As interactive websites for children proliferate, more and more kids and "tweens" are developing alter egos to explore life in cyberworld. “Get used to it,” said School of Interactive Computing professor Amy Bruckman, who studies how children interact with computers. “Identity formation is a key part of what kids go through, and these sites offer that opportunity.” Source: The New York Times.
Many sites such as Empire of Sports, Planet Cazmo and Xivio are aimed at so-called tweens, ages 8 to 12. For those who have outgrown Club Penguin but who are too young for MySpace, the sites offer a hybrid of a games site and a social network. This year, more than 12 million children nationwide under the age of 18 will visit at least one of these sites, and that number will grow to 20 million by 2011, according to the research firm eMarketer.