If you visit Club Penguin and meet the other penguins you’ll quickly discover that you may be the only one in the virtual playroom that doesn’t have a colored outfit, accessories, and an igloo. If you’re a WebKinz devotee, you’ll undoubtedly have a menagerie of WebKinz pets, at $10+ a pop, each with their own personality in cyberspace. You earn currency by playing games and taking quizzes and get to spend that money on your pets’ sustenance. If you hang out in Barbie’s very pink virtual world you’ll spend all of your time and your money decorating her room. In Neopets land you’ll do all sorts of things to earn Neopoints currency, including investing in a virtual stock market. In Nickroplis each area has a store where you can outfit your private room with items associated with Nickelodeon characters. Anyone who knows your NickName can visit your private room and be impressed by your stuff. In Disney’s world your personal “backpack” holds earned points and badges as you watch Disney videos and listen to music.

Some parents are calling these sites crack for kids because the kids get so hooked on purchasing more and more things for their virtual domiciles. One-upmanship, gaming the system, ganging up on others–parents tell stories about their kids as both exploiters and exploited. And we’re talking about elementary school kids.

One dad told me how his eight-year-old son was accused of stealing his friend’s points on Club Penguin. Turns out that the five-year-old sister sat and watched them enter their passwords and she was simply logging on to use the points.

Others parents see a silver lining in all of this online consumption. Kids, they believe, are learning the value of things as they figure out what they afford to buy, what’s a rip off, and what they really need.

If you think about it, from Monopoly to Yu-gi-oh, kids’ games have always been about collecting things, points, and money and staying ahead of the pack. Think Barbie, Legos, Cabbage Patch dolls, or Pogs–being the firstest with the mostest is the American way of play.

From where I sit, the online world doesn’t seem to be that much different, just more abstract. What you’re accumulating is virtual stuff in a virtual world. Parents have a hard time getting their arms around that concept, but kids come to it naturally. The virtual is just another manifestation of their lives.

Acquisition is the driving theme in many of the most appealing of kids’ social networks. The downside is that kids are groomed to shop; the upside is that perhaps they’ll be better shoppers because of it. One thing that might help is letting the kids acquire things that aren’t as material: points for being brave, smart, or learning something new.

For more, on the consumerist side of social networking check out Pay Up, Kid, or Your Igloo Melts .