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Nat Geo’s Animal Jam Markets Lewd Material to Children

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If you are a parent, then you want your kids to be in a safe environment when they go online. That doesn’t always happen, but if they are visiting sites designed for children, then you normally expect an online environment with measures that will keep them safe. Most sites designed for children will implement things like chat filters and perhaps moderation in order to keep kids from using foul language, posting their real names or addresses, or from participating in lewd activity or making references to sex. My kids have been using kid-friendly sites like Club Penguin, Webkinz, and PBS Kids for years without problems; however, it has been recently brought to my attention that Nat Geo’s Animal Jam, which is designed for kids, is anything but kid-friendly.

I belong to a closed Facebook group designed for homeschool families. One mom described her experiences with Animal Jam. Her children became upset when some of the other “kids” were having their avatars jump on other avatars in a sexual manner, and using lewd talk with them. The mom felt to a degree like they were being sexually harassed, and complained to Nat Geo about it.

Most of these games designed for kids are also open to adults. I have a Webkinz account, for example, and I have played with my kids on it. There are actually quite a few adults that play Webkinz online, Toontown, etc. and are not there to stalk kids or behave inappropriately. They are expected to follow the rules like everyone else, and most of them do. I do not know if it was “kids” involved in this inappropriate play or not, but no matter who it was, that kind of behavior shouldn’t have been tolerated. However, Nat Geo’s response to the complaint of sexual harassment was “We understand that you have some concerns regarding a role-play scenario you’ve recently seen in Animal Jam. While we truly appreciate your feedback, and we will be sure to pass it along, we wanted to send you a quick note to let you know that it is a very common and natural role play game for children to pretend.”

While it is natural for kids to role-play in many different ways, it is NOT appropriate for them to act out sexually. When I worked in day care, we did have some children who had older siblings, or who were exposed to inappropriate material at a too-young age, and we did have to let them know on occasion that certain behaviors were not appropriate for the classroom. Sexual behavior is not natural for young kids to role play if they have not been exposed to age-inappropriate material; even if they are role playing material that they have been exposed to and shouldn’t, that still does not make it appropriate.

Some of us believed that perhaps there were a few rogue kids (or adults) involved in this behavior, that Nat Geo had perhaps sent an auto-response, and would take care of the situation later; however, the parent ratings of Animal Jam on Common Sense Media seem to indicate otherwise. More than a third of the parents interviewed said that they thought that sexual content was a problem, a fourth of the parents said that there was a problem with language, and a fourth of the parents said that there were problems with privacy. If Nat Geo really cared about children, then there would not be this many parents writing about their negative experiences. This was based on a total of 23 parent reviews that were written between 2011 and August 2013, so it doesn’t look like this is a case of a situation that has been resolved or was short-term.

Most MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) that I have used at one point or another, that are designed for teenagers and adults (not children) do not allow this sort of behavior when interacting with the general population (although it may be acceptable when in a guild or when speaking in private to someone that you already know… I’m not sure on that one). If games designed for adults do not allow this sort of behavior, shouldn’t kids games be even more strict?

Animal Jam describes itself as “an online playground for kids where they can learn about the natural world while playing with friends.” They claim to have safety features in place, but they don’t seem to work well; malicious teens (and perhaps adults) are getting around the safety measures in place. For an example of these inappropriate interactions, you can follow this link. WARNING: Not appropriate for children (even though it is a children’s game). The only reason why I am linking to it is to give an example of what is going on. I personally was only able to watch a short amount of the video before I got disgusted and had seen enough. I would NOT allow my kids to play this game.


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