Website Review: ICanHasCheezburger.com
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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that the user-generated content on this
site is almost entirely tame -- and very silly. The site
appeals to a particular niche that's hard to identify, but
those who love their pets, have a silly sense of humor, are
interested in digital photography, and enjoy the site's
positive vibe seem to be its core community.
Families can talk about the way an online community can develop
around such a silly concept as cat pictures with misspelled
captions. Why do you think this idea caught on? Can you define
what you like about it? Do you think it's OK to misspell so
many words for comic effect? What if you tried to do that on
your homework? Younger kids: can you think of a caption for
something your pet did? Older kids: can you think of another
book borne from the Internet?
Users take silly photos of their cats (which the site refers to as LOLcats), add captions with intentional misspellings, and submit them to the site. Started in January 2007 with a single silly cat photo, ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.COM has become something of a cultural phenomenon. The site receives several thousand submissions per day, of which 10 or so are posted, and it reported 1 billion page views in 2008. LOLcats even spawned a compilation book with the same name as the site. Most of the photos are of cats caught doing something catlike – hiding in a box, standing on hind legs, looking grimly at the camera – while the captions, along the lines of “I eated yr cookie,” aptly capture the moment.
The site’s content is entirely user-generated and edited for the best submissions -- so the quality and humor quotient varies. Mostly, it feels like one giant “in” joke that you slowly catch on to as you view each successive photo. The feeling of the site is warm and lighthearted and appreciative of others’ efforts -- this isn’t a place that tolerates mean-spirited comments.
Still, kids could encounter the rare inappropriate comment before it's flagged and mild sexual references could pop up occasionally if you hit the "random" button. Icanhascheezburger.com is the kind of thing you either like or don’t -- and if your kid is one who does, keep them on the main home page if they're under 12. Better yet, enjoy it with them and try and come up with silly captions for your own pets.
iCarly.com
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
