A Lotta Waddle Going on For Club Penguin
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At the beginning of January I posted an article “Why are kids chillin’ with Club Penguin?“. Since then I have received a lot of great input from visitors, both young and old, players and parents.
This has been a great experience for me — and hopefully my visitors — to see the different opinions about this online community where kids interact with other “penguins” all over the world. The interaction confirms the behavior I’ve seen in both types of people. The kids are web-savvy and, for the most part, love the place and are hard-pressed to find anything unsafe about it. Some parents (not all), on the other hand, showed some reluctance to it citing safety concerns.
The thing to remember about the CP community or any online hangout is that you should never let your guard down, both parent and child alike. A kid’s nature is to find out what’s going on. Parents are trying to protect their children, as they should, but can sometimes avoid learning about something before making a final decision on it for fear of embarrassing themselves for not understanding what’s going on.
I confess that, at first, I was that way too. I didn’t think I wanted my kids playing around with other strangers because you just never know who was on the other side of the monitor. But you parents know how it goes: “But daddy, pleeeeaase?” Not that their pleas caused me to cave in, rather it reminded me that given my interest in all things Web, I should keep an open mind about it and then decide on what to do next.
I first read the policy on their site which is very informative and sensitive to parental concerns. I then created my own profile to see what it was all about, in addition to watching my children. I would encourage you parents to do the same as it’s really the only way to figure out what’s going on. It may not be as bad as it seems.
I should point out that I’m not being compensated in any way by the good people of CP. This is just my honest opinion based on my own research.
So if you haven’t already, take a look at the comments that have been made on the post. And then waddle on over to Club Penguin and see for yourself whether you should allow your kids a little playtime there. 
[tags]club penguin, online community, internet safety[/tags]
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Comments
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My kids love Club Penguin. It’s so funny to see my gregarious 8-year-old daughter and nearly 5-year-old son accept everyone who asks to be their friend. My 10-year-old son, the reticent one, debates each request, citing some rules such as “does the name mean it’s a boy” and “is the name a cool one.”
We’ve just started on Nickelodeno’s Nicktopolis, too. Like CP, it has the qualities I’m looking for in a site for the kids. (And, no, I’m not paid diddly-squat for my opinions!)
Hi ken. I was just Wondering how to leave a comment on Why Are kids chillin with club penguin please answer
[…] Club Penguin, the latest online virtual hangout space for children has gained widespread popularity and sooner or later, you will be faced with the decision of whether to allow you child access to this online meetup space. Is it safe? Is it entertaining? Is it time well spent? The answers vary depending on who you ask – kids or their parents. Both parents and children chimed in on the debate at Family WebWatch and today their website, you will find a follow up its January post Why Are Kids Chillin’ with Club Penguin? with a summary of lessons learned. […]