KidsDomain.com: Safe, Educational, but Lonely
By Jeff Mellen
You could say that I got my taste of Internet access back in early
1995, when I was 13 years old. My parents decided to yield to my wishes
and get our family an AOL account. Everyone else on the block was
doing it, and hey, emailing my teachers would be cool! Little did
I know that I would spend most of the paltry five hours per month
that AOL offered doing inane things such as downloading sound files
or movie trailers, or visiting sites for kids with my eleven year-old
sister. AOL didn't offer that much back then-- not even a connection
to the World Wide Web-- but it did have a solid library of kid stuff,
such as shareware programs, pictures, screen savers, an encyclopedia,
a dictionary-- you name it. Until version 2.5 came out and I could
go to ESPN or learn HTML, it was this library that kept me entertained.
KidsDomain.com is a throwback to this simpler time. The site, described
by its parent, theglobe.com, is "an ever-expanding, content rich
site that provides a safe haven on the Internet to surf for fun PC
and MAC activities, educational software, online games, crafts, contests
and special holiday activities." This range of content is aimed
at a slightly younger audience-- predominantly ages 8-14, and there
is a definite focus throughout the site on education and exploration,
as opposed to the chat rooms and message boards that AOL provided.
However, navigating through the site, I can't help but think about
the similarities between KidsDomain and the "Kids Only"
section on older versions of AOL. Even the button layout on some of
the pages looks like the AOL channel screen!
What's more important, of course, is the content, and KidsDomain
indeed has a lot of it. The largest portion of the site, not surprisingly,
is the "Kids" section. It is divided into headings such
as "Brain Builders," in which kids may find out more about
Space, Dinosaurs, and other subjects, an online games section, a Crafts
section, a section devoted to Pokemon, as well as pages for sports,
safe surfing guidelines, and even a programming reference for children
aged 9 and above, which is very impressive. As an activity book, KidsDomain.com
and its embedded links hold their own; aside from general knowledge
pages, it contains many "printable activities," such as
online coloring books, word games, puzzles, construction guides, and
more. And what self-respecting twelve year-old with a computer doesn't
love clip art? KidsDomain offers enough icons and clip art to keep
a precocious preteen satisfied with PowerPoint or Publisher for quite
some time.
KidsDomain is not just for kids, however. As it is a brainchild for
two mothers, the site offers parents with a wealth of information
and product reviews. The designers of the site anticipate that a parent
will want to visit the site to collect and print activities just as
much as his/her child-- so many of the resources for children are
also linked to the "Grownups" section. Parents will definitely
want to take a look at KidsDomain's extensive software review section--
the largest repository of educational & youth software reviews
that I have seen. Finally, KidsDomain also sells a fair amount of
educational software products--a feature exclusively for adults.
Despite the wide range of content, there is something missing with
KidsDomain that was central to my experience on AOL-- a sense of community.
There is no place to chat on KidsDomain-- no place to post messages,
and no links to talk to other children. Granted, the Internet has
grown up in the past six years, and legislation surrounding children's
privacy on the Internet is necessary. But still, the site seems very
isolated-- and one of the things I loved as a child on AOL was the
ability to talk to or even hear about others my own age. For this
reason, I think that KidsDomain actually serves parents much better.
There are a lot of good activity ideas on KidsDomain that parents
can give to their children to do together or in groups, and the aforementioned
software reviews really are valuable.
However, as a standalone site for children, KidsDomain seems a little
lonely. The software downloads, clip art, contests, and learning resources
are great to have on a rainy day. I just would have liked for this
online domain to... well, have more kids.