Social Networking Sites for Kids: a Review of FooPets and Millsberry

With social networking becoming more and more apart of everyday life for parents, children are going to become accustomed to Mom or Dad signing into Facebook or sending updates to Twitter. One day your child will inevitably ask you about joining a social media site. When this happens, you should allow them to join a child friendly social network and begin to experience some of the fun these networks offer. This article is going to break down a couple of sites.

FooPets.com

FooPets.com is a fairly recent development and it allows your child to adopt a three dimensional pet in the form of a cat or dog. Several different breeds are available, so chances are your child will find an animal that wins their heart.

On Foopets, your child will be able to engage in social media while still having a recreational aspect. Any animal on foopets should be fed at least once every 24 hours and watered. Flea treatments can be applied, and baths should be given semi-regularly. FooPets respond to playing catch and flying discs and include chew toys! Children earn foogems to "buy" fun merchandise such as customizable backgrounds and can take pictures of their pet with a built-in tool. FooPets has the potential to teach your child responsibility as well, as neglecting a FooPet for too long can lead to it being taken away!

FooPets.com accounts can be created with an e-mail address, and they can also be synchronized with a facebook account. Should you have a 100% family-friendly list of connections on facebook, you can link your child's FooPet with your account which will allow them to use the toolbar chat feature to say "Hi" to Aunt Becky or Grandma with the greatest of ease. They will only be allowed access to these features with people on your friend's list which makes Foopets perfectly safe. You could also allow them their own facebook page to connect with Foopets with the stipulation that you control the password until they reach an age that will allow them more freedoms. You can set their privacy settings and make sure they only connect with family and friends approved by you.

Millsberry.com

Millsberry.com is a site created by General Mills that allows children a bit of a personalized online presence. Children can create a fun animated avatar for themselves and then use it to send fun greetings to friends or engage in online games at the Millsberry arcade. Millsberry features a fun city and a downtown area for children to hang out in after they have filled out a registration form and became a citizen.

Millsberry.com's arcade games feature four different types of activity in the game categories of fitness, civics, intelligence, and reward. The games boost profile stats for a Millsberry citizen, but all can be lost if a healthy diet is not stuck to. An online community that encourages healthy activity is a great way to let children explore social media while understanding there are real activities to engage in as well.

Get your kids started with social networking by introducing them to a couple of web-sites at first. By making sure these web-sites incorporate some type of benefit - whether it be responsibility training or activity encouragement - you will ensure that some lessons are learned while fun is being had.