100,000 kids join CBBC social network

Jemima Kiss
guardian.co.uk, Thursday July 10 2008 15.01 BST

The BBC has said its social networking site for young children, MyCBBC, has reached 100,000 registered users in four months, as the corporation addresses demand for safe social media tools for younger children.

MyCBBC was launched shortly before an official report by media regulator Ofcom found that more than a quarter of eight- to 11-year-olds in the UK regularly use social networking sites designed for older children and teenagers.

Bebo, Facebook, MySpace and most other major networks require users to be at least 13. A smaller number of sites offer services for younger children, because of tighter safety demands.

MyCBBC, which was developed with production company TwoFour Digital, is designed for six- to 12-year-olds, and invites them to design their own "dens" with furniture and accessories. It also offers material related to BBC children's programmes to customise the page.

The identity of children is protected by disguising real names, and by limiting "friends" to 16 other users who can only choose from multiple choice comments. Profiles can only be seen by those 16 friends.

Rival commercial sites tend to be focused around a special interest or gaming, such as Horseland, Neopets or Stardoll, or brand extensions such as BarbieGirls.

Marc Goodchild, the head of interactive and on-demand for BBC Children's, said the focus for MyCBBC was media and technology literacy.

"Our research showed that while kids love the idea of sites like World of Warcraft, they are still quite innocent and quite nervous about joining," Goodchild added.

"We're really pleased that we have reached 100,000 sign-ups because it demonstrates that it is appropriate to hand-hold kids gently into being expressive and creative."

He said sites such as Club Penguin focused on play and causal chat rather than creativity with a British voice.

"To get the full benefit of many of these sites you have to pay a subscription," Goodchild said, adding that that could contribute to a digital divide.

"I certainly don't think we should be monopolising this area, but we are trying to help set standards," he added.

Goodchild said the BBC has talked to Lego and "other trusted brands" about developing best practice for children's social networking sites.

Introducing more creative features for children will be a priority, he added, making more connections between the service and other BBC content and allowing them to output some of their work, so pictures could be printed and sound clips sent to their MP3 player.

The challenge, Goodchild said, was to allow children to use and share more content while keeping their identity hidden.

"We also want to reduce the barrier to entry," he added, "The conundrum is: Do we allow kids not just to post CBBC content? We could be more open, but how do you police that?"

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