As most of you know, I am a Mom Advocate for Yoursphere: The Safe Online Site for Kids and Teens. The founder of Yoursphere recently let me know that Yoursphere was reviewed by Common Sense Media. The review was a little lukewarm at best. If you know me, you know that I had to put in my two cents’ worth…here it is…
Like any 13-year-old my daughter wants to dive head first in to the “rule free” world of adults. She grimaces and rolls her eyes with the best of them. Like any mom I want to keep my daughter young and protected.
I cringe at the number of my daughter’s friends who have set up MySpace and MySpaceBook pages — without their parent’s permission AND using phony ages. Yes, these 12- and 13-year-olds are listing themselves as 15 or older. As an adult I
know to only accept friends who I KNOW. I have a feeling a 13-year-old might accept any and all friendship requests. Who knows who is lurking on FaceBook trolling for unsuspecting teens. Scary.For me, Yoursphere is a safe place for my daughter to network. I am confident about and comfortable with the environment of the spheres on Yoursphere. My daughter, a budding writer, loves writing on Yoursphere. Yoursphere allows kids to write about what they want — I am sure at times the writing seems juvenile and irrelevant to adults, but these are kids 9-18 writing for other kids 9-18. My daughter loves the feedback she gets from other budding writers in her writing sphere. She refers to them as her “peer editors.” As for the cost of Yoursphere, I look back at the computer games and online services I have purchased in the past for my children when they were younger. In the past I have purchased a CD-ROM game or two per year for approx. $30 per game. I’ve also paid for about 30 WebKinz and the online experience for my little ones @$12-$14 each. Yoursphere is an extension of my child’s online learning experience.
For the complete review by Common_Sense_Media. Do you have a preteen or a teen, then click here to try out Yoursphere?
