Webkinz

[troutman]

Any parents here familiar with Webkinz? Is it bad for kids?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webkinz

Concerns have been raised about children's use and overuse of the toys. Some worry that children will become addicted to the game. Other parents say that it will only help the kids learn.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3033380

Remember the Tamagotchi craze? Or Beanie Babies? Put them together and you've got Webkinz, the latest toy phenomenon that's sweeping the country and worrying some parents whose preschoolers are spending hours online.

[Tyler]

My little cousins asked for a million of these things for Christmas.

When they described them too me, they seemed like a 2008 online version of Tamagotchi's

[Nufy]

My kids have a few each. Like anything, its a fad that goes away after time.

My wife spends more time on the website than my kids do these days.

[looooob]

my daughter has one. after playing with it on the website for one day, she's moved on and now is just hangs out with the rest of her stuffed animals

[NSFL]

The big issue I hear about is kids fighting with their siblings for computer time to play on the website. It's further increasing the amount of time kids spend on the internet and it gets young kids into the internet. Now that can be a good thing, get kids familiar with a tool they'll be using a lot of as they get older, or get them prematurely hooked and sitting on their asses not doing exercise. A lot of the games can be educational, many are also just for fun.

It's just a fad, and I'm hoping to goodness it fades soon. We sell over $500 worth of webkinz products a day at work. And I know some kids who have over 50 of them just because they want to collect them all. You also get nutso wacko parents who go all over the city looking for a certain webkinz. But now I'm just ranting on the product. If you have questions, gimme a PM. I've been selling these things for the past 2 years. UGH.

[Buzzard]

Harmless and fun toys. There are no 'issues' over them that I can see. If kids are fighting over the computer I wouldn't blame it on Webkinz. They'd probably fight anyway. My daughter has over 40 of them and she is hardly ever on the site.

[Resolute 14]

No kidding. If kids are fighting over these things, parents need to step up and, I dunno, parent?

[NSFL]

That's what I just heard the issue was. I'm more or less unhappy with the parents who see this a baby sitting tool and just let their kids sit there for hours on end. It was 2005's #1 educational toy.

[Torture]

Wow this is creepy. I was just working on my Marketing group assignment on the ethics of marketing to kids (relating to video games for the assignment) and we were talking about Webkinz.

Woah.

[NSFL]

Originally Posted by Torture

Wow this is creepy. I was just working on my Marketing group assignment on the ethics of marketing to kids (relating to video games for the assignment) and we were talking about Webkinz.

Woah.

What's interesting with webkinz is that it seems to be all word of mouth that's made it so popular. I haven't seen any advertising for it. But I also don't watch much tv.

[Torture]

Originally Posted by NSFL

What's interesting with webkinz is that it seems to be all word of mouth that's made it so popular. I haven't seen any advertising for it. But I also don't watch much tv.

Yeah. I may be mixing up the articles that I read at this point, but I think it was Webkinz that one article said didn't do any advertising and relies on the reputation it's built up.

[Titan]

I am a big supporter of webkinz. My kids have a total of 3 dolls which is plenty. The website is excellent, although seems to bog down more as it gets more popular. It has taught my daughter computer skills, money management, how to earn money to buy the things you want (within webkinz), There are many games and many different ways to "build" up your pets skills etc. There are also many things she does on a regular basis akin to chores. Skills she will need in life. She tends to go on for about 30 minutes every couple of days but we do monitor her when she is on it.

On a side note she was at a friends house and her friend taught her how to enter something in a search engine and the next thing I know she is on webtube watching a video of a guy screaming at people. Harmless but made me realize I need to scrutinze her even closer.

My .02.

[metal_geek]

They're harmless.... My kids spend more time pretending they're feeding thier webkinz in "real life" then they do online...
________
LovelyWendie99

[troutman]

My six year old spent all afternoon Sunday playing on-line for his adopted pet tiger (normally we would not let him play so long, but the Superbowl was on).

I think the novelty is wearing off, and it should not be difficult to keep him under 60 minutes per day. I think he will be happy with one pet, and not want 50.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by Nufy

My kids have a few each. Like anything, its a fad that goes away after time.

My wife spends more time on the website than my kids do these days.

Does your wife know my wife perhaps? She's just as bad...

[droopydrew19]

All 5 of my family members (including me) have one.

I can see there is a definite fine line to walk here. The site is very entertaining and education. Kids can learn about spelling, language, math etc as well as play with a virtual pet and play games and earn kinzcash to buy items. It has taught our 6 year old about how to save money etc. The site is very kid friendly and internet scum cannot talk to the kids as all communication is done through preset emote keys.

Now to the drawback. Because it is so fun my kids desire to be on there a lot. I can see some kids being on there for hours. We limit our kids time on their and they have to earn their computer time.

So in a way Webkinz motivates our kids to get their chores done also.

The site itself seems to have glitches that do get fixed over time. Over Christmas it was virtually impossible to log on with the influx of new pets sold over the holidays.