Week Four: The Australian

Article from: The Australian
Title: Club Penguin suits Disney's virtual world aims
Author: Lara Sinclair
Date: August 7, 2008

Link: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24139146-7582,00.html

This article highlights a current issue involving children and interactive media. Disney has recently purchased the virtual community, Club Penguin, and is loooking to start similar websites based on other Disney stories in which children play in a virtual online world.

Although Disney claims to have recruited staff who are employed to oversee the running of these websites and monitor security, these virtual worlds still raise some concerns for me. Although I feel it is important for children to gain computer skills and be aware of current technology, I also think that exposing children to virtual worlds at younger and younger ages for extended periods of time can not have positive results. By encouraging children to play on the internet instead of reading a book or playing a sport, we are denying them basic skills such as reading and social skills, not to mention general health and well being. I fear that if we continue to let children over-indulge in internet virtual worlds, we will produce a generation of people who cannot interact with each other without a computer.

These online worlds also encourage children to move away from traditional media such as books, magazines and newspapers which could have disatarous effects on these industries. Another article which appeared in The Australian titled 'Turning the web into a girlfriend' (see link below) discusses the teen magazine Girlfriend's problem of trying to lure readers back to their magazine. To do this they have included pages on digital media, including blogs and profile pages from MySpace, to try to reach the computer savvy market. This is an issue shared by many magazine publishers today. The popularity of the internet has has affects on all other forms of media, as it inevitably would, and is a dominant force in today's media.

In managing this issue, I propose the answer is to teach children from a young age that everything in moderation is good. Spend some time interacting with friends in a virtual world then read a book or magazine and go for a run or kick the footy. The internet is new and exciting but old or traditional hobbies can be just as much fun if you give them a go.

Other links:
The Australian 'Turning the web into a Girlfriend' - http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24157469-7582,00.html