children

Basic ball game

Bouncing Balls is a basic game in which users eliminate groups of balls by shooting balls of the same color at them. It's a fun game, although we've seen similar games that are a little more interesting.

The program's interface is basic. A wall of different colored balls moves toward the bottom of the screen, while a shooter provides users with a supply of balls to fire at it. Shoot a red ball at a group of two or more red balls, for example, and they fall, taking with them any balls that are attached. The object … Read more

Tools to keep your kids safe online

Although some of us remember life before computers and the Internet, there's a new generation of children who don't. From an early age, they're on PCs, playing games, and in many cases, learning about the Internet.

That's why it's so important to safeguard your children while they're surfing the Web. The Internet can be a scary place, but these resources will help keep the bad stuff away:

Glubble Glubble bills itself as a family "social network" and browser. Although I'm not entirely convinced that it's a social network, it does do a fine job of ensuring your kids stay safe online.

Glubble lets you upload content like photos, videos, or special moments for your family to see. But where it shines is in controlling what your kids can do on the Web. All the sites they can browse are approved by you. Whenever they go to different sites, it's recorded so you can see what your kids are up to when they use the computer. Glubble provides your kids with several activities, including games and puzzles. It's a nice app for both the family and the children.

Kido'z Kido'z is an Adobe AIR application that safeguards your children as they browse the Web. But unlike normal browsers, Kido'z determines what your kids can and cannot view.

After you download Kido'z, you'll be brought to a page showing icons for a handful of popular franchises for children, including Mickey Mouse, Dora the Explorer, and others. When you click on one of those options, you'll be brought to the subject's respective Web page within the app. You can click around as you would if you were using Firefox. Kido'z works well and it will help keep your kids safe from some of the Web's dangers.… Read more

Nielsen: Kids' online time leaps dramatically

Kids from two to 11 years of age are spending 63 percent more time online than they did five years ago, says a report released Monday from Nielsen Online. Children in that age range were online an average of 11 hours in May 2009 versus just 7 hours in May 2004.

Over the past five years, the total number of kids surfing the Net has shot up 18 percent to 16 million, says the report, while the overall Internet population has risen only 10 percent. The younger set now represents 9.5 percent of the online community.

Online use among … Read more

How a kids video start-up stays afloat

Totlol developer Ron Ilan had enough.

It had been just over a year since he launched his site of community-vetted YouTube videos--where kids can watch Elmo, cutesy animal videos, or "Big Comfy Couch" without the accidental off-color search mishap. And, despite its popularity, he couldn't find a way to make it sustainable or survivable without adverse impacts.

So, earlier this month, at two in the morning, he wrote a long explanatory note to Totlol's users that ended with, "I'm closing Totlol down. Life goes on." Then he went to sleep.

"I woke … Read more

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete coming to Blu-ray

In 2005, we got to witness the return of two extremely popular characters in the Final Fantasy franchise--Cloud Strife and Sephiroth--but this time they'd do battle in a movie and not in a game. As of 2006 that movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, has sold more than 10.5 million copies worldwide on DVD and UMD. And now it's getting the full Blu-ray treatment.

On June 2, Sony pictures is releasing Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete (director's cut) on Blu-ray. Exclusive to the release will be 26 minutes of additional footage and over 1000 revised scenes, each of which was re-recorded with the original voice cast including Rachel Leigh Cook (Josie and the Pussycats) and Mena Suvari (American Beauty), and a 25-minute original anime short film, telling the story of the character Denzel before the events of Advent Children; a featurette showing a story line digest incorporating related footage from the video games; a documentary on the history of Final Fantasy VII; and a first look at the Final Fantasy XIII video game.

We received an early preview of this upcoming release and it looked beautiful. It was so detailed you could count hair strands and see textures in the clothing.… Read more

Podcast: Could expanding privacy law harm children?

A new report from the Progress & Freedom Foundation says that officials in some states want to pass legislation that would extend the Children Online Privacy Protection Act ( COPPA) from covering children under 13 to covering teens until they're 18.

COPPA, which became law in 1998, requires verifiable parental consent before a child under 13 can provide personally identifiable information to a Web site that caters to children. Expanding the law to cover teens till they're 18, according to the report, would "require Web sites to obtain more information about both minors and their parents, which runs … Read more

KidZui 4 looks the same, but has back-end changes

KidZui's closed-system browser for children upgrades to version 4, but fans of the program won't notice many changes initially. Available for Windows and Mac and as a Firefox extension, the update encompasses a range of changes, including optimization for Netbooks, client- and server-side caching, simplified animations, and a number of bug fixes. Most importantly, the program is supposed to run faster, although that was hard to judge from 10 minutes of use. It's not slower, though.

The big changes that kids and their parents will pick up on mainly involve smoother integration between the interface and the … Read more

Study has mostly good news about predator risk

Correction: This posting originally misstated the Internet youth growth rate and population. Internet usage among youth grew from 73 percent in 2000 to 93 percent in 2006.

The news from a new online predator study is mostly good. Researchers from the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center (CCRC) found only a modest increase in the number of adults arrested for solicitation of actual minors, which could be accounted for by the growth in the number of youth Internet users.

In 2006 there were 615 arrests for soliciting a real child, compared with 508 in 2000 and … Read more

Podcast: An update on online predator danger

There has been a dramatic growth in arrests of online predators who solicit undercover police officers, but--on a percentage basis--a significant decrease in arrests for soliciting actual kids, according to a study released Tuesday by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

During a period where Internet use among youth increased from 73 percent to 93 percent, there was only a modest (21 percent) nationwide increase in the number of individuals arrested for soliciting real children from 508 arrests in 2000 to 615 in 2006.

To put this study into perspective and to help parents … Read more

SmartyCard to kids: Do well, get stuff

SmartyCard, which launches at Demo 09 on Tuesday, is both compelling and disturbing. The well-crafted site, which is aimed mainly at third- to sixth-graders, is compelling because it not only engages children in fun and interesting learning activities, but it adds an element of incentive by rewarding success with points that they can use to purchase virtual or real merchandise.

That very incentive is what also makes SmartyCard disturbing.

I'm not saying that the carrot approach--giving kids rewards for doing well--can't be appropriate and effective. But I'm somehow bothered by the idea of an automated system that … Read more