Best Virtual Worlds for Teens, Tweens and Kids
Ages: 8-16
Description: “Wizard101 is an online, multiplayer, Wizard school adventure game with collectible card magic, wizard duels, and far off worlds! The game allows players to create a student Wizard in an attempt to save Wizard City and explore many different worlds.”
Review: If your kids love Harry Potter, they are going to love this. I like that this virtual world is more than just “chat and play games” it has a cool theme and interesting layout.
2. Club Penguin
Ages: 7-14
Description: A virtual world for kids with penguin avatars where they can chat, play games and hang out.
Review: Club Penguin seems to be very addictive for those who play. I like this virtual world, but doesn’t seem to stick for those about 11.
Ages: 13-18
Description: “Join Teens from all over the globe in Teen Second Life – a 3D virtual world created by you and for you. Create, learn new skills, start a business, meet new people — it’s your world, your imagination.”
Review: This website is much, much edgier than some of the other cartoony sites. I do not know many teens on Teen Second Life, but it is much more like a grown-up playground with more controls than open Second Life.
4. Webkinz World
Ages: 6-18
Description: “Webkinz pets are lovable plush pets that each come with a unique Secret Code. With it, you enter Webkinz World where you care for your virtual pet, answer trivia, earn KinzCash, and play the best kids games on the net!”
Review: A little less Disney polished than Club Penguin, but I like that it seems to grow and change quicker and stay up with what kids want who are in their playing. A bit older than Club Penguin crowd as well.
5. Super Secret
Ages: 10-18
Description: “This is a supercool and beautifully designed new online social game for kids who are ready for more than Club Penguin but who are too young for mySpace. The game transports kids into a secret world where they can chat with friends, play mini-games, complete urgent quests – and grow up virtually from 10 to 18 as they collect points.”
Review: I like that this feels a bit older for the tween crowd. It’s also not too expensive at only $30 a year.
6. Toon Town
Ages: 7-18
Description: Toon Town USA is a website for kids from the Walt Disney Company. It uses familiar characters from Disney to interact with users.
Review:”I think this is great because it lets kids do more with Disney Characters than just watch them on TV or see them at Disneyland. ”
7. BarbieGirls.com
Ages: 7-12
Description: Mattel’s site for girls and their online Barbies.
Review: Although I loved Barbie, I am not sure how I feel about the image it portrays to young girls about how they should look. Also, I feel like half of the fun of barbie is braiding her hair…in real life, not on the game. Cool back-up none-the-less.
8. Build-a-Bearville
Ages: 7-18
Description: “Our site was created with many features to help ensure a safe experience for your child and has been monitored for safe play since day one.”
Review: I might be a bit biased because I LOVE Build-a-Bear and this is the perfect continuation of the Build-a-Bear workshops into the online world.
9. Secret Builders
Ages: 5-14
Description: “On SecretBuilders, children will explore virtual lands, undertake quests, play games, maintain a home, nurture a pet, and interact with their friends. Three features which form the backdrop for SecretBuilders distinguish it from other online worlds: Children learn through immersing themselves in the stories, themes, and concepts from the best in literature, arts and humanities. They will interact with famous historical and fictional figures and be introduced to content and characters from world civilization and the great thoughts and ideas of human creativity. They also create and publish their own worlds — writings, art and videos.”
Review: I like that this site allows kids to upload their own works of art so they are not jsut interacting, but creating. I also think the integration of historical figures and lessons is quite clever.
10. Whyville
Ages: 7-16
Description: “Whyville’s millions of registered “citizens” come from all over to learn, create, and have fun together. Whyville is their world. Whyville has places to go, things to do, and of course, people to see. Whyville has its own newspaper, its own Senators, its own beach, museum, City Hall and town square, its own suburbia, and even its own economy – citizens earn “clams” by playing educational games.”
Dirt-E Secrets of An Internet Kid
An ebook by Vanessa Van Petten, is a translation for parents about kids growing up online. Vanessa divulges how kids get around parental controls, set-up decoy Facebook accounts and what situations are most sticky for digital kids, teens and tweens. She also reviews the Holy Cybercitizenship laws, how to use parental control softwares and reviews the most popular websites for kids and teens.
Review: This is one of the oldest virtual worlds…and it looks a little 90’s .com, but it is still a great website for teen and tween girls.
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{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi,
A brand new British Virtual World for girls aged 7-12 was launched last week, it’s called brit Chicks. Have you checked it out? http://www.britchicks.com
Rach x
I think these webs are the most popular ones. I already know all of them. I think there should be more. But otherwise it’s pretty good.
thanks, please feel free to add your suggestions!
My sister and brother absolutely LOVE Webkinz World!! They are obssessed with buying the newset webkinzs, and earning kinz cash! I think that Webkinz is very child friendly and many tweens will love that site. As for the other sites that you mentioned, toontown, bulid a bear, and of course barbie world! I think that you should also add habbo.com to this list. It is very interactive and fun for ages 10-14
Hi I am a tween. We love Whyville and Club Penguin but that Barbie Girls is so for Little kids
TIPS FROM A REAL TWEEN!!!
I think Tootsville is way better than all of those they have more to do and the Toots are really cute!!!!!!!!!!!
In your list you can put also an eleventh choice, there is this great site from 8-15 years old called:
pandanda.com
NOTICE: they were in beta which means everuthong was for free but unfortunately, beta ended so at least 5 things aren’t for free anymore and to buy stuff you have to rigister as a member.
sorry… on my comment i had a typing error… instead of writing everything… i wrote everuthong!!! SORRY!!
Thanks so much for starting this discussion! I (and my community of concerned parents) have spent some time putting together a library of kid safe games for my 2 and 4 year olds (http://www.hunu.com/kids_games). I really feel that the web is a scattered wasteland of potentially dangerous sites for our kids. After seeing what my son wanted to play with, I was concerned the only viable content was something from Disney, Nick or some other big corporation.
I encourage all concerned parents to stop by our site and submit their favorites. You can also follow us on Twitter where we tweet our best games http://twitter.com/hunu.
We’re just getting started, but we would love your thoughts!
Kim
All those websites are nice in all, but the problem I find in those websites is that they don’t stay fun forever. You run out of stuff to do or you have to pay to unlock certain stuff. Wizard101 and secondlife are fun but you have to download those and with all the viruses I can’t. I have tried club penguin and supersecret. Clubpenguin gets annoying because you can’t buy anything unless your a member. Supersecret you can play on until you try to turn 13 and then you have to pay. Two sites I know that you can still have fun on even if you don’t have a membership are Ourworld and Stardoll. And for tweens Barbiegirl.com is too little-girlish. You can take my comment as real because im a tween.
hi. if anybody ever heard of habbo, or zwinky those are some super kewl virtual worlds!! aka aswome!!!!!!!
Hey there! I just checked out whyville and it is pretty bad…some guy going around asking “can i ef you?” and someone saying yes and so on and so forth. Would NOT want my 11 or 12 year old on that site. Happy Holidays
VMK was the website ever, but sadly, it closed. IMVU, Zwinky, Whyville, and other are pretty bad, would not advise children 5-13 to play on it.
i think u should really try this website itz koolz i luv it
theres aslo more games like moshimonsters.com, awolnow.com, an alot more to choose from
i dont think club penguin is that babyish.But it is very safe,theres live monerators,but u can still say apropriate stuff.Stufff you can type in,because i hate just saying,hi,wanna be friends?but if you have a young child u can put on safe chat.
Ok, about the whyville comments. Whyville isnt that bad! Its like every other website for tweens and teens. But it is safer then most! Im on it. You just need to trust your kids. Its just like the real world. Do you really think your kid hasnt heard something rude or innapropriate before? When something innapropriate is said in whyville, they want to make sure that it can never be done again. They try to limit the amount of bad language that other people who actually are there to have fun dont have to deal with it.
Every time you chat at Whyville, it gets recorded. At the end of every day a whyville worker reads through selected conversations to see if anything inappropriate was said. They try to catch people who use nasty words or racist or sexually offensive language, but they can’t catch everything, so it helps if citizens make a 911 report on the person. They also have a list of words, phrases, symbols people make to spell out bad words, short forms of bad words all sensored, so they cant be said! Whyville is alot safer than you may think, and alot safer then most tween/teen websites.
Also, its not really that ’90’s ish’. yes it does have characteristics like it, but theyres new things on whyville everyday, and its always being changed to keep people interested. And also, the theme also kinda makes it a fun place and I think it gets people more interested.
But thats my opinion. :). I love Whyville. Ive been on it for over 4 years. Im going to be 16 soon. Regardless of the comments, I believe its a great website.
I am really baffled when people say they can’t download games due to viruses. Every signle one of these and other gmae sites certify their software and you simply don’t get viruses from downloading them, as long as you download them from their site and not some 3rd party site (why would you do that anyways?). If games like this had viruses as part of the download, they would be done in a matter of weeks.
Onverse should be on this list, it’s a positive environment for teens. It’s new, so I don’t blame you for not knowing about it though ;). Check it out! http://www.onverse.com
I think another website for teens/young adults is http://www.meez.com. It’s only for teens from the ages of 13-19. It is very protective and fun. You can create your own person, dress it, make your own room, and go to a virtual room in 1 of the 8 “hoods”. This website currently holds thousands of members. It fun and free. Check it out!
With my previous comment, I’m a teenager and think this website is fun. I’ve been a member for 3 years, give or take. I wouldn’t recommend it for any child under 13, as the website says.
http://www.gaiaonline.com IS THEE BEST WEBSITE FOR 13-whatever age, but trust me the oldest person I met was 21, but there are older people, but really rare you’ll meet them. This website has an avatar you can dress up NO MEMBERSHIPS IN ORDER TO BUY “SPECIAL ITEMS” you can say whatever you want in the virtual worlds and not get banned, also you can meet new people. It’s an amazing website. I have played it for 2 years and haven’t got bored of it! But seriously anyone younger than 11 SHOULD NOT be playing this. And there are alot of teenagers and out of 1,000gaians, (people) you’ll only find about 2 adults. Join now!!
And how come some people’s names are in black font, and others in blue?
i a tween i like supersecret and heres a couple you dont have that i really like thay are called chobots and foopets ! i go on those 2 alot!
it is a tite website and if you are a member you could buy clothes and you can be a ninja it cool go on it now
hi i am 12 so i am a tween here r some great sites
PANFU
HABBO HOTEL US OR UK
CLUB PENGUIN
SMALLWORLDS
BUILD A BEARVILE
PANDALANDA
THANX FOR UR TIME I WILL PROBLY GET BACK TO U FOR MORE GREAT WEBSITES FOR MY AGE AND YOUNGER THESE SITES R FOR 15 TO 5
My favorite is VFK, http://www.virtualfamilykingdom.com. I think they have the coolest outfits. They also have the cutest boys.
I think moshimonsters are cool because it has cute mosters and people there are friendly.
Even though u have to download… it is still AWESOME i love to play it all the time and my sisters too
have you been on toon town? Its awsome!
Hello,
I am gabrielle i am eight and i know a great website! It is for all ages it goes up to 100. It is FreeRealms. You can create your look and explore to many places! My fav place is seaside but now merryvale too! And it will block out the bad stuff. You dont need to send a E-mail to your parents to chat it’s fine. There are Quest and you can pick a fairy or a human. Right this very minute as you are reading this they are creating 2 new worlds! There are over 99,000 people joining i luv it ! And you can buy clothes and not have to upgrade! Buy dogs cat and more for free! Try it out at FreeRealms.com
Another website is Imvu i dont know much about it because i am to young to play. I beat your asking how does she know then? Well here is the answer: When i google websites for kids Imvu pops up. I never click on it because it might be something sexual or something like gay stuff so i no it is wrong but wanna try it go ahead.
One more thing I hate barbiegirls.com because a barbie came up to me and said wanna go out i said no! Then he said he was a boy so i don’t like it any more.
wizard101 is the awesomest game ever invented the monsters are super corny which makes it kid friendly you can gift things to friends its awesome! Btw i hate barbie grls for the subscription and you lose your barbie grl after two hours.
First of all im a real tween! i know what kind of games we like….well most of us 10-13 year old kids like games that are ment for 15-18 years old guys and girls example:
1. http://www.Runescape.com
2.www.smallworlds.com
3.W.O.W. (for all ages mostley 10-17
and there u go! i play smallworlds and runescape i dont reeally play webkinz, you can say im not the kind of person to explore 7-11 year old kid games cause i live a life of skateboarding and im not so interested in those *kidish* game NO OFFENCE to me thats what webkinz is i play clubpenguin also.
here is an example of whhat i play:
1. Grand Theift Auto (ON THE PS3)
2. Battle Field BAd Company (ON THE PS3
3. Runescape
4. Smallworlds
5. imvu
ADVISE FROM A SKATER TWEEN (AGE 10) email me if u got any questions
skaterdudems@gmail.com
thanks again for reading
I am a 11 year old tween and I’ve been to all kinds of websites but most of the time you have to be a payed member,downlold it,or after a while it’s no fun,and I’m super picky however there is this one website wiht tons of cool websites for kids and its called http://www.playbbg.com it has games for everyone.So check it out.
its a website for kids and tweens check it out i have a character and you can play board games online isn’t that cool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!$$$$
For all you 10 -14 animal lovers well, foopets is the place 2 go!!!!!!!!! I love it its a wonderfull site!!!!!! you get 2 take care if ur own animal but you have 2 feed em every day or they die!!!!:( go check it out!!!!!!!