Website Review: AllyKatzz.com
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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this site is a safe way for tween
girls to blog -- and read other blogs. The girls who are
registered here can't post any identifying information,
including name and city, or any photo of their face, home, or
school. Site administrators hire college students to monitor
all posts and photos. Talk is highly tween-ish and scores much
higher on the tame scale than most other networking sites.
Families can talk about the pros and cons of blogging and
discussing their lives with other tweens they don't know in
real life. What does it mean to not be "mean" on this site? Do
you agree with the "three strikes and you're out" policy? Are
most of the posts positive or negative? Families can also
discuss how companies can create, advertise, and sell products
based on the blogs, quiz, and poll responses of this site's
users.
If you're a girl 9 to 15, you've got a place to blog on ALLYKATZZ.COM without the usual worry of cruel responses, questionable language, and sexual banter that often happens on other social networking sites. Started in 2005 by the tween expert from MoreMagazine.com and her daughter, this free site reports that it's fully monitored by college students for language and other safety concerns.
Unfortunately, what does show up on the site is lots of movie star, boyfriend, and tween angst comments. And there's the undercurrent commercialism yuck factor that data is being collected from participating girls for marketing and research purposes to sell them more stuff tweens "really want and need" (like makeup, clothes, cell phones and gadgets, the site says). But, overall, Allykatzz.com offers girls a home on the Internet to air their thoughts and experiences in a safe environment.
MissOandFriends.com
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
