I don't exactly remember how I stumbled on Neopets. It was over a year ago. Having a fascination with virtual pets, I started checking it out. What I found was that their pets went far beyond the usual desktop type. One could interact with them in a large variety of ways. In fact, there was an entire economy and also a community built around them. I became fascinated with the buying and selling of the various goods which my pet either required or might enjoy. There was actually a data base to follow the market for hundreds of items. I also started a "guild" for over-21 Neopians. (I believe these are now called "circles".) Since I had no children in the house at the time, I considered this site to fall into the category of "mindless fun". Although I thoroughly enjoyed the site, I made myself stop as it was clearly interfering with more serious projects.
About a month ago, I had the opportunity to introduce a very bright ten year old
to the site. I was curious about his reaction to it since it bore some resemblance to Pokemon which he played on his Nintendo systems. I was surprised at how much had been done with the site
since I had left. Pets could now fight each other in the Battle Dome. There was now a stock market . And , in addition, several new games, quests and virtual worlds to explore had been added. The kid thinks it's great. He had never before sustained a consistent interest in any of the other kid sites, but on Neopets, he's a regular, and rapidly assimilating its secrets. More importantly he has learned to log on to the internet, how to navigate a web site, how to use a search engine and probably many other skills necessary for survival in this new millennium.
Parents concerned about security issues will be glad to know that it's a high priority on the site. Written parental permission is necessary to use any of the messaging features or visit the sponsers. There are also strategic links to forms for the users to report any abuse in the form of bad language etc..
Neopets is entirely advertiser supported. It's totally free and the registration is easy,
In summary, Neopets in my opinion, is hands down, the best site for kids on the net. I would estimate that a kid would have to be at least eight or nine to get the most out of it, (I could easily be wrong). An even harder question would be the maximum age. I still like it and I am by no means the only ancient Neopian.
I guess its too good to be just for kids.
