The kids cyber world revolution

Hot on the heels of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, virtual worlds for kids are the latest phenomenon to hit the big time.

It had to happen sooner or later, with kids becoming a massive part of the consumer market gaming websites developed especially for them have become predominant in cyberspace. Just last week one of the biggest interactive sites Club Penguin was sold to Disney for an unprecedented £345 million, after beating Time Warner’s AOL division to the post. Club Penguin is a virtual world aimed at children aged between six and 14 who pay $57.95 (£28) for a 12-month subscription. The site already has a reported 700,000-plus membership base, which is continually growing, and including the numbers who use the free version with less features, this number rises to 12 million. The site allows children to control a penguin that can play with and talk to others on the site, a child-version of social networking.

Webkinz is another online virtual world for kids, which allows children to bring toys they have bought in the real world to life on the web. The site is owned by Canadian toy manufacturer Ganz who retail the toys, and each are sold with an individualised code that can be entered on the website to create a animated virtual version of the soft toy. Since their introduction in 2005 Ganz has sold more than two million of the toys, and Hitwise, the internet metrics company, reports that the website has seen visits increase eleven times over from the previous year, more than double that of Club Penguin. Another web statisics company Nielsen/NetRatings, reports that the Webkinz site attracted 4.1 million unique users in May, far and beyond long-established brands such as Barbie. However many have been worried about the site’s apparently merciless commercial approach with kids so young. The Webkinz account lapses after a year, meaning that if children want to retain their virtual pets online they have to buy another real toy, which sell for around $12 each. Other dressing-up sites aimed primarily at young girls are also becoming extremely popular, such as Cartoon Doll Emporium which has 3 million visitors a month, and Stardoll which has 8.8 million members. Parents may be worried on the impact thse sites are having on their kids, but they cetainly look set to control a large portion of the online market in the years to come.

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