What Kids should know about Fan Sites

I just had an interview with an 11 year old kid on how she uses the Internet to learn more about her favorite celebrities. Turns out, here’s what I found that are most common on kids her age.

• They spend 2 to 6 hours a day browsing the net after doing their homework.
• Visit online gaming sites like Joytube.com, Barbie.com and Bratz.com
• Most common social networks they visit are Friendster and Multiply.
• YouTube is very popular and they mostly visit videos of their celebrities.
• Downloading pictures of their favorite celebrities and use them as wallpapers.

Fan sites are good alternative source of information other than the official sites of their favorite celebrities. They are mostly found on social sites like Friendster, Multiply and on forum sites as well. On fan sites you can find tons of pictures of celebrities and latest news and gossip. People share their thoughts towards celebrities they love and those they love to hate.

Some popular celebrities have their own blog or official websites. If there is no official site, TV stations provide some basic information of their celebrities like GMA’s detailed Stars Database ( igma.tv/stars ) and ABS-CBN’s celebrity profiles ( http://beta.abs-cbn.com/tabid/85/Default.aspx ).

With the popularity of fan sites, there are people who abuse a fanatic’s need to connect with their admired celebrities. There are fan sites specifically made for people and make them think they are really talking to their favorite celebrities and lure them to meet on a secret place and become their victim.

Here are tips that can help your kids stay away from sociopaths like child sexual predators posing as kids.

• Use parental control software to prevent your kids from accidentally visiting unwanted sites. You can’t block all illegal sites out there, but you will at least have some protection.
• Once in a while, sit beside your kid and lead them to fun and educational sites where they can learn something new everyday.
• If you allow them to open an account on social networking sites (like Friendster or MySpace), make sure they don’t disclose their full name, or email or details of your family.
• Don’t let them add friends you or they don’t personally know. Better to keep your friends network to a minimum, this way you won’t end up having someone you don’t want on the list.
• Stay away from fake celebrity profiles. Sometimes it’s hard to see which profile is for real or not, its better to never communicate with them at all.
• Don’t forget to make your PC as secure as possible from viruses and hackers by installing the latest Anti Virus, Anti Spyware and Internet Firewall software.

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Alfredo is a web designer, programmer and a search engine marketer from the Philippines. He is also an amateur photographer and loves to travel. He can be found on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Questions? Send him an email.