Gaming Communities and Kids: ABC's of Online Safety

2. Gaming Communities and Kids:Do You Know Your ABC’s?

3. Presenters • Rebecca Newton • Community Director • Richard Weil • Community Director

4. Community Relations for Kids and Tweens vs. Adults • What makes it different?

5. Legal and RegulatoryObligations • COPPA Compliance • Age Screening and verification procedures • Restrictions on B2C communications where minors are involved

6. Demographics Economic, Social and disposable time differences

7. Demographics • What kids / tweens are doing online vs. activities of older age groups • *Percent of US Population 13 and under • Schoolwork – 75% • Email – 63.8% • Play Games – 64.7% • Radio, Movies – 17.9% • Chat Rooms – 16% Kids like to be active and busy online. * Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2005

8. Demographics • What kids / tweens are doing online vs. activities of older age groups • *Percent of US Population 16 and older • Email – 89% • Search Engines – 55% • News – 47% • Browse for fun – 42% • Work Research, Hobbies, • Weather, etc. 32% • Adults prefer to read and research and browse * Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2005

9. Demographics Top 10 Kids Gaming Sites By Total Traffic Site Overall Rank CBBC (bbc.co.uk/cbbc 48 Miniclip.com 208 Runescape.com 267 Disney.com 275 Pogo.com 280 Gaia Online 303 Neopets.com 370 Cartoon Network 414 Webkinz 689 Stardoll 709 *Alexa.com, August 2008 –

10. Demographics Top 10 Most Popular Kids’ Gaming Sites Stats by Unique Visitor Site Rank ClubPenguin.com 1 CartoonNetwork.com 2 Nick.com 3 Barbie.com 4 Webkinz.com 5 Neopets.com 6 MyScene.com 7 PBSkids.org 8 Hotwheels.com 9 DisneyLatino.com10 *ComScore Jan-May 2008 (unique visitors)

11. Forging an Effective Online Community Relations (OCR) Effort for Kids and Tweens

12. Necessary Staff Training and Knowledge • Ethics • Compliance with relevant laws and regulations • Day-to-day challenges communicating with kid / tween audiences • How and where to draw the lines • Vetted staff (CBCs)

13. Necessary Staff Training and Knowledge • War Stories from the Field • Moderator sharing child porn w. users under 13 • Moderators meeting users offline • Staff members stealing and selling user’s virtual goods on eBay • Staff members asking minors to buy drug paraphernalia • Staff members giving virtual goods and currency to pet users • Favoritism • Sr. Staff Members leaking company documents to kid users • Sr. Exec. (and support staff) leaking game secrets to kid users

14. Communications • Working with Parent Information and Child Advocate organizations / websites • www.netsmartz.org • http://www.missingkids.com/ (NCMEC Cybertip line) • Safe Harbor for Kids’ Sites • www.CARU.org • http://www.truste.org/ • http://www.caru.org/program/safeHarborList.asp

15. Communications • Viral Marketing to Kids / Tweens: Know your CAN-SPAM rules • http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm CAN-SPAM Act Requirements • No false or misleading header information • No deceptive subject lines • Clear Opt-out method • Stop sending mail w/in 10 days • Illegal to sell or distribute email address • Clearly identified as Commercial Mail • Must provide sender’s valid postal address Marketing and Advertising on Kids’ Sites CARU regulations and guidelines : http://www.caru.org/guidelines/index.asp

16. Communications Viral Marketing to Kids / Tweens COPPA Regulations • ‘Tell-a-Friend’ schemes: • must be scrubbed, • no email addresses allowed in the FROM section • Limited character space for screen name only • No PII • Limited liability

17. Know Your Audience • School and Extracurricular time demands • Little or no direct access to money • Parental restrictions / oversight • Each of the above effects how your audience interacts with your product. Plan accordingly.

18. Conclusions and Looking Forward jjj

19. Landscape Analysis • Online products aimed at Kids / Tweens increasing exponentially • New emphasis on complex security measures • Variety of revenue models *TIA and NPD Research, July 2008 ** Mediamark Research “2007 American Kids Survey”

20. What’s Coming from the FTC and CARU? • Age verification via credit cards • Parental permission via fax or email • Landline voice verification • National ID card scheme (UK)

21. Why Does All This Matter? • Effective (not timid) OCR programs in a Kids / Tween product are competitive differentiators, just as in older-targeted products.

22. Why Does All This Matter? • 57 bil. $ industry by 2009(DFC Intelligence,06/08) • Revenue Models • MMOG Subscription Tiers • Runescape, Club Penguin, WoW • leading revenue driver (100s of millions $) in lifetime revenues • Advertising Models • Cartoon Network, Disney, CBBC • *75% 6-8yos access online content • *90% 8-16yos access online content • **80% 6-11yos play online games • *28% 2-14 buy offline products associated with websites *TIA and NPD Research, July 2008 ** Mediamark Research “2007 American Kids Survey”

23. Why Does All This Matter? • Revenue Models (continued) • Virtual Goods (micro payments) • Habbo, Second Life, Stardoll, Gaia, Facebook • Facebook’s /poke – most played casual social game on the net • Merchandise • Webkinz

24. Why Does All This Matter? • Revenue Models – Problematic ? • Virtual Goods (micro payment systems) • Habbo * ARPU can look good compared to subscriptions, but the numbers aren’t comparable. * Paymentguy.com “Habbo can never make money with micropayment system.” * < 10% support the other 90%

25. Q&A

26. Thanks!