Giant+Hello

Giant Hello is a social gaming website designed specifically for kids. Since Facebook(and other social networking sites that have many games on them) are only designed for kids thirteen and older Giant Hello was created in order to give kids a place to play games online. Specifically, the site was designed for 7-13 year olds who have outgrown the kiddish sites for younger children but are still not old enough for Myspace and Facebook. Other features besides gaming includes customizable profile pages, instant messaging, and friending. Saftey is a concern and for that reason kids are only allowed to add people as their friends who are actually their friends and who are in their class, on their team or in their camp group.

The members of this site are children, ages 7-17. The guidelines for membership are an approval from your parents, if you're under age 13. Adults are involved only through approving children's membership via e-mail. Children can only communicate with other children who they are already friends with, not with any strangers of any sort. In addition to games, the site's features include: friending, customizable profile pages, internal messaging, photo uploading, home page status updates, web based IM, award badges, and fan pages. There is a clear rationale for the features provided, that is to give kids a Facebook-style experience with social networking, but one mainly focused on games, and one that is safe and closed to non-kid users.

The site can be used for educational purposes, including gaming. The way to go about this would be to find a game on the site that is educational and relevant to a current topic in the classroom, then to have students play the game and then write about their experience. The social discussion aspects of the site can also be used for educational purposes, such as participating in a discussion with classmates. The fact that the site is similar to Facebook and has games would make it popular among students and increase intrinsic motivation.

I would personally let my children use this site if they were between the ages of 7 and 17. This site is a safe alternative to Facebook for children and is regarded highly, and it accomplishes all of its aims. The only questionable content on the website relates to some of the games which may have violent or sexual content. This must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine if the material is too offensive or not, and parents should then make an informed decision on whether or not they want their child using Giant Hello.

www.gianthello.com

Colin Cassidy