After one of my previous posts about how hectic mums can keep kids safe on the net, I came across this interactive Club Penguin world, which is run by Disney.

Its for young children aged between 6-14years old and is perfect to keep them entertained over half term!

It is described as a ‘snow-covered, virtual world where children can play games and interact with friends in the guise of colourful penguin avatars’.

Players create a penguin and explore the snow-covered island of Club Penguin. Children can chat, send greeting cards and choose from a set of pre-defined actions such as waving or dancing.

The little penguin can also attend parties and special events, take on a role in the latest stage play, adopt and care for a cute ‘puffle’ pet and play games to earn virtual coins which can be used to design the perfect igloo and create hundreds of outfits for their penguin, the list is endless to keep them busy for a while!

And the good news is that it’s safe. Club Penguin offers two chat options which allow users different levels of chat limits with everything being filtered to allow only pre-approved words and phrases. It also blocks attempts to communicate a phone number or other personally identifiable information.

When you’re child has signed up, they have to enter your email address which will be sent an activation code so that every aspect is done through you. Additionally you can set times for them to play between and limit the daily total so that they don’t get square eyes.

And best of all, its free!

I don’t pretend to know everything about the world of technology. I know how to send a text, communicate via email and write a blog, as well as a few other bits and pieces that I need for work.

I am well aware that, like most adults, children put me to shame with their own technological wizardry an understanding of computers.

For the average Hectic Mum this could be a problem. We all worry about what our children might be exposed to on the internet and most parents want to know how to ‘kidproof’ a computer to make sure their children are safe when they’re surfing the net.

While it’s difficult to keep an eye on what children are doing online, to say nothing of what they’re putting on websites, who they’re chatting to and what they’re downloading, I have found a couple of things that could be a help.

The Family Online Safety Institute is a site dedicated to providing resources for parents who want to make sure that their children are safe on the net.

One option is to buy an internet security package such as Norton Internet Security and then install the “add-on parental control pack” software for free which will:
• Provide password-protected control profiles for adult, teen, and child.
• Offer predefined standard profiles that are customizable for the individual user.
• Block inappropriate Web sites based on user control profile settings.
• Log attempts to access blocked Web sites.