If you’re not watching the WebKinz phenomena you should be. WebKinz mashes up the real world experience of plush toy animals with the virtual world online experience to create a compelling immersive experience for young children (primarily 6-10).

The WebKinz experience starts with the purchase of a plush toy in the store. A toy costs about $10. Each has a unique ID tagged onto the toy. When you log onto the WebKinz site to register (they call it adopt) your toy (without giving up any personal information) you are immediately given a home, a bit of furniture, and some food for your pet.

From this point you can do an amazing number of things. You can start meeting other WebKinz and playing with them or you can just play solo games. You can earn points (called KinzCash) as you play and of course you can exchange messages with other WebKinz. With the cash you earn you can buy stuff for your WebKinz–homes, food clothing and more.

In addition to arcade-like play and chatting, WebKinz also incorporates a sense of responsibility and nurturing. You pet needs to be kept healthy with food, sleep, and attention. Leave them to languish and they become ill (never die, though) and need some medicine from the virtual pharmacy. And like other games before (Yu-Gi-Oh, Tamagotchi, Pogs), kids don’t stop with one WebKinz purchase. As you buy more you add homes, rooms, and stuff.

A couple of interesting twists make WebKinz an evolved model for trying to keep its users safe. First, users cannot communicate online before they exchange a secret code offline. This hopefully insures that you’re going to know who you’re talking to online. And the messages the kids can exchange are pre-packaged so kids are restricted to appropriate conversations like “Want to Play a Game with Me.” A newer service called KinzChat PLUS lets kids create their own messages from a restricted set of words. Parents can turn off that feature if they prefer.

After one year your WebKinz expires and you need to either purchase another or buy life extensions. This insures Ganz, the makers of WebKinz, that your kids will always provide them with steady stream of income.

WebKinz takes a lot of its ideas from previous sites like Neopets. Where WebKinz differs is that they’ve ingeniously linked a real, “live” touchable toy as part of the experience. You’re bound to see other forms of tying real world toys in virtual worlds because kids, like the rest of us, need high tech as much as high touch.

What Parents Should Know:

WebKinz is pretty safe. Not foolproof. Keep your eye on your kid’s activities and use the parental management tools to limit activities you feel are inappropriate.

You want to limit screen time. Trust me and about a million kids, WebKinz can be addictive and get in the way of other play and homework if you’re not attentive.

Kids can get their feelings hurt on WebKinz. While many words are restricted (so you can’t curse or use someone’s name for example), there are plenty of mean things you can say to another kid that do filter through, like “I don’t want to be your friend.”

WebKinz’s user agreement clearly states that it’s not liable for anything that happens on the site. You are accepting the burden of managing your child.

WebKinz does not ask your child to identify themself. Experts are divided on this point. Some think it would be safer if the kids were not anonymous.

There’s a bit of a class war on WebKinz and expect the nag factor to kick in once you buy your first. Every kid knows someone with 50 WebKinz and they’re all envious.

Ganz recently introduced trading cards and ‘Lil Kinz–new ways to get kids to buy stuff in the real world and go online. You can expect more branded items and more nagging by the kids in the future.

Kids have begun cheating on WebKinz, figuring out ways to accumulate cash. If you find that your kids suddenly have a large amount of KinzCash they may be cheating. WebKinz explains that those found cheating will be thrown off the site.

If you’re not sure you can trust your kid’s judgment on the web do not give them KinzChat Plus. Start them out without it and see how it goes.