It all started simply enough when a cute little pink pony arrived by mail last year sometime soon after my daughter’s birthday. It was a present from her cousin Jonah whom she adores. His mom explained to me that it was a Webkinz, which meant it came with a web site where you put in a code and then my daughter and her cousin could meet up online to play games together. Very cool, I thought, since they live an eight-hour drive apart from each other and only get to play together a couple of times a year.

I was amazed at how easily my just-turned-five girl picked up on how it all worked. Sure she’d watched me in the 3D virtual world of Second Life many times, always wanting to change my avatar’s hair or clothes like a virtual Barbie doll. But, this 2.5D virtual world was different. In no time, and with little to no instruction from me, she learned the ropes of playing games to get Webkinz “money” to then go shopping for clothes and accessories for her animal. I was pleased to see that some of the games did have educational value as they required some basic math and exercised language skills. And, it was reassuring after she discovered the chat rooms that the only things the animals could say to each other were pre-constructed and limited by the system (no “what’s your age?” or “where do you live?” allowed). Now almost a year later, a reindeer and a cat have joined the pony in her stable, and she is still discovering new things to do in-world.

And here’s where the title of the post comes into play. Last weekend, I bought my first Webkinz for someone else’s kid. It was a birthday present from one of her oldest friends (hey when you both start preschool together at 8 weeks, it doesn’t take long to be an old friend). While only one month older than her, by virtue of Texas’ choice in cut-off date for determining school age, this friend had moved on to kindergarten last year. We try to get together with her family when possible, but it’s always a challenge coordinating busy schedules. So, I decided this would be another way the girls could stay in touch in-between playdates. Yesterday afternoon, they were playing Rock-Scissors-Paper against each other online!

I suppose it’s really only surprising that it took me this long to become a pusher of the kiddie virtual worlds. I do call myself a metaverse evangelist, and a full year ago I was hearing and reading about a coming boom in virtual worlds focused on kids. But still, I feel a little guilty because I know it’s just a matter of time before she starts bugging her parents for additional Webkinz animals, and it will be all my fault. LOL!

[Interested in learning more about the wide range of virtual worlds your children will be asking you to let them join? If so, comment here and I'll work on a follow-up post reviewing the most popular ones.]

Laura P. Thomas is the wife of a former rocker and mother of one 5-year-old girl that’s already waaay too interested in The Jonas Brothers. (the apple didn’t fall far) She works in the Global Online team at Dell, evangelizes virtual worlds, and twitters too much as LPT.