BBC to launch safe ‘kids Facebook' site

MyCBBC is targeting the gap left by Facebook and other commercial rivals such as MySpace and Bebo, which all stipulate a lower age limit of 13.

“There is a commercial market failing in the children's space because they don't want to take on the responsibility for younger users,” said Marc Goodchild, head of interactive and on-demand at BBC children's. “The only player which can do this has to be a public service broadcaster.”

The MyCBBC site is being developed by TwoFour Digital for “hundreds of thousands of pounds”. It will be piloted among 1,000 children next month and accessible through the BBC homepage from around April.

Users will be able to design online “dens” to reflect their own personality and interests, and to send messages from a palette of pre-determined symbols and phrases. Children who exchange usernames in real life or on the CBBC message boards will also be able to send private, unscripted messages, but will not be able to make unscripted contact with strangers.

The restriction aims to stop children from inadvertently revealing details that could be picked up by net predators and used to “groom” potential targets.

The BBC is also looking at ways of getting around the problem by developing “proxy identities” that will allow children to “connect over common interests”, but will stop them from divulging personal details.

Goodchild said the launch set-up would fully address the needs of young users: “Attitudes to networking among pre-teens are about extending playground conversations into personal time,” he said. “There doesn't seem to be this drive to open up to new friends. That comes around secondary school when they are asking: ‘Who am I?' and looking for like-minded people.”

He added: “This is about trying to develop their internet skills and social networking in a safe, protected environment. It's about media literacy. We can use it to make children aware of the risks and dangers of the wider web, which is unregulated.”

A few commercial networking sites for children already exist - for example, the community game RuneScape and Disney-owned Club Penguin - but the BBC does not anticipate intervention from the BBC Trust. “I would say no because the biggest issue at the moment is that there are no significant commercial players,” Goodchild said.

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