Friday, June 22, 2007
Paper Dolls for the Electronic Age
Apparently, Star Doll is the paper dolls of the electronic age!
Yesterday two kids, both age 9, a girl and a boy, were doing this at the library. I have seen other kids using it too.
It seems pretty harmless and kinda fun. It's free (mostly). It has male and female stars, actors and actresses, celebrities, singers, model, royals (!?) and more, that you can "dress up."
It has "New, free dolls" like Gardening (? - took me to a game of catching fruit in a basket), (some guy named) Darin (who has an icon next to him that says, "real celeb," so I guess he is"real"), and Angelina Jolie (with, uh, tattoo!?), and the "Most popular dolls," which of are of course, Rihanna, Paris Hilton (not a very good rendering in my view), and Avril Lavigne (who also has one of those "real celeb" icons next to her. Wait, aren't the others "real celebs" too!?)
It has some games. You go "shopping," with "stardollars." You get 25 "stardollars" when you sign up but if you want to BUY more you can with a credit card or PayPal (of course).
Now, you might say, as I did for a moment when I dug around in here, that the images are all of the "perfect," anorexic, skinny, and beautiful. Well, it's not like they're not seeing it anywhere else. This is what the 'stars' look like and this is a virtual world where you go shopping for them and dress them up. It can't be any worse or any better than any other star-related thing. Now, okay they ARE in their under-things when you start - but aren't all paper dolls!?
AND, what kid isn't going to want to buy more virtual clothes for their virtual dolls - rampant consumerism brought to the virtual world! They have money to spend (in a lot of cases) and I'm sure shopping online can be as much of a draw as "real" shopping (heck, I personally have been paying - yes paying - to buy and give virtual gifts on facebook)!
The kids using it yesterday were very excited and delighted to print out their creations and show them to their friends!
There is a "12 and Under" or "13 and Over" choice when you sign-up for your free account. The difference is that those not 13 or over have to get parental permission to become community members. You can make your own "MeDoll" (Choose from hundreds of hairstyles, skin tones, eye-colors, noses, mouths and more!), there's a Message Center, Diary and Guestbook.
They seem to have some "filters" and protections in place. From the FAQ's:
And from Stardoll RULES:
(Expelled!? hee hee)
There are Stardoll Safety Tips and a Parent Guide.
The Stardolls Online Safety Guide for Parents includes this:
"Encourage your child to be conscious" !? I hope so!
But, overall, not a bad way to handle that, I would say.
Now excuse me please, I have to go change Kirsten Dunst!
Yesterday two kids, both age 9, a girl and a boy, were doing this at the library. I have seen other kids using it too.
It seems pretty harmless and kinda fun. It's free (mostly). It has male and female stars, actors and actresses, celebrities, singers, model, royals (!?) and more, that you can "dress up."
It has "New, free dolls" like Gardening (? - took me to a game of catching fruit in a basket), (some guy named) Darin (who has an icon next to him that says, "real celeb," so I guess he is"real"), and Angelina Jolie (with, uh, tattoo!?), and the "Most popular dolls," which of are of course, Rihanna, Paris Hilton (not a very good rendering in my view), and Avril Lavigne (who also has one of those "real celeb" icons next to her. Wait, aren't the others "real celebs" too!?)
It has some games. You go "shopping," with "stardollars." You get 25 "stardollars" when you sign up but if you want to BUY more you can with a credit card or PayPal (of course).
Now, you might say, as I did for a moment when I dug around in here, that the images are all of the "perfect," anorexic, skinny, and beautiful. Well, it's not like they're not seeing it anywhere else. This is what the 'stars' look like and this is a virtual world where you go shopping for them and dress them up. It can't be any worse or any better than any other star-related thing. Now, okay they ARE in their under-things when you start - but aren't all paper dolls!?
AND, what kid isn't going to want to buy more virtual clothes for their virtual dolls - rampant consumerism brought to the virtual world! They have money to spend (in a lot of cases) and I'm sure shopping online can be as much of a draw as "real" shopping (heck, I personally have been paying - yes paying - to buy and give virtual gifts on facebook)!
The kids using it yesterday were very excited and delighted to print out their creations and show them to their friends!
There is a "12 and Under" or "13 and Over" choice when you sign-up for your free account. The difference is that those not 13 or over have to get parental permission to become community members. You can make your own "MeDoll" (Choose from hundreds of hairstyles, skin tones, eye-colors, noses, mouths and more!), there's a Message Center, Diary and Guestbook.
They seem to have some "filters" and protections in place. From the FAQ's:
Why do asterisks (****) appear in my text?
At Stardoll.com we expect everyone to behave well and mind their language - just as we do in real life. If someone types in a rude or dirty word, our automatic "Bad Word - Filter" will replace the word with a series of asterisks – which might be nice in real life too ;-).
And from Stardoll RULES:
When you are at Stardoll you must not:
Swear or use sexually graphic terms or be racist
Bully other Stardolls or in other ways make them feel uncomfortable
Ask other Stardolls for their (or give out your own) password, email addresses or other personal information, including photos
Type your password anywhere except in the log in box on www.stardoll.com
Break the law at Stardoll or talk others into breaking it
Claim you belong to the Stardoll Staff
Anyone that breaks the Stardoll one-stop rules will be expelled.
(Expelled!? hee hee)
There are Stardoll Safety Tips and a Parent Guide.
The Stardolls Online Safety Guide for Parents includes this:
Remember that the positive aspects of the Internet outweigh the negatives.
Internet is an excellent educational and recreational resource for children.
Encourage your child to be conscious and explore the Internet to its full
potential.(These tips are based on tips from American www.safekids.com (National Center of Exploited and Missing Children) and from European www.saftonline.org, Safety Awareness, Facts and Tools)
Kids’ rules for online safety (print out and put up close
to your computer at home) www.safekids.com/kidsrules.htm
(emphasis added mine).
"Encourage your child to be conscious" !? I hope so!
But, overall, not a bad way to handle that, I would say.
Now excuse me please, I have to go change Kirsten Dunst!
Labels: amy kearns, games, kids, online, virtual
¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 9:42 AM
