There are a number of social networks that cater to the K-8 crowd, with a focus on kids ages 8-14. The idea behind these sites is to ask for some sort of parent authentication–a credit card number or a parent’s email–and also to involve the parent understanding what’s happening on the site.

We’ll look at: Club Penguin, Imbee, Webkinz, and the granddaddy of the all, NeoPets.

Club Penguin, as my colleague Dory Devlin, likes to say, is hard not to like. Newsweek calls it MySpace for the braces set.

It’s one of the safest social communities for kids out there, created by Canadian parents determined to create a safe online playworld.

Penguins rule in this network. Each child gets to choose a penguin. Their penguin then waddles around cyberspace conversing with other penguins, playing simple but fun games, sending greeting cards, chatting, and doing various action-things like penguin dances. Wandering around and playing the games is free, but if you pay the $5.95 monthly subscription fee, you can win points and redeem them for various extras like accessories for your penguin and decorations for their home.

The entire Club Penguin world looks like a snow covered cartoon. There are no advertisers allowed. And it’s got all the elements kids love: secrets, collectibles, emoticons, and more.

Kid can accept invitations to join games and there are various levels of chat–a safe chat where phrases are pre-selected and a more open chat. They can IM too, but the site is monitored and kids can voice complaints about others. Parents will appreciate that there’s nothing to download and you can visit the site for free before joining.

But the social networking world of juniors is not a perfect place yet. I logged on to Club Penguin at 11 p.m. on a school night and it was hopping with visitors. They were all polite and friendly, but the majority left the various rooms when I showed up (as though I’d crashed a private party). Parents need to understand that adults can get on the site and need to caution their kids to react when a conversation turns unsavory. They should also know that kids can get their feelings hurt as some of the meaner emoticons get tossed around. My suggestion is that you play alongside your child a few times until you are both comfortable with the action.

Other reviews:

CommonSense Media

Newsweek