Serendipity35

The Walt Disney Company acquired children's social network Togetherville as part of Disney's strategy of investing more in social and mobile companies. Disney purchased the social gaming company Playdom and mobile music game maker Tapulous last year. They are moving away from console–based video games.

Togetherville http://togetherville.com is meant for children aged 6 to 10 and allows them to interact with the children of their parents' friends on Facebook. They can play games, watch videos, send pre–selected messages to their friends or have their own comments sent AFTER parent approve them.

Disney is not the only big player going after the huge kids (and parents)  market in social that has yet to be tapped.

But should it be tapped? Do really want very young kids in social networks?

Mashable has done stories on a number of these social networks for children but there is no answer to questions about what the effects (positive and negative) will be of kids growing up in a world that "requires"  the skills of a digital citizen.

What are the plusses given? They learn computer skills. They explore how to be creative. They learn in an engaging, fun, interactive way.

Sites like Togetherville stress their concerns for this to be done safely and responsibly and give parents "complete control" over whom the kids can interact with online. Togetherville is interesting in that the "neighborhoods" are built from the parents own social network.