Social networks for primary school kids

 For alarmed parents!

…”Welcome to Club Penguin, the My Space of the primary school set, where kids control their penguin avatars, throw snowballs, hang out in their igloos and make friends in an online world built just for them.”…

…”What we really want this to be is an online playground or an online sandbox.” Unless you have a small child — or are one — you may may be surprised or even alarmed to learn that thousands of children barely old enough to read are already online. But in the last few months, virtual networking environments aimed at kids as young as six have swelled into serious businesses, earning millions for their grown-up creators.”…

 ….”Parents can choose to restrict their child”s penguin chat to pre-selected phrases picked out of a menu, or let them type in their own phrases which are filtered by software and human monitors to keep out personal information or naughty talk.”…  

….”  Kid-oriented sites offer parents a safer way to introduce children to the Internet, said Detective Inspector Brian Ward, of the Child Abuse Investigation Command at Britain’s Metropolitan Police High-Tech Crime Unit. “It is the first time we’ve come across a sort of chat experience that is aimed right at the beginning, of a first-use club for a child using the Internet,” Ward said. “I’d far rather this than to go straight onto a social networking site where there would be far less protection.”…  see the full article .  

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