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Undercover Mom

Fledgling star reporters in kids’ virtual worlds

October 15, 2009 By Anne Leave a Comment

The people who help protect kids in virtual worlds have noticed an interesting trend: More and more kids are posting news, cheats (workarounds), and pictures from their favorite online worlds and games in their own blogs. "Essentially, the kids act as reporters for the virtual world by taking screenshots of parties and events in addition to reporting on various issues," writes Chase Straight in … [Read more...] about Fledgling star reporters in kids’ virtual worlds

Filed Under: blogs, kids, Social Media, Youth Tagged With: Metaverse Mod Squad, Undercover Mom

Undercover Mom in BarbieGirls, Part 4: Peer pressure to pay up

August 14, 2009 By Anne Leave a Comment

By Sharon Duke EstroffAmong the cardinal (albeit unfortunate) rules of the schoolyard social jungle is that the more cool, expensive stuff you have, the higher you climb on the food chain. And what kid doesn’t wish to become king or queen of the jungle? Children’s virtual worlds like Barbie Girls understand this fundamental truth about their target audience, so they lay the groundwork for a social … [Read more...] about Undercover Mom in BarbieGirls, Part 4: Peer pressure to pay up

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: barbiegirls.com, commercialism, Undercover Mom

Undercover Mom in BarbieGirls.com, Part 3: To pay or not to pay?

July 31, 2009 By Anne 1 Comment

By Sharon Duke EstroffThe vast majority of children’s virtual worlds (and certainly the materialistic pinkpalooza at BarbieGirls.com) are commercial – not public-interest ¬endeavors. So while these Web sites may have excellent intentions in creating safe, kid-friendly online playspaces, they are, at the end of the day, in it for the money, of course. Some virtual worlds (like Nickelodeon’s … [Read more...] about Undercover Mom in BarbieGirls.com, Part 3: To pay or not to pay?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: barbiegirls.com, Undercover Mom

More on virtual world growth

July 17, 2009 By Anne Leave a Comment

Heard of Spineworld? I hadn't. But a 10-year-old I know told me he's seeing it everywhere in his circles. Now we know from UK-based market researcher K Zero that its population (registered users) has more than doubled since first quarter '09, from 1 million then to 2.8 million now, according to VirtualWorldsNews. Overall, "the total number of registered accounts in the virtual worlds sector … [Read more...] about More on virtual world growth

Filed Under: kids, Research, Social Media, Youth Tagged With: Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters, Spineworld, Star Doll, Undercover Mom

Undercover Mom in BarbieGirls.com, Part 2: Talking numbers

June 26, 2009 By Anne Leave a Comment

By Sharon Duke EstroffThis week’s post continues detailing my investigation of Barbie Girls, and the crown jewels and skeletons in the closet that I uncovered there.Crown jewel: Number-blocking filtersPart of the appeal of children's virtual worlds like BarbieGirls.com exists in their conversational filters, one of the most notable functions of which is weeding out mention of any specific numbers … [Read more...] about Undercover Mom in BarbieGirls.com, Part 2: Talking numbers

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: barbiegirls.com, Undercover Mom

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IMPORTANT RESOURCES

Our (DIGITAL) PARENTING BASICS: Safety + Social
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education
CASEL.org & the 5 core social-emotional competencies of SEL
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Childnet International
Committee for Children
Congressional Internet Caucus Academy
ConnectSafely.org
Control Shift: a pivotal book for Internet safety
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crisis Textline
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Revenge Porn Crisis Line
Cyberwise.org
danah boyd's blog and book about networked youth
Disconnected, Carrie James's book on digital ethics
FOSI.org's Good Digital Parenting
The research of Global Kids Online
The Good Project at Harvard's School of Education
If you watch nothing else: "Parenting in a Digital Age" TED Talk by Prof. Sonia Livingstone
The International Bullying Prevention Association
Let Grow Foundation
Making Caring Common
Raising Digital Natives, author Devorah Heitner's site
Renee Hobbs at the Media Education Lab
MediaSmarts.ca
The New Media Literacies
Report of the Aspen Task Force on Learning & the Internet and our guide to Creating Trusted Learning Environments
The Ruler Approach to social-emotional learning (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Sources of Strength
"Young & Online: Perspectives on life in a digital age" from young people in 26 countries (via UNICEF)
"Youth Safety on a Living Internet": 2010 report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group (and my post about it)

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