Blog: You know... for kids

Joe Elliot

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Virtual worlds for kids such as MyCBBC and Club Penguin are putting content in front of an audience that is increasingly migrating online. Joe Elliot considers misconceptions around these new portals and what to expect going forward.

So, MyCBBC has attracted 100,000 registered users in its first four months. Healthy numbers for online, but reassuringly small if you're conditioned to think in BARBs – until you imagine the "audience's" total face time over its whole shelf life (and then divide by the budget).

In other words, not a bad start for the virtual den that caused a stir in the press - "It's Facebook for kids!" – and corresponding mutterings in the corridors at BBC Children's – "It's not Facebook for kids!".

In an online world that's spawning new phenomena every five minutes, and pinning them down just long enough to call them social this or virtual that before they evolve into something else, it's hardly surprising that the "…for kids" label comes out. If, by chance, "Facebook" is your shorthand for a space to express yourself and connect with your friends online, and "for kids" means "in a way that's safe and appropriate for young people", then you're technically not wrong.

If, on the other hand, Facebook means 'strangely addictive race for friends' and 'productivity-killer', then you're a few furlongs wide of the mark.

Similarly, CBBC's Me and My Movie isn't YouTube for kids, and Adventure Rock isn't Second Life for kids. What they do is re-imagine video sharing and explorable virtual worlds in ways that work for the under-13s, for whom we have a special responsibility of care online.

And it's only the relative absence of that responsibility of care that allowed the teen and older online phenomena to kick off first. We're watching a generation of teens migrate wholesale from TV to online. And now that we've – to some degree - charted the murky waters of online safety, the kids are right behind them.

One thing that needs no "for kids" introduction is Club Penguin – the chat-and-games virtual world that has 1.5 million registered users in the UK and famously sold to Disney for up to $700m. Hot on its heels are Miniclip, BarbieGirls, Pirates Online and – literally - a hundred other gaming sites and virtual worlds that attract an hour or more of daily play and are recruiting new members in droves.

There's a tidal wave of content here – and by this time next year you can expect the first online vs TV catch-up comparisons along the lines of the video games vs Hollywood prize fight.

This is just the start. We still haven't seen many kids' 360s – can the BBC lead the way? Or will it be their increasing array of sparky online commissions that frankly don't need TV (full disclosure: we're making some of them). The bright interactive people at Disney, Nick and Cartoon Network know they are sitting on thousands of hours of video content and there are more ways to experience them online than just pressing play. And don't be surprised when kids' worlds like next year's Lego Universe start taking the lead and achieve "…for adults too" crossover.

When The Hudsucker Proxy's Norville Barnes held up his precious pencil drawing of a circle and said, "You know… for kids", we all thought he was a crackpot. The punch line was that he'd invented the hula hoop, the biggest craze of its generation. Watch out for a similar punch line coming soon to a screen near you.

Joe Elliot is director of children's media at Magic Lantern