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After reading about the recent acquisition of social networking superstar , I started taking stock of other social networking sites available for kids. I have my long-term favorites like because of its educational mission, and because of their tangible toy / virtual world business model. But after digging through dozens of websites that claim to have a social networking component, I realize that many of these sites apply this term loosely. For example, if a website allows a user to play many different games and activities online, complete with a customized avatar, and allows a user the ability to see other user's avatars in games, without communication occuring between community members, does this constitute a social networking environment? If the communication occurs outside of a virtual world's website, in the form of an email to and from members, does this mean such a service has a social networking component? I assembled a list of kids' social networking websites I'm currently watching. Each site has a very defined method of communicating with its members. They include the following:

Site	Ages	Launched	Ads	Cost	How is it social?
	7 - 12	Apr 2007	Yes*	Free / $60	Filtered chat
	7 - 14	Oct 2005	No	Free / $6 per month	Filtered chat
	8 - 14	Jun 2006	No	Free	All correspondence can be parent approved
	8 +	Nov 1999	Yes	Free / $7. 033bc19607000692aaa18c546d64f726.js?ver=1711626510 99 per month	no chat / filtered chat
	6 - 14	jan 2007	yes	free	canned chat / [033bc19607000692aaa18c546d64f726.js?ver=1711626510] filtered chat
	teen +	jan 2001	yes	free / $5 per month	filtered chat
	9 - 17	may 2004	yes	depends on items you buy	filtered chat
	8 - 13	jun 2003	no	free / $9. 95 per month	Canned chat
	6 +	Apr 2005	Yes*	$14 or $8 per doll	Canned chat
	10 - 15	Mar 1999	No	Free	No chat / Filtered chat

This list defines social networking sites that are just for kids ages 12 and under, though some sites creep up a little beyond 12 years of age. The only exception I added to this list is Runescape. Runescape is a very popular massively multiplayer online role playing game () that was not specifically developed for kids, but kids have found it and they flock to it. Runescape is not for all kids, and parents should judge for themselves about whether it's right or not for their own child. Runescape is a battle-like virtual world environment, and chat can occur with anyone who plays online, even though it is filtered and monitored. Since no age is recommended by the site, I recommend ages 11 or 12 and higher. A few notes about my chart.

• Any site that includes ads and is marked with an asterisk ("*") means that this site has ads only related to the products this company offers (i. e. Webkinz ads are just for other Webkinz items).
• In terms of cost, most sites have a free to use or a monthly fee component. Sometimes these sites have two tiers of service where the paid service offers more bells and whistles. Sometimes a product needs to be purchased instead of paying a monthly subscription in order to reach the higher tiered service.
• How communication occurs with community members varies. "Canned chat" means users can communicate with each other through a short list of pre-approved words and phrases. Nothing else. (Click to see an example of ToonTown's canned chat in action, or for the history behind the development of this version of chat called "SpeedChat". ) "Filtered chat" relies on software tools to 033bc19607000692aaa18c546d64f726.js?ver=1711626510 strip out bad words, names, locations, and inappropriate content. Many times a live monitor oversees all communication written back and forth to users 033bc19607000692aaa18c546d64f726.js?ver=1711626510, in addition to these software filtering tools. is unique in that any messages that are sent to your child have the option of being approved by the parent before being forwarded on.

There are other sites worth knowing about, but span ages from older teen to adult. Sites like , , , and (all ages). Generally I find the older the demographic, the less monitoring and filtering of messages between users. If you're aware of other social networking sites for kids or teens please do share here with similar details about target age, cost, and how members socialize with each other.

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