Tech Crunch 50: Tweegee: Take It From Tweeger, The Net Can Be Fun AND Safe For Tweens

I've written before about the need for safe environments for kids, so you can imagie that I was rather interested in checking out Tweegee, a new tween environment for kids that made a splash at TC 50.

Here's how they describe themselves:

Tweegee is a Web Portal for Tweens (kids aged 7-15) which offers them a complete world of Internet resources to create, share and have fun with. It's a one-stop site which provides Tweens with a safe and integrated ability to take full ownership of their online activities, to create their own complete personal web sites, communicate via web based email and organizer, engage in rich multiplayer games, read news most relevant to them, author their own articles and much more.

Tweegee believes in a genuine web 2.0 Internet experience which addresses Tweens correctly while allowing them to experience the "real Internet". We believe that in this tech-age children should embrace internet education and cognition from early on, particularly web 2.0 activities, in order to adopt proper net-behavior and prepare for their adult life of unsupervised exploration of the World Wide Web.

Therefore, Tweegee is doing everything in its power to endow children with the proper tools, guidance and knowledge of the different web utilities – all this while protecting their privacy and keeping them safe – without taking the fun out!

Their approach to safety appears to be about creating a microcosm of web functionality within their site. What I mean is that tweens can participate in a long list of favorite online activities, but in a more controlled, safe, and monitored environment.

When you are develop a "world" for kids, there is clearly a tightrope you must walk. Safety and broad access to the web would appear to be negatively correlated. What I mean is, wherever kids are free to communicate with one another they are also potentially in danger. But the flipside is that if you offer a totally controlled environment, you reach into the jaws of net experience and extract the fun.

One of the components of their approach to safety is a set of seven cartoon movies in which Tweeger explains the benefits and risks of online sharing, and explains the options of sharing with either the entire community or only your friends. It's a very interesting educational approach, and I found the content strong.

Here's one of the movies:



In essence they are trying to empower kids to take charge of their own safety in addition to a battery of other safety measures they have in place.

Here's their description of some of the other safety measures they use to keep kids safe:

Tweegee operates a filtering and separation system that facilitates a high level of detailed content filtering and includes a parent’s awareness control. Safety features include the patent pending "Word Up!" application that gives kids the freedom to chat without the ability to reveal any personal details or use improper language.

The content uploading component will be interesting to watch -- IF they have figured out a safe way to do this, Tweegee may well be a game changer.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.