Metaverse Mod Squad

A few weeks ago we had asked the kiddos on Webosaurs Island to send in their questions for Webosaurs Art Director “Juiceking” to answer in a video. Juice and I (Rex) answered some of their questions on camera, and had a little fun in the process. It’s a bit long, but worth sticking through to the end. That is, if you want to see me doing an awful Justin Bieber impersonation.

No matter how much Webosaurs has grown, we’ve always tried to keep a close bond with the community. Rather than just presenting a product, we try to actively involve our kids in everything that we do to let them know that the continued growth and development of Webosaurs Island is not a one-way process.

Chase Straight

Manager, Youth Media

Metaverse client Hangout Industries, the creator of the Facebook virtual world Superstar City, has announced the initial results of a collaboration with the pop rock band We The Kings.  In Superstar City, fans of the group can outfit their avatars with the band’s clothing, network with other fans, dance to the band’s music and are able to seamlessly buy the band’s music on iTunes.  The campaign has been hugely successful and has improved the band’s reach and engagement in conjunction with its tour.

“We have been thrilled with our ongoing collaboration with Superstar City.  In just one weekend, Hangout increased our fan base on Facebook by 6%,” said Jennifer Grossbach, Senior Director at the band’s label, S-Curve Records.  “The application has been a huge value-added service in our efforts to expand the exposure of our bands and the engagement of our fans.”

“Our integration with S-Curve Records and We the Kings has been mutually beneficial. With more than 300,000 Facebook fans and growing, the label was looking for a way to take fan involvement to the next level. Superstar City allows them to expand their reach, while providing a genuine and immersive experience that stays true to the band’s personal style,” said Pano Anthos, CEO at Hangout Industries. “The opportunity with We the Kings provides our users unique access to the band, further improving the social gaming experience.”

Metaverse is proud to work with Hangout to build a compelling community around the social game that incorporates national brands and real world spaces for players to share with their friends.

For a copy of the press release, just click here.

MMS moderated two panels at the Engage! Conference in New York last week, including “It’s the Activity, Stupid!, Keeping Kids and Tweens Engaged in Virtual Worlds.”  Panelists Jacques Panis (Webosaurs), Jim Bower (Whyville), and Josh Fisher (Brandissimo!/NFLRush Zone) knocked it out of the park with candid observations about what’s worked and what hasn’t in their respective virtual worlds.  For those that missed it, here are the slides.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a report in December about the availability of explicit content in Virtual Worlds entitled “Virtual Worlds and Kids: Mapping the Risks”. Despite a slightly alarming header in the press release, the report results are not as negative as they may first appear. Little explicit content appeared in child-oriented virtual worlds, and the explicit content found in some of the teen and adult sites could not be accessed by children if they accurately self-reported their age.

It is important to note that the report states that “because the Commission’s researchers examined these worlds with the express purpose of uncovering sexually and violently explicit content, it is unlikely that a typical user would stumble upon such content unintentionally”.

Equate this to a child spending time in a book store or library: the amount of potentially questionable/explicit material differs based on the section of the store a child spends time in. If a child sticks to sections that have books and other media designed for their age group, the odds remain low. Should a child head out of the children’s section and into a section of teen and adult material, the chances of seeing explicit material, either pictorial or printed word, go up. But again, one would really need to be looking for such material in order to find it.

The report also finds that many virtual worlds are taking successful steps to screen content as well as to keep children from viewing content that may not be appropriate for their age. Researchers found little or no explicit content in18 of the 27 virtual worlds they visited. In others, such content was only found when registered as a teen or as an adult, not when visiting the site as a child user.

The FTC makes the following five sagacious recommendations for all virtual worlds:

• Better age screening to ensure that the virtual world’s target audience is, in fact, the age they claim to be.
• Age segregating in worlds that appeal to a wider demographic, such as Second Life
• Strengthen word filters to ensure that user-generated content is appropriately screened
• Community moderators to help ensure adherence to codes of conduct, as well as clear codes of conduct so that users can better self-adhere to community standards
• Parental and Youth Education about the complexities of this particular type of social media.

The final take-away from this report should be that, while it is important for creators of virtual worlds to spend time and effort to thoughtfully craft a safe virtual world, the worlds themselves are not inherently fraught with negative content. It is important to reemphasize that the instances of explicit content, as defined by the FTC, were rare in the children’s virtual worlds, and researchers had to dig really hard to find it. Virtual worlds contain an amazing wealth of creative, thoughtful and positive content, and with the help of electronic tools and sharp trained community moderators, the benefits of these worlds can far outweigh any detractions.

What if you went to Disneyland and Mickey Mouse took his head off, shook your hand and said “let me tell you about what we are doing here”? That is exactly what the kids virtual world Webosaurs will be doing today during a live event held inside the world.

As Webosaurs founder Jacques Panis plans to embark on a journey to South Africa with Webosaurs spokesperson and BBC wildlife expert Nigel Marven to film educational videos for the site, Webosaurs has invited children and parents alike to an in-world party where they can interact with artists, developers and the child safety experts from Metaverse Mod Squad.

Metaverse Mod Squad CEO Amy Pritchard and Chief Moderator Susan South will be among the attendees at today’s party, promoting the safety aspects of the site and interacting with the children along with other Webosaurs moderators that will be on-hand.

Pritchard believes the party will be important because, “from a parent’s perspective, their kids are in a real place with real people that care about them. It’s not just a cartoon game.”

Panis agrees.

“Tying in Metaverse Mod Squad is crucial to today’s event because we are showing parents that behind all of the beauty and fun there are real people who are very concerned about their family’s safety and online experience. These people are at the forefront of safety and security of online properties,” he said.

Since its inception, Webosaurs has promoted an environment where creators and users can interact and share their investment in the world. Panis, known in-world as “Flyboy,” is a regular fixture at Webosaurs events and makes daily visits to meet and talk with the children. Metaverse Mod Squad moderators are in-world just about every hour of the day guiding and helping the users while utilizing best practices to provide constant protection. I’m also a regular fixture in-world as my avatar “Rex,” listening to the users and attending to their needs directly rather than waiting for a customer service email.

In addition to these attendees, Art Director Justin Harder and Lead Developer Diego Cibils will be at the party as “JuiceKing” and “Colegate,” respectively. The event this evening will provide parents and children alike a chance to meet and talk to these people along with other Webosaurs artists. Panis believes this level of interaction is unlike any other found in virtual worlds for kids and he hopes today’s event will raise the bar on what Webosaurs provides to its users’ experiences.

“We see what the kids are doing out there with their blogs and the things they create. We want to inspire and show them that anything and everything is possible,” he said.

Creating a successful and engaging virtual world for kids is as much about pushing the level of interaction as it is about the “physical” product presented. While Mickey Mouse may never take his head off, Webosaurs is happily opening its doors to let parents and children see and meet the people behind the magic.

-Chase

Chase Straight is Metaverse Mod Squad’s Head of Community for Webosaurs. For more details on today’s event such as time and place, please visit the Webosaurs blog which is also maintained by Chase.

"We're only getting HOW many coins? I'm so blogging about this."

As kids begin to focus their attention online, specifically towards virtual worlds, we’re seeing a large movement of kids participating in the blogosphere. These young bloggers create online content based around their favorite virtual world by posting cheats, news and pictures.

Essentially, the kids act as reporters for the virtual world by taking screenshots of parties and events in addition to reporting on various issues in the world. They are skilled in creating YouTube videos (from music videos to tutorials) and embedding them into a blog post to share with their friends.

These children are growing up in an era where blogs are taking over newspapers and are the base of online content distribution. Even though they’re young, they actively contribute to their online communities by creating a recorded history of the worlds they help create. Their audience is easy to capture since the content is relevant to a large, potential reader base they interact with regularly.

In fact, some kid bloggers have developed such a large following that emerging virtual world sites have entered into financial partnerships with them in order to reach their fanbase. Their star power and celebrity status have inspired other children to create blogs of their own, hoping to attract the same level of readership.

While they will eventually grow too old to continue blogging about their favorite virtual world, these budding bloggers are learning valuable skills they can take with them to the next level as they develop their interests and associations. In the meantime, they are having a blast and engaging their online interests in a healthy and entertaining way.

-Chase Straight

My fascination (some might say obsession) with children’s virtual worlds began unremarkably enough when my 8 year old asked me how to spell “penguin”. It would have struck me as odd anytime for my son to be worried about his spelling, but in the midst of a playdate with his best buddy, it seemed particularly uncharacteristic.  As it turned out, the boys had been trying unsuccessfully to log onto Club Penguin, and had a substantial browsing history to show for it (www.clubpingwin.com,  www.clubpingwing.com, www.clubpingwon.com and the like).

Truth be told, I generally discourage screentime during my children’s playdates, but something about the desperation in these kids’ eyes – and the article in the New York Times about the Disney Company buying Club Penguin for $700 million dollars – piqued my curiosity.  So I caved.  Beyond caved, really.

That night, after my son went to bed giddy with excitement over the creation of his penguin alter-ego, I created an Antarctic avatar of my own, determined to understand the colossal appeal of online  playgrounds. I would spend the next eighteen months (and counting) alongside my school-age children and bazillions of their peers in the trenches of children’s virtual worlds.

Have I lost my mind?  It’s a legitimate question. But honestly (and I know I’m probably in the vast minority on this one) watching children play, interact, and live in virtual worlds has been one of the most intellectually stimulating experiences of my professional career. Everything I learned in graduate school about Piaget’s stages of  cognitive development, Erikson’s stages of social-emotional development, and Kohlberg’s stages of moral development is right there – for better and for worse - unfolding before my eyes.

As an educator, I’m amazed by the way kids naturally navigate online play spaces without the slightest hint of instruction.  It’s as if they were born with some kind of internal virtual world GPS that their parents sorely lack.  I love watching children learn the ropes of virtual economies, applying math and money principles; and communicating with one another through reading and writing.  It makes me want to yell from the rooftops of schoolboards, currently cutting technology budgets, that a spoonful of virtual sugar can be just the thing to make a dry academic curriculum go down.

But the true object of my obsession in these new fanged digital playgrounds; the real reason I’ve permanently parked myself in the igloos of Club Penguin, the studios of Stardoll and the mountains of Moshi Monsters is that to me, children’s virtual worlds perfectly capture both the essence and complexity of the 21st century childhood.  As a parenting author, columnist, and speaker whose purpose is helping digital immigrant parents raise happy, healthy, grounded digital native children, I can think of no better place for me to be.

–Sharon

Metaverse Mod Squad, Director of Youth Strategy

www.theundercovermom.com