Practicum - Jamie (Blog #2: Tween/Kid Audiences)

A few days ago I tried to go on Imbee, another popular website kids visit. Imbee is a social network created for young tweens to engage in. It's almost like the "kid version" of MySpace or Facebook, but much more protected and geared towards tweens. Unfortunately, I was not able to participate as a member of that site. Like Club Penguin, to start your own account, you need to have parent permission. In addition, in order to start an account, the identification of the parent has to be verified with his/her credit card information. I was amazed at how protective security for these kids was for this website, unlike Club Penguin, which was easier for me to be apart of, because it did not require identification verification with a credit card.

So once I scratched out the idea of surfing through Imbee, I tried another website: SuperSecret. This website is similar to Club Penguin, but it lets kids play with the concept of growing up. Each player starts at the age of 10, and grows up until they become an adult. Like Club Penguin, players play games and participate in activities to earn money and points to age. As they grow up, they can unlock and buy their character clothes, hair styles, furniture for their dorm, etc. It's a plus if you grow up, because you're given more options!

So I am playing as Twinkle220, the same name as my penguin character in Club Penguin. It's very easy and very similar to the style of Club Penguin. Within the time I was playing, I was able to get enough money to buy myself a new hairdo and a new shirt!

Practicum - Jamie (Blog #1: Tween/Kid Audiences)

I finally got a chance to research on my topic for the practicum. So I first started researching the top online websites kids go on and found a few articles that listed popular tween websites:

www.digitaltrends.com/how-to/ten-best-websites-for-kids and www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30257312/ns/technology_and_science-games.

So far I am looking into a website that was popularly mentioned on the lists: Club Penguin. Club Penguin is a currently owned Disney website that allows young children, 6-14 year olds, to interact with each other in an engaging and imaginative penguin community. Kids create their own penguin alter ego and build an online universe around it.


Today I created an account and named my blue penguin Twinkle220. It's amazing how many Twinkles there are! Because of that I had to go with Twinkle220! I also found it interesting how protective the site and how encouraging the site was in creating an engaging environment for these tweens. When I was creating an account, I was soon taken to a page that required a parent's permission to activate the account to allow his/her child to participate in this online site.

So after my account was created, I was free to participate in the community. Roaming around the area a bit, I found out that the goal was to collect as many coins I can to upgrade my penguin and its surroundings. Also, I am to participate in events and missions. It seems just like any other online games, except the website is more secure. You can communicate with other kids/penguins, play many games, go on missions, improve your igloo home and buy new things for your penguin. However, all of this is monitored, and anything bad is filtered and not allowed.

I explored my living space and played a few games. So far I'm enjoying it. It sure is engaging, and I can see why it's so popular. I think I'm getting the hang of it. So I look forward in checking with my penguin! Next time I also plan in looking at the other websites I discovered. As I was researching, I discovered that interactive websites (a lot of games!) are most popular with young tweens.

After some time, I finally got the hang of it and completed one mission and collected 200 coins! I can soon buy something!