Facebook is the social networking giant amongst teens and adults, but a new social network is brewing for the underaged crowd. Togetherville.com is a hot new site that allows parents to sign up their 6-12 year-olds for accounts that are verified using their parents’ Facebook account. While Togetherville is not affiliated with Facebook, it uses the networking giant’s login information to verify that users who sign up for “parent” accounts actually meet the age requirement for adulthood. That’s not the only verification step to that grownups have to take before opening an account for children. Check out their page to read about other methods that they use to verify users.

Content

While the site allows your children to post status updates, it also boasts games for the younger crowd. Parking Mania, Snowboard Challenge, and Lil Dress-up Time are just some of the pre-screened titles that have been tested and deemed suitable content for your little ones. However, it’s not all fun and games, because Togetherville also has educational applications to enhance your child’s learning experience.

Three Ways for Your Children to Connect Safely with Their Friends

Parent Network: Only those people within a parent’s social network who also have the Togetherville application – and their child(ren) – can request to connect to a child.

School Network: When parents link their child’s account to their school, kids can discover their classmates and request their parents to connect.

Friending Codes: Each kid in gets a unique secret friending code to share with others they want to connect with in Togetherville.

Privacy

Togetherville does not share information with Google or other search engines, so your child’s profile is not searchable or discoverable on the internet. Also, since you would select only trusted Facebook friends and their children to have access to your child’s safe and secure online neighborhood, there is no possibility of anonymous users having access to your child’s profile.

For more information about Togetherville, please visit their frequently asked questions.

Are you a user of Togetherville or some other kid-friendly social networking site? Does your child use Facebook or MySpace?

Let’s chat!

Love to alL!

CC

“If it bleeds it leads.” I get it, some people thrive on death, drama, and crime, but not all of us. I’d love to be able to watch news reports without having to switch to another channel, because one of my children walks into the room. Besides, I want to hear good news…a lot of good news!

So, I hunted for web sites that deliver just what I crave – good news. The people behind Happy News find good news stories, from their own sources as well as others, and put them into one convenient place. One of yesterday’s headlines was “School Finds 340-Year Old Bible“. Credit to CNN for this story; now if only they could seek more feel-good news and report it, report it, report it. Enough of the Nancy Grace doom and gloom!

How about another great story where University of Pennsylvania students distributed coats to needy children? Operation Warm is an organization that reaches out to children in 26 states in conjunction with a wide range of organizations that have the ability to reach deep into some of the country’s neediest communities. Good news stories aren’t just for entertainment purposes, they serve to inform. Maybe this story will help if you have (or know of) a child in need of a warm coat. Or, maybe it will incite you to make good on your promise to do more for your neighbors.

It’s true, good news happens around the globe every day. Unfortunately, most news outlets don’t report it often and at length. If I were to sponsor a news broadcast, I don’t think I’d want my product advertisement to follow a report of the lastest bloodbath. Imagine it: “This gory, bloody message was brought to you by Best Books Network!”. I don’t think so…

Maybe the lack of good and wholesome programming is the reason why I watch a ton of home improvement shows. The content is great, the commercials are relevant, and the programming is kid-friendly without being Nick Jr News-ish.

If Happy News begins televising their reports, I am SO there!

Chime in with your thoughts.

Love to all!

CC