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Virtual worlds have become a growing power in kids’ online activities. In 2008, an estimated eight million US children and teens visited virtual worlds on a regular basis. It is estimated that by 2013 this number will be doubled. Virtual worlds are a relatively new phenomenon, so there isn’t much research on their impact on kids. As parents, we ask: Is it safe? Is it educational? Do our children benefit from this activity? In lack of long-term research the best answer seems to be that like every other activity we choose to do, when it is measured and in balance with other activities, it can be enjoyable, harmless and sometimes even educational. It is our responsibility as parents to direct our children to safe constructive activities that will help them to grow as people and become contributing citizens. The same thing is true for choosing online activities for them and specifically for virtual worlds. As parents we have to make sure that our children visit virtual worlds that are suited for their age and are safe for them. We also want to direct our children to virtual worlds that offer quality content and educational value.

What is a virtual world?

Virtual worlds are services which offer Internet users a computer simulated environment imitating the real world. In the virtual world the user interacts by using an avatar (a two-dimensional or a three-dimensional computer graphic identity, which represent a user’s alter ego or the user’s real persona) in online chats.

Virtual worlds are divided into two main types:

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) –
These virtual worlds use point systems and competition in the simulation. They have winners and losers. Commercial MMOGs include Everquest and World of Warcraft.

Non-game worlds -
These virtual worlds are less game-like, or not games at all. They are more like social networking services like MySpace and Facebook, but with 3D simulation features. For example, Second Life, ActiveWorlds and The Sims Online.

What are the risks for kids in virtual worlds?

• Children and teenagers can easily get absorbed in a virtual world. It is an enjoyable pastime allowing them to try different points of view and avatars. The danger is when a child is invested more in the virtual life than in real life. This may result in withdrawal from real life activities, poor social skills, loss of ability to distinguish between the real and the imaginary, etc. It is important to limit the time a child or teenager spends surfing virtual worlds in order to keep the child’s base in the real world.
• Private information may be exposed in virtual worlds when a child is persuaded to give up his/her real identity to strangers. It is important to emphasize to the child not to give away private information under any circumstances.
• Sometimes virtual worlds especially ones that are intended for teens can become violent environments. Many virtual worlds have guardians – adults that have avatars in the game and are there to keep the peace. These guardians can not always stop violent behavior. It is important for parents of teens to be involved in their children’s online activities and to instruct them how to behave in problematic situations.
• Online predators sometimes use social network services and virtual worlds to target potential victims. They pose as children and gradually seduce them into an online relationship. This relationship might end in sexual abuse. You can read more on online predators on this post – How to protect your children from online predators.
  The chance of your child being targeted by online predator is low, but since such an encounter has severe consequences, parents should be aware and make sure that their kids don’t get involved in online relationships with strangers.
• All of these risks are worrying, but it seems that the greatest risk in virtual worlds for kids is the inherently commercial nature of many virtual worlds. Kids are encouraged to buy clothes, toys, food, books and more for their avatars using the virtual world currency. In some worlds they have to play games in order to earn “money”, in some they buy the virtual world currency with real money. You can see in many virtual worlds, avatars that are dressed in high fashion clothing and have expensive cars and homes. Many virtual worlds have a strong correlation between consumption and citizenship. Kids are learning that in order to be a good citizen they have to buy the right stuff. Many virtual worlds also have a lot of advertisement.
  In order to avoid this commercial nature, parents should direct their children to non-commercial virtual worlds that usually have more educational value.

What are the Benefits of Virtual Worlds for Children?

In virtual worlds kids are involved in informal learning. By trying different avatars, points of view and jobs they play out scenarios over and over from different angles. They can see what approach is best for them. They learn how to socialize, how to be Internet savvy, how to buy and sell online and how to be members of a society. They learn skills that they’ll need in the future workforce.

Matching the Virtual World to the Child’s Age

When choosing a virtual world for your kids or checking the ones your kids use, it is important to keep the age factor in mind.
Today children surf in virtual worlds from the age of three (usually with adult help) to 18. It is important to see that the virtual world they enter is safe for their age and offers appropriate content.

There are three major age groups:

1. Young children – age 3-10.
   Kids in this age group are just starting to discover the cyber world. They often need help from an adult in order to surf. It is not recommended to let children at this age surf without adult supervision. It is important to make sure that the virtual worlds the child surfs are safe, enclosed environments. There should be no advertisement (or very little). Online chats and forums, if such exist, should be limited and monitored.
2. Tweens or juniors – age 10-14. Tweens are kids who are stuck in this phase between being young kids and being teens. Children at this age range usually have good technological and language abilities that allow them to surf freely. On the other hand, they lack the maturity and experience to help them understand the content that they encounter when surfing—they need adult guidance.
   They are a vulnerable population. Their high technological abilities and desire to socialize exposes them to risks, as well as their PC and private family information.
   Tweens will usually look for more complex virtual worlds that will allow them to chat with their friends freely. It is important for parents of tweens to be involved as much as they can in their kids’ online activities. Parents should direct their tweens to virtual worlds they find suited for them. Guidelines for Internet use should be defined. These guidelines should emphasize Web ethics and privacy protection. Include the child when defining the guidelines in order to make the child more committed to them. An Internet-use policy may help in making those guidelines clear. Parents should talk to their kids about Internet threats, such as: malware attacks, online predators, harassments, and give them examples of immediate solutions, for example: turning off the PC and notifying a parent. Most important is to give your children confidence about approaching the adults in the family in case they encounter suspicious behavior when surfing.
3. Teenagers – age 14-18. Teens have fully developed technological and language skills. They are confident surfing the Internet (sometimes more than their parents). The Internet becomes a strong social and educational tool in their life. Teens are usually more aware of the risks that exist on the web. On the other hand, in this age group there is a tendency for risk taking. In addition, teens usually use a PC in the privacy of their own room, or they go to places that allow them to surf without supervision. So it is nearly impossible to monitor the teenager’s Internet activities.
   Teens will usually be attracted to adult virtual worlds. Adult virtual worlds are not always suited for teenagers. In some you can encounter cybersex activity and violence. It is important for parents of teens to keep being involved in their kids’ online activities. Offering teens appropriate websites that may interest them could be a great solution. There are virtual worlds for teens that offer great content and are non-commercial. Parents should also emphasize Web ethics to their teenagers and warn them about Internet threats.

In order to find a suitable virtual world for your kids you can check out – SafeWeb – Virtual Worlds section. This is a web directory that offers safe websites for kids.

Online communication is an important aspect of the Internet.
Online communication can be established on the web by various tools, all falling under the generic name – social software.

Social software covers a range of software and technologies used by Internet users to interact with each other. It covers different means of online communication techniques such as text messaging, voice communication and video in diverse Internet environments. Social software includes: email, IM (=Instant Message), P2P (=Peer-to-Peer networks), newsgroups, chatrooms, forums, blogs, social network services, virtual worlds etc.

When you use online communication you have the ability to choose how you want to present yourself in a specific situation. Online communication allows you to be open about who you are, be anonymous or make up a new persona. This aspect has a major affect on the authenticity of online relationships.
Anonymous online communication holds serious risk factors for children. They can easily become victims of abuse by individuals communicating with them due to lack of mature judgment skills. Sometimes they are not able to interpret the nature of the relationship correctly and can be misled, bullied, abused or fall victim to scams and ploys.

Child predators take advantage of the anonymity in online communication and target unsuspecting children.

In order for parents to protect their children from such predators, they should become involved in their children’s web activities and learn how to recognize a problematic online relationship.

How Do Child Predators work?

Child predators use the anonymous nature of online communication in order to contact children and gradually seduce them into an online relationship. This relationship might end in sexual abuse.

They use various forms of online communication, such as, IM, chatrooms, forums, newsgroups, and virtual worlds to target potential victims.

Child predators invest a lot of effort in targeting and seducing children into a relationship. They often pose as children. They are knowledgeable in children’s popular hobbies and interests. They seduce children by giving them attention, affection, understanding, kindness and sometimes gifts. They try to target vulnerable kids who crave for attention and affection.

Who is vulnerable?

All children that use the Internet are at risk. It is more likely that children will be exposed to unsuitable material than encounter an online predator, but the outcome of such encounters is so severe that parents can not be indifferent to this issue. Although all children are at risk, young adolescents are the most vulnerable age group due to the specific characteristics of this age group. Children in this age group usually have good technological and language abilities that allow them to surf freely without adult help. They are frequent users of social software such as, IM (=Instant Message) , P2P (=Peer-to-Peer networks), social network services and newsgroups.

On the other hand, they lack the maturity and experience to help them understand the content that they encounter when surfing. They can easily misinterpret an online relationship, especially one which engages an adult with ulterior motives.

They want to be free of their parents’ control and to gain respect as grown-ups.
They explore their sexuality and have the desire to socialize.
They are in the rebellious phase of their lives and try to establish relationships outside the family. Child predators are well aware of these facts and exploit them.

Victims of child predators might be:

• Seeking attention and affection.
• New on the Internet scene and unaware of web ethics.
• Lacking in social skills in the real world.
• Unpopular in their social circle.
• Rebellious.
• Confused regarding their sexual identity.
• Naïve and unsophisticated in comparison to their age group.

What can parents do to protect their children?

• Show an interest in your children’s Internet activities. Nothing can be as effective as good communication when discussing means to protect them in the cyber world. Don’t be judgmental. Try to understand their experiences and understand their frustration expressed against your efforts to manage their Internet use.
• Be a role model. Direct your children to appropriate websites that could be of interest to them. Teach your children web ethics and explain to them about the threats exist on the Internet.
• Become Internet savvy. If you have knowledge about services and applications that are available on the Internet, you will be more effective when guiding your children.
• Supervise your children when they use the Internet. If you have young children, make sure that the PC they are using is in a family space.
• Define clear guidelines for your children for Internet use. You can define an Internet use policy. Place the use policy near the PC that they use to keep the rules visible at all times.
• Much in the same way you educate your children not to talk to strangers in the real world, educate them not to communicate with strangers online. Instruct your children not to answer IM or emails from people they don’t know.
• Young children should not use social software such as: chatrooms, IM, newsgroups, forums and so on. The risks far outweigh the benefits. As for young adolescents and adolescents, make sure that they only use monitored children’s chatrooms, newsgroups or forums. Instruct your children never to leave the public chatroom area. (Chatrooms usually offer the option of a private chat were the conversation is not monitored and can not be seen by others).
• Don’t allow your children to meet with Internet friends in person without your approval and supervision.
• Don’t allow your children to use a private email account. Let them use the family account or an alias you have created for them in order for you to monitor the incoming and outgoing emails.
• Help your children to create a safe username or nickname in the social software tools that they use. A safe username/nickname should not reveal personal information, gender or age.
• If your children use the Internet in unsupervised places such as, libraries, school or friends’ houses, check the security measures that are enforced at these places.
• Instruct your children never to give away personal information online without your approval.
• Instruct your children not to upload personal photos to the web without your approval.
• Instruct your children not to accept photos or files from strangers without your approval.
• Encourage your children to let you know if they encounter any strange behavior or behavior that caused them an uncomfortable feeling. Instruct them on what to do if they encounter such behavior. For example, turning off the PC and notifying a parent.

How can you recognize if your child was targeted by an online predator?

Your child may:

• Withdraw from family and friends.
• Seem depressed and moody.
• Be aggressive towards members of the family. Child predators try to emphasize problems that the child has at home which can cause an aggressive behavior.
• Spend a lot of time online, especially in chatrooms.
• Have pornography on the computer. Child predators often send pornography to children.
• Try to hide his/her Internet activities from you. For example, Opens a private email account, hides the computer screen or shuts down the PC when adult approaches.
• Spend a lot of time on the Internet at friends’ houses in order to avoid your supervision.
• Receive presents from people you don’t know.
• Receive emails from people you don’t know.
• Receive phone calls from people you don’t know. Child predators sometimes try to seduce children to engage in phone sex.

If you have suspicions,

don’t hesitate to confront your child about it.
Emphasize again the guidelines for safe web surfing to your child.
You can also monitor your child Internet activities by using Internet Parental Control software.
If you choose to do so without the child’s knowledge, be aware that it can result in a loss of trust between you and your child.

If all the safety measures you have tried don’t work

and you find out that your child is a victim of a child predator or in initial contact with one, the most important thing is –

not to blame the child.

Always remember that the blame is on the offender.

Immediately contact –

• Your local law-enforcement agency.
• CyberTipline at www.missingkids.com (1-800-843-5678) – This tipline is managed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which has representatives from the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service (USCS), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at its headquarters. You can report incidents of child sexual exploitation, including child pornography, online enticement of children for sexual acts, child prostitution, child-sex tourism, and child sexual molestation.