Thinktechno.com

Here comes Disney with something new, probably inspired by the unbelievable success of MySpace, the largest social networking website. MySpace is popular with everyone but not everyone can access it specially kids under 14.

This Disney feature, a social networking for kids below 14 called Disney Xtreme Digital, or DisneyXD has special features for parents to get control over internet activities of their children. Especially to be noted is a chat feature which requires parental approval for kids to go beyond trading canned messages. This has been specially done to prevent users from revealing personal information, or from using profanity.

Other features here include games, videos and music files from Disney’s promotion rich website. “There is a weaving together of entertainment and promotion and marketing,” Yanover added. “It’s difficult to say where one ends and the other begins.”

This site is in no way, for slow connection users. The feature is meant for use on high-speed Internet. The approximately 30 million U.S. broadband households already make up about 90 percent of visitors to Disney.com, Yanover said.

“I want tons of kids immersed in my brands and franchises. What better marketer do I have than a kid?” Yanover said. “It’s really about building a kid community… (that) extends beyond individual Disney products, Web sites and titles.”

So, to attract kids, a special point system has also been included in which Kids earn points for every activity they participate in on Disney XD, and can use the points to purchase items such as virtual stickers or Rube Goldberg-type machines like bubble makers for their pages.

Pranjal