Nick's virtual world for kids

Move over Nick.com and NickJr.com, make room for Nicktropolis.com, Nickelodeon’s new virtual world for kids 6-14. “Nickelodeon was prompted to join the surging world of online activities for children in part by research that showed that 86% of 8-to-14-year-olds were playing games online, more than 51% were watching TV shows and videos online and 37% were sending instant messages,” the New York Times reports. And – as in ClubPenguin.com and the virtual world the BBC’s planning (see last week’s issue), young users will navigate this virtual world with the avatars, or online characters they create in Nicktropolis. There will be familiar friends (brands) too, such as SpongeBob and other characters in Bikini Bottom, which the Times says will be one of the world’s play environments. The Times doesn’t say much about safety, only that there will be no message boards, as in Nick.com, but avatars will be able to chat in real time. Nicktropolis’s safety info for parents doesn’t say chat is moderated, but the interaction is apparently governed by a “sanitized dictionary” with a profanity filter and no violent or threatening language.