MySpace has fallen victim to a number of misconceptions, such demographic myths and scary news headlines about child predators. Famster, a family friendly social networking site, is a reaction to that negative press.
Famster has it's own struggles as well. The name clearly has some problems, evoking both hamsters and Friendster. But even more perplexing is the basic premise of the site, which Owen Thomas on CNN's "The Browser" blog points out:
"After spending hours every day in the real world together, why would
siblings have any interest in networking with each other, let alone
their parents? Sure, moms could lay down the law and enforce the use of
Famster for putting events on the family calendar, but that's just
bound to make using the site seem even more uncool."
So why even mention it? Because it's part of a growing segment of "niche" social networks. This is something we'll be seeing MUCH more of in the near future.
Link via The Browser - CNN.
I agree we'll have to wait and see on the Famster thing.
As you said, I can't see many kids wanting to talk to their parents online when they're already screaming at them to do homework, chores, etc! Though, perhaps some good will come of it in that it will allow parents to understand the social networking/MySpace craze and have some decent conversations with their kids about what's appropriate and what's not.
A survey came out recently that said 1 in 7 kids is sexually solicited online, and that while this percentage is down from 2005 - the number of "aggresive" solicitations is unchanged - scary world we live in. I have bookmarked the Cybertipline.org website and blogged about it myself, the more people reporting inappropriate behavior the more predators will be caught! Sounds like Famster has a pretty serious online safety component to it as well - so that could be another positive in terms of educating parents. We'll have to wait and see!
Posted by: Catch Up Lady | August 23, 2006 at 05:46 PM