping, chatting and attending events keep Zwinky avatars busy. I find it very interesting how these virtual environments target certain age groups. I am not very familiar with these types of sites and wonder how users who do not fit the age profile are restricted.
My son participates in a couple of online game sites. The ones he uses are free - I simply refuse to pay for the others. I know that I run the risk of being a "bad parent" by doing this because several of his friends have accounts in other sites. But I've seen too often how after an initial period of interest - may be a week or a month - the kid loses interest in the game because it's too easy or too hard but the parent still has to pay the fee for the game.
Sometimes the games are monitored by "someone." In one instance, my son's account was hacked and the other player used inappropriate language so the account was locked. It was a game where the player created a nation of his own and entered into contracts, negotiations, and wars with other nations. So even though he hadn't done anything wrong, my son was not able to participate in the game after that. Too often these sites are easy to break into, and this apparently happens a lot. I suppose this is a case of cyberbullying as well. Someone takes over an account to cause problems for the actual user.
I know that several of the Disney sites are pay ones. While my son is at the age of liking the High School Musical stuff, he is out of the age where the other younger Disney characters are appealing. However, I can see how kids can be pulled into the "I want it and I want it now" syndrome. They are inundated with advertisements on TV and in magazines. All of the latest movies come with zillions of promotions even before the movies are released. Most of the time, kids already know the plot beforehand.
Last summer, just before High School Musical 2, there was a lot of hype to enter a contest to win a special showing of the movie. My son must have tried to enter via the Disney website a hundred times. But each time, there were so many people logged on, there was no way to get through! It didn't matter what time of day or night, the site was overloaded. I'm sure that made the Disney people happy that the movie was a huge success even before it was released, but it was very frustrating to a child not to be able to enter the contest.
Overall, I think that as Mary said that certain age groups are targeted by these big businesses. Kids can be exploited and not be totally aware of it. Parents should be vigilant to not let these things get out of control.
I too will be the "bad mom" If they view it as a virtual theme park then I guess she'll have to choose, go there or save money to play online. :)
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