Should Kids Hang Out at Club Penguin?
Talk to your child about the Internet as a public space.
"The challenge is that people can say they're different people, for example say they're kids if they're not kids," Goodstein says. Parents need to create an atmosphere where kids can tell them about problems they encounter online without the fear of the Internet being taken away, she says. "Parents should talk to kids about how to treat people online and emphasize the differences from real life. For example, photos can be spread quickly online and it is easier to be meaner. Technology puts distance [between a bully and a victim]."
Warn your child not to put personal information on the Web, ever. She recommends that "parents have kids listen to their gut if something makes them uncomfortable. Kids have to be able to talk to their parents about what was said and why it made them uncomfortable."
Understand that virtual interactions can be as hurtful as real ones.
Despite all of the safeguards, it is possible for kids' feelings to be hurt on Club Penguin. The filters prevent kids from insulting each other in many ways, but my daughter said her feelings are hurt when she tries to talk to someone and they just ignore her.
Hap agreed. He said, "Sometimes I ask someone to be my buddy and they don't accept. That's fine - there are like 4000 people on Club Penguin and I had 97 buddies. The only bad thing that happens is if I ask them to be my buddy and they don't even say no, they don't even answer!"
Kids have even found a way to use the reporting process at Club Penguin to hurt others. Lorraine Woodruff-Long, the California mom of two Club Penguin users, said her kids were sometimes upset because other kids would threaten to report them and get them banned from the site. "One day someone was being mean to him and he was starting to write back. I said, 'What are you doing?' He said a person was being mean to him and threatening to have him banned, and I told him that doesn't mean it is OK for him to do it, too. The more I know about it, the more I realized I need to be more wary. I need to sit down and spend time with these sites. The kids are ahead of where I think they are."
Is it OK to make virtual friends?
Parents often teach their children not to talk to strangers, but talking to people (or penguins) you don't know is one of the main activities on sites like Club Penguin. Does this send a mixed message?
Goodstein doesn't think this is a problem. She said, "If they are involved with [strangers] on a site that is explicitly for kids, it is the same as going to a playground where they play with kids they might not know. If they're on a site that is mixed, with kids and adults, then they have to be a lot more careful, listen to their gut and feel when something doesn't feel right."
Goodstein said that 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds mostly talk to penguins they don't know. "They just waddle around trying to talk to people, instead of being a real social network. For slightly older kids, Imbee may be more like a real social network. There you have friends that are mostly your friends in real life, but in Club Penguin, they're usually not quite old enough for real social networking."
Emily Fiorentino, an 8-year-old from Connecticut, confirms that on Club Penguin she generally just starts random conversations with people. "You only know their penguin name, color and costume," she said.
It is possible to meet your real friends on Club Penguin, if you know their penguin identities. Dennis Dobbyn from California, said his 11-year-old son Sean enjoys chatting with his real friends on Club Penguin, and Hap from Washington meets up with a real-life friend who lives in California on Club Penguin a couple of times a week. "We play hide and seek," he said excitedly. He described how buddies can find out which part of the site their friends are visiting by clicking on their profile, but you can hide within that page of the site by using camouflage. "I went into the underground pool and turned my penguin that same color. It was exactly the same color! The only way to find me was my beak!"
