Webkinz - What's All the Fuss About?

If you have an 8-12 year old, you've probably heard of Webkinz. If you haven't heard of them, you probably will. Ganz, the makers of Webkinz, claims to have sold 2 million animals, and to have 1 million accounts on their website. Webkinz can safely be called the latest craze sweeping the preteen age bracket. But what are they, and what makes them so popular?

The short answer is that Webkinz are small stuffed animals (think Beanie Babies) that come with an ID tag attached. There's a code on the ID tag that gives the buyer (aka pet owner) access to Webkinz World, an online community for the animals and their owners. Once an account is created in the community, the pets are given a room with some food and furnishings, and must then be cared for. Multiple pets can be cared for on one account. The Webkinz site states clearly that accounts are valid for one year, and can be continued by adopting more animals.

So what happens in Webkinz world? Well much of the play revolves around earning and spending Kinzcash, the local currency. Kinzcash can be earned by playing games, entering contests, answering trivia questions, and "working" in the virtual community. The cash is spent on taking care of the pets, feeding them, buying treats, and adding to their living spaces. If the pets aren't fed and cared for, they get sick and need medicine, but Webkinz pets cannot die. There is a posted memo on the Webkinz site reassuring users that rumors of a pet killer are false, and that Webkinz cannot get seriously hurt or die. There's also a newly added Webkinz Clubhouse where users can chat with friends. The chats are monitored and only allow prewritten sentence options to be sent to pre-selected friends.

The seductiveness of the Webkinz world brings up some issues about the amount of time kids spend online. There are games that can only be played once each day, and events that happen only on specific days, which encourages kids to login frequently. According to most reports, individual users spend 1-2 hours on Webkinz every time they log in. Although the website is currently ad free, that's still a lot of screen time. The Webkinz virtual tour advises kids to "spend a little time every day playing with and caring for each of your pets", implying both daily website time and multiple Webkinz purchases. To be fair, the parent section of the website also encourages Mom or Dad to limit Webkinz time to no more than an hour or two each day and to use it as a reward for completed homework. Each adopted Webkinz comes with a special online present that is unique to that animal. At $7-$15 retail, the plush toys are affordable on a modest allowance, but the money definitely adds up. Like Beanie Babies, Webkinz are mostly sold by small businesses like Hallmark stores. Also like Ty, Ganz periodically retires some of its Webkinz, creating a higher demand. Stores are finding it difficult to impossible to keep the Webkinz in stock, and many report that they aren't allowed to call Ganz and find out when to expect another shipment.

Overall, the jury is still out on whether Webkinz are a good or a bad thing. For a safe environment where kids can play and socialize, Webkinz appears to be fairly benign. For an addictive marketing tool, Ganz appears to have combined Beanie Babies with Tamagotchis and come up with gold. For parents, the best advice is to supervise computer time and use your own good judgment.