Internet resources: Global social network for kids - Webkinz - launched in Russia

Russia launches a global social network for children Webkinz, which is totally safe and offers the opportunity of the social adaptation to the adult life. To become the participant of the community it is necessary to by a soft toy with the same name, which contains a secret code to access the website www.webkinz.com.

Sociologists estimate that from 6 to 8 millions of children who use Internet are from 7 to 14 years old. At the same time 25% of pre-school children surf the Internet without their parents’ control. A poll carried out by ROMIR highlighted that 67% parents were very concerned about the security of their children on the Internet. The Webkinz project doesn’t contain User Generated Content – thus all the actions on the web site are modeled by its developers beforehand, right up to ready phrases in the chat.

This all makes the danger of unwanted content practically impossible. The project www.webkinz.com was launched in 2005 in Canada, already by summer 2006 the number of its participants increased 1 000 000 people. In the end 2009 the website was translated into 26 languages, and the toys with the code are now distributed in over 50 countries. The statistics of visits shows about 5 000 000 of unique visitors per month.