Whyville.net
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Is it age appropriate?
About our ratings -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
Social site with good edu value needs supervision.
Why We Rated This 
for Ages 12 and Up
The good stuff
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Educational value:
What to watch out for
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Violence:
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Sex:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
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Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
What Parents Need to Know
This review of Whyville.net was written by Dana Villamagna
Parents need to know that this site is a popular virtual community created for kids (mostly girls) ages 8 to 15, although it may not be appropriate for the younger side of that wide span. The main concern is that although the site uses a language filter and city workers review the chat log and warrant "duct tape sentences" to offenders, the chat is not monitored 24/7. But kids must take a instructive chat license test that teaches online safety features. Numerous safety measures built into the site help protect kids from online predators.
Families Can Talk About
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- Families can talk about how some activities on this site are different from other virtual worlds. Do your kids come to the site because it offers good community activities? Does the safety test help them feel safer exploring the site. Families can also take a tour of the site together and talk about what they see.
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More on Whyville.net
What’s the Story?
On WHYVILLE.NET users create an avatar -- a digital icon to represent themselves -- and meet others to play science- and math-centric educational games, chat, spend virtual money (or actual money if you want) to shop, and hang out. The site is set up to mirror a real-life community, including a government that users can participate in. Similar to adult virtual communities like Teen Second Life, Whyville.net users spend virtual money called clams to buy cars, build their own homes, and fancy up their avatars. The players can buy clams with real money via paypal ($5 for 500 clams, $20 for 3,000) or earn clams by playing the games.
Is It Any Good?
Although creators have included a number of safety measures (including registering for the site with a parent's email, requiring a parental permission slip to be sent via snail mail, taking a thorough pre-chat test, and reporting abuses by other players through a "911 report"), one of the site's major mishaps is that the chat rooms aren't monitored around the clock, so there can be predictable teen-like interchanges about "hooking up" and some inappropriately frank -- and sometimes hurtful -- comments.
Many of the educational components within Whyville are sponsored by well-respected institutions in the science, art, health and math fields, such as NASA and the John Paul Getty Trust. On the negative side, however, there are a lot of advertisers on the site, including Wal-Mart, Disney, and the car maker Scion. The constant call for clams and trumpeting of big-ticket items like cars makes Whyville somewhat of a conundrum for parents: Do the educational benefits outweigh the commercial influences?
Our Members Say
See all 21 member reviews
Most Recent Reviews
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I rate this title on for age 10 and give it
- My highlights are:
- Safety isn't an issue
G-R-E-A-T tweens
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I rate this title iffy for age 10 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- My highlights are:
- Safety isn't an issue
Hmm...
well I go on whyville and im 10 I think its okay for my age but suddenly im noticing there are people telling Each other THEIR PHONE NUMBERS!!! And saying oh here baby text me or call me shmexxi (sexy) so idk...iffy on this review...
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I rate this title iffy for age 9 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- User content isn't age appropriate
- My highlights are:
- Educational
- User content is age appropriate
GIVE IT A GO!
This site is really nice! You can write for the newspaper, which is not only fun and exhilarating to see your articles in, is educational! You can also learn to take care of animals, learn about stars at the SkyScout chatroom, interact with others, dance, create an avatar, and talk to the creators of the site. There are older citizens though who make it a bit uncomfortable for younger citizens, which is horrible. But some citizens are very kind and make it nice for everyone. You will realize most judge new citizens, but the Ymail Helpers normally don't. But on all sites, this happens. The website tries very hard to keep it clean and easy to navigate with it's welcome guides, ymail helpers, and help pages. You will notice you cannot chat at first, but that is to get you to learn the place and the rules better. Within I believe 2 days you'll be chatting soon. So in the mean time, earn some clams. Also Whyville has taken away their previous consumer resource, whypasses and changed it to pearls, another currency. It is very cheap and they don't spread it into your face like some websites do.-You can still dress up, change your 'skin' (background of website), chat on the BBS, chat freely/safely, still can trade, still can write for the newspaper, and so much more. The only difference is you can get a pet, buy animated face parts, get on the grass seating in the Greek Theatre (a room), color your chat bubble, pay for items with the currency, and get Elvis or Raven Symone 'skins'. Finally, talking to the creators is really nice because they get to learn about how designing a website works and suggest things. All in all, it's a super website and I say "GIVE IT GO!"
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I rate this title on for age 13 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- User content isn't age appropriate
no
The site tries to keep it safe, but really, its not that good. i have an account and most of the kids on it are pervs and jerks. they put you down if your new and some make their avatars "do IT" with yours. i dont like it. only go on it if your being paid at least 15 bucks
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I rate this title off for age 4 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate language
WHYVILLE SUCKS
I HATE WHYVILLE FOREVER!IT IS SO MAKING ME MAD THAT I CAN ONLY SAY ''HELLO'' AND ''HOW ARE YOU'' THATS ALL!AND ONE TIME,I WENT INTO A ROOM AND THIS BOY,LIKE,PUT HIS AVATAR ONTO MY BODY AND COVERED IT!HE WAS GOIN UP AND DOWN TO COVER MY AVATAR!HE WAS DRUNK AND STUPID!
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I rate this title on for age 8 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- My highlights are:
- Educational
I originally started using whyville in 2007. Of course with my short memory span I forgot about it in a few months. Again in 2008 when one of my friends recommended it to the class, I signed up again because my previous account had expired. I kind of freaked out because I couldn't type my own name before the permission slip was sent in. So pretty much all I did was try to make money. The salary ledger games can be very tricky, which is excellent because it really helped me learn in a fun way. Anywho, in the chat rooms it can get really sexual. I know I've been involved as a joke. But you will be punished for everything that you do. And you will be banned after being taped or fined 10 times. The graphics are great. Many people hate the whole head and shoulders thing, but you can pretty much even have a full torso if you know how to work the pick your nose. Overall it's a great combination between learning and networking. :D
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I rate this title on for age 6 and give it
- My highlights are:
- Educational
I go on this site :]
Whyville isn't much fun since its a VERY old website since it was made for educational values and made in 1999 (i think) This website is very safe on its filters. ( I would know) Its mostly aimed for people 8-15 so you would the point. If you say people say a lot of things in chat then your at the wrong time and wrong place to be. The sun roof is full of people who are like over 15 and yea. Sadly at my school they talk some of those things too, (we call them chavs) To be on the safe side of whyville stay in those places like south beach, north beach, well you get the picture. When you see tall avatars and sometimes crazy hair or mouths that you usually would never wear on your avatar then stay away from those chat rooms.
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I rate this title off for age 14 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
- My highlights are:
- Educational
I love Whyville and still go on it. But it has gotten so pathetic with new kids and they always come up with terms like Licks, Blows, etc.. Sexual words... The kids also find ways to get pass the filters and end up figthing. I would not allow a child under the age of 13 to come on this site has innaproaite teenagers which curse, and think there the cools ones in Whyville. Another thing is kids take advantage and threaten people on the chatting rooms which is a big cyber bully. These lazy City Workers needs to wake up and bring the old whyville back. Message to City Worker your ignorants, stupid, and idiots for not doing such a goodjob. Somebody get new workers that actually handle a child website.
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I rate this title off for age 15 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
Inappropiate website
I used to log into Whyville and it used to be a cool site, but now it's just nasty. The kids just run around pretending to have sex, talking about sex, cussing, pretending to get drunk, talking about drinking and drugs, typing out lyrics to nasty songs, pretending to rape other random kids, giving out personal information, and more. I've even seen guys on there asking girls nasty questions and the girls would respond with answers. When I reported kids for nasty behavior the staff always told me they weren't doing anything wrong and that it wasn't bad. They don't do anything about the nasty behavior anymore. They just basically let everyone run around on there doing whatever they want now. I stopped logging in because every time I went into a chat-room I would see kids acting and talking disgusting and I always got attacked by guys asking me inappropiate questions and trying to "rape" me. They say this site is educational and appropiate for young children, but it's really nasty and kids don't need to see the stuff some of these kids do and say. They say they have chat filters so kids can't talk nasty, but they just word the words in a certain way so it gets past the filters and they don't do a thing about it. I've even seen kids with nasty usernames. When you first go to their site and see the log in page, make your account, take the chat test and all that it looks like a clean,fun site, but once you go into the chatrooms you learn differently. This used to be a clean site that was fun and cool, but now it isn't. :(
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I rate this title on for age 17 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Inappropriate sexual content
- Inappropriate language
- Drinking, smoking, or drug use
- Safety is an issue
- User content isn't age appropriate
This site USED to be a fairly good website but not anymore. My daughter complained many times to the workers there about inappropriate behavior such as virtual sex, talking about sex, positions for sex and blow jobs, pretending to drink, foul language and nothing is done. She was informed that there was nothing wrong with the behavior and to quit filing 911 reports (their name for complaint reports). She even had a boy ask her if he could rape her and when she did a 911 report she was told there was nothing wrong with what the boy did. There is no way any kid under 18 should be on that site.
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I rate this title on for age 12 and give it
my 12 year old loves the site
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I rate this title on for age 7 and give it
WHAT?
What the heck? Whyville IS monitored. just because you don't get punished six seconds after you said something doesn't mean it's not monitored?! It's better than clubpenguin and neopets. Because you actually DO STUFF and can type more than just letters and punctuations. I'd say it's 7+.
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I rate this title on for age 8 and give it
It's a really good website for kids.
Okay. I personally think whyville is good for all ages. But you have to know how to read and write. And work a computer I guess. I've been on whyville since age 9 and it's a perfectly safe place for kids. I dont have to hide it from my parents like I would if I had a myspace or something. Both my parents know about it. And to Cat_Girl: Please grow up. In this world people cuss and one day you will too. It's not nice but seriously. Just ignore it.
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I rate this title pause for age 13 and give it
Why bother with whyville?
I allowed my daughter to try this site and was disappointed. The graphics look 2nd rate and the site is not monitored closely enough. There is a type of restricted chat where you have to choose phrases from a list, and then there is a more open type of chat kids can do if parents sign a permission slip and snail-mail it in. Eventually she prodded and begged enough and i decided to allow her to access the open chat and sent in my permission slip. Whyville staff never responded. I emailed a complaint and waited.... In the meantime, I noticed a lot of mean-spirited comments being thrown back and forth, and kids finding creative ways to use swear words. Eventually I got an email from the staff saying that they never received my permission slip. There is also a lot of pressure to buy "clams" (currency) that is used to buy clothing and face parts for your character. I was not about to use my credit card on a site that is so poorly run. We decided to give up on whyville and try Disney's Pixie Hollow instead. It's an adorable site and lots of fun, and the customer service is terrific. They also have a pirate site for boys.
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I rate this title on for age 8 and give it
Safety Pre-Cautions Will Make You GO Crazy!
OK, I went onto Whyville to try it out as a guest user. When I got on, I noticed the graphics weren't really all that great. Avatars only show part of a person. The avatars move around in the game by zooming around the screen. All of it is very 2-D. Nothing special at all! Anyway, this girl came into the room I was in, and it appeared she had a cold. She kept saying "Achoo!", and her avatar looked ill. I took this in, and I tried to say that she didn't look so good, but the chat wouldn't let me! Instead, it suggested I tell her that she looked good! At this point, I was beginning to get ticked off. I hardly ever misuse chat, and all I was trying to do was have a conversation with this person, but Whyville's limitations wouldn't have any of it! After the incident with the sick person, I went to another room that dealed with oceanography. The NPC at the counter was named Reggie. I tried to say "Hey Reg!", but again the chat wouldn't let me. At this point I was really starting to get mad. My second attempt at speaking in the game had failed. Thanks to the system we can't say anything unless it's in a dictionary of approved words. Nor can we say anything that might be seen as mean. (although it's not to be mean!). I also tried to say: "How do you do?" "I want to try that!" "What do you like?" "I like to rollerskate." "Have you ever flown in an airplane?" "I have three cats and two dogs." "I talked to her earlier." Guess What? None of these were approved! That's just a small percentage of what you can't say in the game. The truth is, if a word, phrase, or sentence isn't approved, you can't say it!
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I rate this title off for age 0 and give it
I hate it!
Whyville sucks they killed my computer!
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
I love it!
I,myself, have a whyvillle account, and it is awesome! You can dress up, ( there are even beauty contests!) Sometimes the language gets intense becaues of teens, but I think Whyville is appropriate for ages 11+.
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
It was good....
Whyville is a great site, it teaches you how to eat properly, read the labels on your food, do community service, volunteer, and many good things that help build character. But then there are the bad kids that search for cyber, and many use bad words, but you can get reported for that and get duct tape on your face. Its better than myspace and gaia
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I rate this title off for age 0 and give it
WORST WEBSITE EVER!!!!
I used to play whyville untill some one said the h word!I do not recomend this website!
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
omg best website eva
whoeva thinks whyville sucks well u suck whyville is great website that is educational fun and the safest chatroom ohter ohh and to those parents out there who think that whyville is a bad sight look @ yoour childs myspace im sure they say alot wose things on that
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Ratings at a Glance
| 75% | of parents say it has language their kids can't use |
| 50% | of parents feel user generated content is iffy |
| 50% | of parents feel the site is not safe |
| 50% | of parents don't think the messages are positive |
| 50% | of parents say the sexual behavior isn't age appropriate |
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