GNTV: Disney--Raising Kids on Social Networks

I’ve said it before: if you want to understand the future, go talk to some kids. Watch what they do. Watch their habits. Chances are these won’t change much as they go through life. The emerging generation seems to me best described as the Online Generation. They hang out online in spaces that are virtual. There they form relationships that are very real.

Kids today are joining online social networks at increasingly early ages. At Club Penguin, acquired by Disney last year, they are joining at pre-school age.

The Disney Internet Group hopes to attract kids, then with a series of other online virtual world-based communities continue to engage them. Their portfolio now includes Nickleodeon  and Toontown. Most recently came the highly engaging and interactive Pirates of the Caribbean,  which mostly attracts boys. Soon Pixie Hollow will come out for teenage girls who can assume a Fantastic little avatar.

Last year Disney bought Club Penguin http://clubpenguin.com/ which now is estimated to have more than 100 million users, some of them as young as age 4. Under heavy security, Penguin members can meet and talk with other children. They can learn commerce by selling goods and services in exchange for virtual money. And as the kids grow older they can transition from one Virtual World designed for them to another, each providing the quality charm of Disney that is part of Disney’s occasionally controversial trademark.
So what happens when this Online Generation grows up and enters the market and takes seats in the cubicles of your business? How will this Online Generation emerge? Will they be the same or different from their own parents in the market and as professionals?
I took those questions with me to Disney Interactive Studios in Burbank recently, where I interviewed a few members of the senior team including President Steve Wadsworth. In their vision, as they express it on this clip. The next generation will be more social, more collaborative and perhaps a better place.
All things considered, I tend to agree.

Comments

[Jason Baer]

100 million? Wow, I had no idea Club Penguin was that big. My kids are on it all the time, and their understanding of social networking is pretty amazing.

But, I take issue with the premise that this is for the best. I do believe the generation will be more social, in the online sense. But sadly, that will result in them being far less social, in the real sense. We are training our youth to have friendships and activities in two dimensions, not three, and that's not a net positive.

[Mark McLaren]

Shel,
I read in today's Seattle Times that over the next year Disney Internet Group will add 100 more to its current Seattle workforce of 300. Big business.

Here's another aspect of the trend - from the Pew Internet and American Life Project:
Writing, Technology and Teens

[friarminor]

I am all for raising kids alongside interactive and online web, Shel since they would be able to learn about what it can do more quickly and not fear it.

But like Jason, I don't think a child who isn't on it at an early age wouldn't be social nor less collaborative. Above all things, family and immediate environment are still the main determinants of those traits (without neglecting the possibility of each child developing on his own despite the less than ideal situations such as lack of parents or poverty).

Best.
alain
zakishymn.blogspot.com

[Hjörtur Smárason]

That's great. My kids here in Iceland are on Club Penguin and I think it's a smart site training our kids in networking, training which I believe is useful both online and offline. But it never occurred to me there were 100 millions on it.

I think you're very right when saying this is a generation we need to watch closely and learn from their behaviour.

[Leah]

That's great news for Seattle. I'm a bit old school, though. I allow my children only 1/2 hour to an hour online. Any other play time is outside with their friends riding bikes, running, playing stick ball and just plain old being kids. That's what's missing today which is why there are more overweight children than ever.

[tagami]

Great interviews. Yanover's comment that virtual worlds have been around for awhile was insightful. Virtual worlds are a subset of social networks. Social networks are not relegated to online - they've been around as long as we have had society.

When we were kids we'd go out in the backyard and play "Star Wars". Today, kids won't drop that behavior, but they now have the opportunity to socialize that theatrical experience in a virtual world within a potentially much larger group.

My boys (11 & 13) seem to be able to move between the real and virtual without much effort. The scale is different, but it's almost one in the same. The internet is like running water or electricity to them - it has always been here.

Geography, anonymity, culture, safety et al are just a few of the factors to consider in the online space.

Looking at more mature social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, or say FriendFeed, indicate to me that these are still the early years w/r/t digital communities.

[Doug Meacham]

Shel, Thanks for the great interview. Clearly, Disney understands the opportunity in the virtual/social space. Conspicuously absent from the remarks was any mention of Virtual Magic Kingdom which Disney is planning on shutting down in a few weeks. While it may not have 100 million users, it does appeal to early teens, a market that Disney desperately wants to capture. Unfortunately VMK fans, Disney has decided that it has run its course now that the Disneyland 50 year celebration is over. That's the official line. The fact that it doesn't generate monthly revenue like Pirates or Penguin probably has a lot to do with it. As a parent of a 14 year old girl who, like thousands of kids, has invested hundreds of hours helping to build the VMK experience, I can tell you that the VMK community is not happy with Disney over this. It will be interesting to see how successful Disney is at attracting teens given their penchant for control.

[keno]

A bakeneko will haunt any household it is kept in, creating ghostly fireballs, menacing sleepers, walking on its hind legs, changing its shape into that of a human, and even devouring its own mistress in order to shapeshift and take her place. When it is finally killed, its body may be as much as five feet in length. It also poses a danger if allowed into a room with a fresh corpse; a cat is believed to be capable of reanimating a body by jumping over it..
keno

[Jegrezo]

What's fascinating about this, however, is that Disney is currently in the countdown to delivering the ax to one of their own wildly popular on-line worlds, Virtual Magic Kingdom. VMK has such a strong on-line community that THOUSANDS of users have joined together trying to find any possible way to convince Disney to save their virtual community. Yet, Disney seems to be holding true to their plan to terminate this virtual kingdom on 5/21/2008, along with the thousands of very real friendships that exist between users. Players who have formed very real friendships in VMK can never contact one another again after this looming doomsday because VMK has a very strict confidentiality policy in place to protect young users. One has to ask why Disney is speaking so endearingly of building online communities while at the same time they are shutting down VMK which has had hundreds of thousands of loyal people engaged in a virtual community for the last 3 years. It just doesn't make sense.

[shel israel]

I asked Katie Gerber, a spokesperson for the Disney Internet Group about Virtual Magic Kingdom. This is her response: "

VMK was created as an online promotion for the Disney Parks’ Happiest Celebration on Earth, which celebrated Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary, and it exceeded our expectations in terms of performance to the point that we left it open much longer than originally anticipated. All good promotions must come to an end, so we have decided the time is right to close VMK. We plan to offer free online promotions that will continue to engage our Parks and Resorts guests in new and entertaining ways on the Web."

[Jegrezo]

The quote that Shel has posted above has been Disney's "official response" from the day they announced the closure of VMK.

Several problems with this:

1 - The Parade of Dreams which is currently at Disneyland was started in honor of Disneyland's 50th. It still runs.

2 - Disneyland's Dreams Come True Fireworks show was created for the 50th anniversary. It is the current fireworks display at the Park.

3 - "Disneyland: the First 50 Magic Years" replaced "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" for Disneyland's 50th. Although the 50th celebration has ended, guess what still plays at Disneyland's theatre on Main Street? Correct, the filmstrip honoring the first 50 years.

The explanation that VMK is ending because the 50th celebration that it was created to promote is over, just doesn't hold up when looking at these other still existing elements of the magic that were similarly created to celebrate the very same landmark event.

Many parts of the 50th celebration continue to be enjoyed by Disney fans. Why should VMK be any different since in continues to be enjoyed EVERY DAY by fans worldwide?