February Roundup: Social Networking Sites For Kids
Social networking is definitely not limited to adults. As you can see, there is a wide variety of sites that are geared towards our youth and while the idea is to get kids participation by playing games, it is already setting the foundation for the next generation of social media users.
If you know of a site that your kids participate on that is not listed here, please leave a comment as this list will be updated throughout the year.
Must be at least 16 years of age:
Friendster PR 4 Online community connecting friends
Must be at least 14 years of age:
MySpace PR 8 A Place For Friends
Must be at least 13 years of age & in high school:
Facebook PR 8 Social Utility that connect people with those around them
Must be at least 13 years of age:
Hi 5 PR 6 Who’s in?
Xanga PR 7 A weblog community
IMVU PR 6 Chat with friends in 3D
There PR 6 Online virtual world
Chamber of Chat PR 6 Harry Potter online role playing game
Second Life PR 8 3D Virtual World
Runescape PR 6 Online adventure community
Pownce PR 7 Create a network of friends and share files, links & events
Jaiku PR 6 Share your activities
Tickle PR 5 Social networking through personal development
43 Things PR 7 Microblogging site to share with community
Bebo PR 7 Social network for sharing and entertainment
Gaia Online PR 6 Virtual community with games, message boards & economy
vSide PR 6 Virtual music community
Windows Live Spaces PR 7 Community of friends for sharing and blogging
No Age minimum but must have parents approval:
Imbee PR 6 Social Networking designed for kids 8-12
Active Worlds PR 6 3D virtual world chat
Boom Bang PR 4 Chat, make friends and explore a virtual world
Dofus PR 6 Mulit player online role playing game
Awol PR 3 Chats, games, diary, friends, & cribs
Sanriotown PR 6 Hello Kitty games, community, blogs and forums
Webkinz PR 6 Virtual pet community for plush pets
Club Penguin PR 6 Virtual world for kids
Marapets PR 3 Virtual pet site with games and chat community
Shining Stars PR 5 Chatting, naming stars and virtual star worlds
Neopets PR 6 Virtual world for pets
Endless Online PR 4 Community role playing games
Eternal Lands PR 5 Community role playing games
Furcadia PR 5 Community role playing game
Graal Online PR 5 Community role playing games
Guild Wars PR 6 Community role playing games
Hero Online PR 4 Community warfare games
Millsberry PR 4 Home building community
There are hundreds more of the community role playing sites for kids, they are all very much the same so I decided not to list them all here. These types of games are not may favorite nor are they the “best” as far as networking sites for kids goes. However, they do allow certain features such as chats and interactive situations with other kids online. You can see a larger list of these Massive Multiplayer Role Playing Game (MMORPGs) here.
The important thing to remember when it comes to kids and social media is that parents should always have a very good idea of the games, people and sites their children are involved in, no matter how old the child is. The terms and conditions of these sites are set for a reason, abuse of them only creates problems. I’m also a firm believer in having access to all passwords for my kids accounts. Kids will argue about the invasion of privacy but let’s face it, their privacy is not nearly as important as their safety.
For more information on just how radically the internet is transforming the experience of childhood, check out Growing Up Online by Frontline. Frontline has created a great conversation by taking families into the very public and private worlds that are being created online. They are raising important questions and giving parents a chance to talk.
18 comments
What a nice comprehensive list! My kids are 11, 9 and 6 and are starting to show interest in some of these sites. The girls already have Webkinz accounts and they have all done their time with Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom too.
Wow Kristen..great idea for a post! I love it! Of course, it couldn’t have come from a more relevant source. *-) Thanks..I’m Stumbling and Sphinning!
I was going to mention http://www.pokemoncrater.com, which my son used to love, but apparently it’s been closed since December.
Good list, Kristen!
Char- As I sit here my 5 year old is playing Millsberry across from me.
Kimberly- You’re so sweet. Thanks for the love.
Always
Nice post Kristen. Very useful for parents. Our 11 year old just got her own computer. Your list will be handy when setting up filters.
Wow! Great list Kristen. I didn’t know there were so many, and you did a wonderful job of researching which age they are appropriate for. I will have to send this to our son and his wife. Thanks!
This is a great list. My kids are 9 and 11. My son loves the pirates of the carribean game on Disney.com and it seems like a social networking site too. He’ll tell the neighbor kid to “meet me at Tortuga”.
Too funny.
Anyway - great post.
This is a great list, Kristen. I work in this space, and there were a few key competitors of ours that I just learned about for the first time. Thanks.
I also have one to add. Similar to Tickle is the PR5 quiz-oriented social networking site Quibblo.com. In addition to being a social network, it also provides a Flash-based embed version of quizzes and polls that you can post externally.
Disclosure: I work for Quibblo. But hey, I saw your list and I really thought that we belonged on it. We are a social network with hundreds of thousands of members, and most of our usership is under 18.
At gamebrix.com anyone can create fun flash games online using a web browser. We see a lot of users as young as 8 at our site and we require a parent’s approval if they are under 13.
Great resource Kristen. Thank you for creating this!
Great list. Thank you. Some I’ve heard of and some I haven’t.
Thank you.
Sundar and Quizzes- Thanks for letting us know about your sites.
My kids also like to play at MiniClips.com and Pogo. But we think we may have picked up a recent addition of spyware from Pogo, which has TONS of popup ads.
Linda
http://practicallyathome.blogspot.com
Hello Kristen.
Thank you very much for creating this resource.
As a mother, it’s very valuable to know what kinds of websites my child may be playing on.
Another website you may want to add to the list in the “No age minimum …” section is Anash Interactive - an interactive online destination where kids ages 8 - 14 years old can create comics, build stories, play games, share their comics and stories with other users, and learn about an endangered culture. It’s found at http://www.anashinteractive.com.
[…] seen a wide variety of child social networking sites emerging over the past few years, and each one of them is aimed at giving kids a safe corner of the […]
I was just told about new site that is going to launch for kids http://www.elfisland.com. I was told not only safe but had redeeming values..has anyone heard of it..I went to their site and emailed the owner and they indicated it will be a launching soon. My friend said they saw the product already during a investor presentation and they where blown away..
Hi, Thanks for this nice post…this is realy great… i think you have missed a great portal for kids i.e. http://www.buzziboy.com
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