This is part of a series of posts looking at virtual worlds targeted toward kids.
Following my recent post here on the virtual world of Webkinz, there seemed to be some interest in taking a look at other virtual worlds targeted toward children. These are more often 2.5D, rather than true 3D, environments. At last year’s SXSW Interactive conference I heard one venture capitalist say they were the only virtual worlds she was investing in due to their strong growth.
And grow, they have. I’m on an airplane now heading to the Virtual Worlds Conference in L.A. which has an entire track just on kid’s worlds. With new virtual worlds popping up every day, this could become a never-ending series. I’m just going to start with those I have personal experience with and see where it takes me from there.
Handipoints Chore Charts
This is actually a review of a new world that I had not heard of until it was mentioned by someone in a comment on ThisMommyGig! The Handipoints Chore Chartssite seems to be an interesting new angle on a virtual world because it is fronted by a more “virtuous” goal of getting children to do their chores. Always a fan of hiding learning in fun, I thought this might be a great opportunity to encourage good work by using the online hook.
The Good
It certainly appealed to my daughter who seems to spend more time on the computer lately than on that other vice of television. I was embarrassed to answer during her recent kindergarten orientation that what my child liked to do at home was play Webkinz.
But, the promise of possible bathtimes without nagging or yelling appealed to me, so my girl and I sat down together to chose a variety of tasks and chores for her to keep track of to earn Handipoints. Even new things that had not previously been her responsibility (i.e. water the plants) grading system went into the list. See lessons learned below for more on that.
Allowing the child to input what they’ve done encourages more responsibility, and the grading system allows parent to come behind and not only verify that the tasks were completed, but also grade them on how well they were done. For example, when my daughter turns off her nightlight without any reminder, she gets an A. When I have to prompt her, she gets a B.
The actual virtual world component, Handiland, has a user interface that is very similar to other such worlds, so my daughter was able to navigate it easily right away. The number of locations you can go are fairly limited and nicely illustrated through an island map. Your child chooses a cat character that they can dress up and a room to decorate. They can interact with other Handiland cats in environments such as a playground or school.
The Bad
This interaction with the others is the part that still has me a bit nervous. Handiland’s chat is not as restricted as conversation in Webkinz. While not open for free-form chat, there are more choices in the pre-programed conversation than we’ve encountered in Webkinz. While it still prevents children from sharing such detail as their exact address, it does get into more personal information such as the state in which your child lives.
The only other not so great thing we’ve discovered is that the fun of the virtual world can overshadow the task manager - which led to another lesson learned. Sometimes pop-ups even surface while you are in the task reporting area that entice the child away from there for stamp-hunting expeditions and such.
The Lessons Learned
The first lesson I learned was to be sure to set the target high for rewards, or limit the number of tasks. There were so many behaviors I hoped to improve that I loaded several in there. Then, my girl wanted to add some new chores to the list, which all sounded helpful, so why not? Well, with all of those options for earning points, what I thought would take a month to do was completed in a week. Now I’ve got to go buy another Webkinz.
The other lesson we’ve learned was to drive home the importance of inputing their task updates before heading into Handiland. Time will get away from them and the next thing you know they’re not meeting their requirement to go to bed on time, which leads to fewer points (and in my household, much whining, crying and begging for a do-over)
[UPDATE 9/19/08: At the request(s) of Mary at Handipoints, I've changed the title in the links above from "Handipoints" to "Handipoints Chore Charts". Whatever the name, after cashing in on her first goal, my girl's interest in the site has dropped dramatically. We set a new, higher goal, but it's been a week since she's bothered to visit the site and input any tasks she has completed.]
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.
We’ve been using Handipoints for about 2 weeks now with our kids, ages 10 and 11. So far, so good. Since we also homeschool, I do like the educational facts that pop up during the Handiland time. I also like the flexibility in the tasks, being able to choose from those already in the database, as well as adding custom tasks suited to our family/children. It will be interesting to see if the novelty wears off with my kids or if they stick with it to achieve some of their loftier savings goals. My 10-yo, a notorious saver, is aiming for a laptop! I think she’s 1% of the way there. The other benefit I’ve seen with my other child, the Spender, is that he’s more motivated to save rather than spend since he can see his progress toward a variety of goals, all different values, simultaneously. Again, we’ll see if it lasts.
califmom,
Thanks for sharing how the site is working for your family!
It’s really interesting to hear that so many people are aware of and already using Handipoints, when a Google News search turns up no results on them, they’re not represented here at the Virtual Worlds Conference & Expo, and nearly no one I talked to here has ever heard of them!
Definitely seems a grassroots, parent-network driven site at this point.
~L
After reading your post, i searched for some virtual world for kids myself. The problem with Webkinz is that you can only use it in the states, you need a webkinz plush toy ID to play it.
I came across clubpenguin and it seems like a much more polished site then webkinz. I wanted your opinion on it?
My kid told me that at Wiebel their teachers asked them to play secretbuilders.com it is supposed to be a new site like club penguin but without penguins and more educational.
Do you know anything about this site? I have serious reservations of my kids privacy there
ConcernedDaddy
We ventured into Club Penguin for the very next post in this series and give it a thumbs up. You can read the full details here: http://thismommygig.org/2008/09/30/kids-virtual-worlds-club-penguin/
It is one that requires a subscription for the full experience, but my girl has returned often and enjoyed herself even without me having to pony-up the dollars.
I have not heard of secretbuilders.com, but it sounds intriguing. We are due for another trip on our virtual worlds safari, so maybe that will be the one we explore next. Thank you for the reminder that we also need to look in to how global these worlds are as we go.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks! Clubpenguin is actually a very safe site for kids.
I will wait for your review of the secret builders site before i let my kids use it.
I let my daughter who is 8 use Secret Builders. My friend told me that they are sponsored by many schools and reputable sites so that made me feel comfortable. Plus the good thing that my kids learn somethings when they play. All the other sites have only entertainments and no interactive learning. I like their idea of contests too. And my daughter gives it two thumbs up!
My 7 year old son and 10 year old daughter are on it a lot (usually fighting with each other for computer time!). It really is a wonderful site. I love the way they’ve inconspicuously injected literature and science into the world using their quests and famous characters walking around.
Handipoints is not a free service. They continue to develope ideas to collect money from kids hooked on this websit. Now, there is a coolkid club. The charge is
handipoints.com is not a free service. The cool kids club is $30.95 every six months. This means some kids can participate, and others are excluded because they cannot pay for the club. This is wrong. They presented themselves as a free website. They got our kids hooked and now they want to make money.
Sharon - my daughter still uses the Handipoints site occasionally (not enough to meet the second goal we set for her) and I knew that we weren’t paying for it; so, I went to take a look and check into the costs you noted. It appears that the basic service is indeed still free, however you can “upgrade to the Cool Cats Club to unlock special features and rewards” according to the site. This is a common way for kids world sites to operate without turning to advertising, so I don’t fault them for it - I’ll take pay-for-upgrade over pushing ads at my kid in order for them to be able to pay their staff and keep the site running.
I do not like Handipoints.com for the same reason. It told you it’s free And you can earn points and buy things. But did not tell you that you need to “upgrade” to buy until you are way into it. My kids cannot even give a item to others without join the so call “cool cats club”. It makes them feel bad and excluded.
I agree. I don’t like it when they have exclusive clubs like cool cat or VIP club. I really like the model that I see at whywil and secretbulders. Most of their stuff is free but some items are premium that u can purchase with or without membership. My kids really love secretbuilders because of that.
Hi! My daughter became interested in gaiaonline, which is a virtual world site targeting teens and young adults. I am not comfortable with her doing any such thing, unless I check it out too. It involves creating a character (an avatar) and acquiring gaia gold through various means to buy clothing, other changes in appearance, furnishings and game items.
My daughter’ first account was cancelled, and that identity was banned permanently from Gaia with no reason given and no recourse.
I tested it out, for various reasons - I wanted to see if any such thing happened to me, and I also wanted to evaluate the ease of use. Well, lo and behold, after about 42 days in their system, they banned me, and my daughter for a second time. In both cases we were accused of “botting” - in other words, using some mechanical or automatic way of collecting gold from the various games and daily chances.
My daughter homeschools, and has few friends (a geographical issue) and she really enjoyed her time on the site, and I believe she got something from her interaction with other members. So - when her account was cancelled, she was quite distressed. So am I. These are children, and I could tell that many of them spend many - probably too many - hours a day building up their virtual worlds. The sad thing is, it’s probably children who are running it too. I cannot imagine what caused them to make this determination, but my daughter is forbidden to ever create another identity there again, and I will think more than twice before she tries another.
Oh, by the way, members can purchase GAIA CASH with real money - by going to stores like 7-11 and buying a card. That must come in real handy for the more virtually expensive items. And I’ll bet not one member who has ever purchased GAIA CASH has ever been dumped like this!