Indiantelevision.com's Kidology: BBC launches content sharing application for children
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Indiantelevision.com's Kidology
 
 
BBC launches content sharing application for children
 
Indiantelevision.com Team
(28 January 2008 1:00 pm)
 

MUMBAI: UK pubcaster BBC has announced that CBBC, its channel for 6 to 13-year-olds, will launch "My CBBC" later this year.

This new application will enable children to store, display and share their favourite content with each other from CBBC shows, games and web pages. They can choose up to 16 friends who are registered users on the CBBC website to share the content with.

Users will be able to design their own dens, choosing furniture, posters, gadgets and accessories. Each gadget and accessory in the room will have a different function:

Radio – This stores the names of users' favourite UK Top 40 songs.

PC – This stores users' favourite CBBC and safe external sites.

Mobile phone – This stores messages from friends who have visited the user's room (All messages are pre-defined – no free-text option).

Plasma screen – This stores users' favourite shows as links to corresponding websites.

Calendar – It displays transmission times for users' favourite shows. Users can also add their own dates e.g. birthdays, school tests, etc. The calendar is wholly private and not viewable by anyone other than the den owner.

Magazines – They will store users' selected RSS feeds.

Treasure chest - This will be a portal to a user's other user-generated content on CBBC (i.e. "I made this").

Friends book - This will store users' friends as avatar images and member names (maximum of 16).

There will also be an "About Me" section, which will give users the ability to share their likes and dislikes.

BBC Children's controller Richard Deverell says, "We know that children are fascinated by the Internet and really want to have a go at creating, sharing and rating content. This application allows them to try this out using existing CBBC content in a completely safe environment."

The BBC clarifies that "My CBBC" is not a social networking site. It is a completely safe, protected environment where children can share their favourite content and interact with each other in a pre-moderated way on a very basic level. The pubcaster adds that there is no free-text functionality anywhere in the application, or any private and/or unmoderated chat or interaction between users.

The application has been devised and designed in accordance with, and in many areas exceeding, the recommendations set out in the Home Office's Good Practice Guidance for the Safe Moderation of Interactive Services for Children and the Home Office's forthcoming Guidelines for Social Networking Sites for Children.
 
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