SpongeBob is the real threat to our kids online
Keith Stuart
The Guardian (UK)
April 10, 2008
Ask a parent what
they're most afraid of when their kids go online and the
answer is unlikely to be SpongeBob SquarePants. Few fear
that their children will be indoctrinated into a bizarre
new society by Nickelodeon's box-shaped poriferan.
They're being naive.
Virtual worlds are the new battlegrounds for toy
manufacturers, kids TV channels and software companies
with an eye on the youth market. It is the classic
no-brainer. These days, kids are so into social
networking sites that their parents have to get Bebo
accounts just to call them down to dinner. The same kids
are also into videogames and would probably be into
Second Life if it wasn't aimed at over-18s. So, combine
social networking, gaming and youth-friendly virtual
living into one experience and you're practically
mainlining your brand into the eyeballs of a whole
generation.
This was doubtless what Disney was thinking last year
when it bought child-friendly online community Club
Penguin. It is certainly what Mattel had in mind when it
set up Barbie Girls, an online community based around
the popular dolls, which attracted 3 million users
within 60 days of its launch. It's on more than 10
million now - impressive, but dwarfed by the massively
multiplayer animal-rearing community Neopets and its 45
million pet owners.
Now Nickelodeon, which already has a virtual world in
the shape of Nicktropolis, is expected to launch two
more: one based in SpongeBob's universe, and another
named Monkey World, an original IP. The former will be
scarily huge, the latter will have its work cut out,
with new kid-centric virtual worlds popping up seemingly
on a daily basis.
What media companies love about virtual worlds is the
opportunity to truly engage with the youth demographic
on a symbiotic level. It's not about shouting at kids
from a TV set any more; it's about creating a world for
them, and then subtly loading it with messages. And hey,
if you can't set up a virtual world, why not advertise
in one? Social entertainment company Doppelganger has
just signed a partnership with in-game advertising
specialist Double Fusion, which will allow real-time
targeted ads to appear in teen virtual world vSide.
Double Fusion CEO Jonathan Epstein referred to vSide as
"a place where advertisers can develop powerful
interactions with their teen audiences". Sinister stuff.
The imaginative and social universes children used to
create for themselves have now been populated by
toymakers and TV networks. Virtual space, head space and
ad space are the new holy trinity of corporate
manipulation and indoctrination. And to think my parents
worried about me watching Tiswas.