Webkinz- the Stuffed Toy that Comes to Life

My daughter just turned seven this past week and on Saturday we gave her a birthday party. One of her close friends from school bought her a Webkinz pet and it has been absolutely one of her favorite toys ever. Webkinz are plush animals (about the size of your hand) that come with a secret code that allows you to play with your pet in a virtual world online.

My daughter got the Hippo and this cuddly, cute animal is more than just a stuffed toy. When you use the secret code to log into your account online, you'll meet a virtual version of your little hippo all ready to play with you. There are many exciting things you can do online with your pet and you also have to remember to feed him or her and to play with her.

Webkinz.com is an exciting virtual world for children. You can earn what is called WinzCash which allows you to purchase things from the online store that you can use in your virtual world such as food and clothing for your pet, furniture and even wall decorations. Many of the items you can purchase for your room are interactive, just as the stove that allows you to cook your own exciting concoctions.

There are so many great things to do in the Webkinz world that your child will never get bored. In addition to interacting with your pet in your own virtual room, you can also visit the clubhouse and play games with other kids, play tournaments and win cash and visit the arcade for many great one-player games. There are word games, matching games and puzzles, traditional games and even typing games- a wide variety of activities to challenge your child's skills.

Safety and Kid's Chat Features

The Webkinz site has several chat features. For example, players can chat with one another in the clubhouse, while playing games and tournaments against one another and through an in-game mail system when they add another player to their friends list, However, Ganz has worked hard to make this a safe environment for children and the chat features are limited. Children can only chat with one another using pre-selected sentences, even when sending mail. They do not have the feature to write their own text messages.

In the KinzChat PLUS area, children are allowed to enter some of their own text but parents must give permission before the child can enter the KinzChat PLUS area. In this area, they can only use words that are present in the KinzChat dictionary and any numbers or number words are blocked out. Things such as telephone numbers, "call me", addresses, etc will be blocked as well as violent words such as "I'm going to punch you". Parents have complete control over how and when their children use the Webkinz site and you can feel safe allowing your children to chat with other members.

Because of my daughter's age, I have still asked her to allow me to read all in-game mail first before I allow her to read it. While it appears to be nearly impossible for a child predator to abuse the Webkinz system, this is still a family rule that we have. However, I feel comfortable allowing her to play games or visit the clubhouse with other children and while our computer is in a family room and I am always nearby, I don't worry as much as I would if she were online someplace else.

You can learn more about Webkinz here at their official site. Remember that if it is not from Ganz, it is not an official Webkinz. There are many "knock-offs" available online and these stuffed toys contain false online codes that won't work when you try to log in on the official site.