IMBEE, A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE FOR TWEENS, RELAUNCHES WITH A LOT OF FANFARE AND TIGHTER CHILDREN'S SECURITY

imbee officially relaunched February 10, 2011 as the social network for tweens with a newly designed site, original and exclusive content, imbee personalities and much more.  Described as 'part YouTube, part Amazon.com, part iTunes... and all imbee,' the social network is the only safe place for kids to chat with friends, upload videos and photos, play games, check out original shorts and web series and get the latest pop culture news. And coming this spring, users can download music, as well as buy cool stuff at the imbee retail store.

"We're excited to be giving kids too young for Facebook and too old for Club Penguin a place to play and interact online," said Alan Anderson, imbee CEO. "We've taken great care to create something totally unique with quality content that caters to the kid who loves to multi-task -- what users get at imbee can't be found anywhere else."

imbee takes children's safety and security very serious, and has implemented the following procedures to insure their safety:  

• Identity Authenticaiton - For security and COPPA compliance, imbee requires identity authentication via a credit card from a parent or a teacher, exactly how the United States Postal Service verifies change of address. 
• Parental Authorization - Parent's must authorize a kid's account, or their kids will not have full access to the features on the site. 
• Security Settings - imbee has built-in security settings that allow the parent to set age-appropriate parameters related to their kid's online activities. 
• Daily Activity Reports - Each parent may also request a daily report of his or her child's activity on imbee. 
• Kid-Safe Content - All imbee content is appropriately themed and caters to 8- to 14-year-old kids. 

imbee offers free access to all registered users, including the option for upgraded premium services.

Meanwhile parents may be leery of letting tweens and younger teens use sites like Facebook and MySpace.  In other words, there is a social network gap for the 8-14 crowd (a not inconsiderable cohort, numbering about 14 million or 4.5% of the U .S. population).  

That's the target audience for imbee, a free social network for tweens described by its creators as "part YouTube, part Amazon.com, part iTunes...and all imbee." According to the same statement, imbee's mission is to provide a "safe place for kids to chat with friends, upload videos and photos, play games, check out original shorts and web series and get the latest pop culture news." This includes original and exclusive content; kids can also create avatars and participate in interest groups and "fanzones." In the next couple months imbee plans to introduce music downloads and e-commerce through an online retail store.

 

 

COMMENTARY:   The 8-14 year olds or "Tweens", as they are commonly referred to, are a rambunctious and very vocal bunch that can be difficult to control, and at this age are discovering their sexual identity and developing their first boy-girl relationships.  Parents watch out.  It only gets worst as Tweens evolve into "Teens".  If you cannot get a handle on them when they are Tweens, it will be nearly impossible when they are Teens.

As toddler's they grew up playing with the buttons and keys of their parents cellphones and computers.  Now they play and can navigate their way through apps using their parent's iPhone, iPod and iPad.  When they became preschooler's they were already proficient with most mobile devices and computers, spending their time watching children's videos and playing with online games.  So by the time they became Tweens, they were a whiz on a computer, and by now heard about Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.  

I am still a bit ambivulent about allowing Tweens to join a social network, but there is no stopping them.  Even though imbee has several safety and security controls, parent's really need to supervise their children's online activities and take extra precautions to insure browser parental controls are on high alert.  My greatest fear is child stalkers and pedophiles, impersonating as Tweens, which is why social networks can be a dangerous place to be.

imbee originally launched in 2007, but the FTC charged the founders Jeannette Symons and Industrious Kid, Inc, with violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). According to the FTC’s complaint, imbee enabled more than 10,500 children to create imbee accounts by submitting their first and last names, dates of birth, personal e-mail addresses, parents' e-mail addresses, gender, user-names and passwords prior to the site’s providing notice to parents or obtaining their consent. Children who registered also were able to create and post text, photographs, and other content on their personal imbee blog pages, which could not be viewed by others until the parent had completed the registration process. 

The FTC complaint was settled in January 2008, and Industrious Kid, Inc. and Jeanette Symons, paid a $130,000 civil penalty.  In addition, the order specifically prohibits the defendants from violating any provision of the Rule, and requires them to delete all personal information collected and maintained in violation of the Rule. The defendants are required to distribute the order and the FTC’s “How to Comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule” to company personnel. The order also contains standard compliance, reporting, and record keeping provisions to help ensure the defendants abide by its terms.

imbee is not the only Tween social network.  Everloop, another "Facebook for tweens" for 8 to 13-year-olds launched in mid-February 2011.   Marketed towards kids as "a place where WE can connect," Everloop promises users "no mean people, no party crashers, and no grown-ups allowed."   Disney recently acquired Togetherville, a social network for kids that launched in 2007, for an undisclosed amount.  Disney is the leader in edutainment sites for tweens, and their acquisition of a children's social network demonstrates that they view social networks for kids a new and important market.

However, similar to imbee, Everloop and Togetherville require credit card verification from parents to make sure that every account created is associated with a parents or other responsible adult. Everloop and Togetherville lets parents be as involved, or as hands-off, with their child's online activity as they want. And by promising that real people are trained to identify "early signs of troublemakers," the site abides by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

I have not found any other complaints filed against either inbee, Everloop or Togetherville, but it is going to be interesting to see how things develop over the coming months and years.

Courtesy of an article dated February 23, 2011 appearing in MediaPost Publications The Social Graf, an article dated February 10, 2011 appearing in Reuters and the Federal Trade Commission

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[Albert Franklin]

Alan Aderson, CEO of Imbee, makes it a lot easier for 4th to 9th graders to connect online.

[Surfing Costa Rica]

that's a good article. Thank you i wish your article will be continue.. :)

[Ariel]

my mom wouldn't let me have a facebook...but imbee is WAY better!! my favorite part is the Donkey Boyz!!

[Diane]

Imbee is a fantastic site! I have a son who is always on it and he loves it. I feel that my son is safe on the site, and it couldn't be bettter.