Facebook-Like Site Brings Safe Social Networking to Young Kids

Name: Togetherville.com

Quick Pitch: Togetherville is an online community for kids who are too young for Facebook that allows them to experience social networking in a fun, age-appropriate environment with involvement from parents and other trusted adults.

Genius Idea: The idea to create a Facebook for kids is hardly new. Togetherville takes a parent-friendly approach to social networking that actually helps a parent use her own Facebook network to build out her child’s neighborhood (a.k.a network) on the site.

Togetherville is meant to offer a more colorful and safe Facebook-like experience for kids ages six to ten (though any child under 13 can become a member), and it includes parents in the entire experience.

“Grownups” can sign up using a Facebook account. They then create an account for a child and help connect the child to real-world friends by pulling data and relationships from the adult’s own Facebook social graph. Parents can easily find the children of their adult friends and connect them to their child on Togetherville. Parents also have complete control over who communicates with their children and can share the child’s activities with their friends on Facebook.

Once an account has been created, a kid can comment on and “like” content from friends on his or her very own age-appropriate activity wall. The wall also allows for posting pre-fabricated “quips” selected from kid-friendly categories like “LOL.” Of course, kids can also participate in fun activities such as art projects, compete in games against one another or watch on-site videos. The site also encourages parents and chidren to use it together for a more educational experience.

Togetherville doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to social features. YouTube videos (pre-screened, of course), games and activity feeds are all apart of the experience, and they have the features you’d expect elsewhere. The only difference is that they’re devoid of adult material and tailored toward young kids.

The site recently introduced a virtual currency system that is both child money-management tool and parent reward utility. The feature is aptly named Allowance, and parents can award kids “T-bills” — $10 gets you 1,700 T-bills — that they can spend in their neighborhood to buy virtual goods, games or gifts.

Togetherville really delivers on its intention to create a child-appropriate, Facebook-like experience for young people. With social networking and the web becoming a more integral part of the lives of young adults, the site could help to teach the next generation of Facebook users a more responsible way to use social media.