GirlSense (http://www.girlsense.com/)
common sense media says
Creative fashionista outlet may offer too much contact.
parents & educators say
- 33% say sexual content is an issue
- 30% say there are positive messages
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that GirlSense is a style-related social networking site where girls can be creative and flex their fashion muscles. Registered users can design clothes and accessories, create a boutique, and sell virtual versions of their creations. That's all in good fun, however, some of the site's interactive elements pose a concern. Girls can correspond publicly and privately with strangers through message boards, chat, posts, and email. Although there is a language filter, posts appear instantly -- and it's very easy to meet and send messages to other users through the site's internal email system.
Educational value:
The site is designed to entertain, but it's possible girls could learn some business lessons as they build and market their boutiques.
Violence:
Not applicable.
Sex:
Boyfriends and boys are some of the most popular topics in several group message boards. Members post comments like "you are gorgeous" and "if you want a boyfriend come here because im a boy" (sic). Posts appear instantly, so it's possible for users to post inappropriate content using creative wording; several users report seeing inappropriate posts, particularly in auction chats. Users can report inappropriate online behavior using the site's "report abuse" link.
Language:
A language filter prevents swear words from being entered into posts or emails (you can only type in predictive text-approved words). The site pledges to ban any members who submit inappropriate language. However, posts appear instantly, so it's possible users could sneak in creative spelling versions of bad words. Users can report comments or clothing that contain bad words.
Consumerism:
GirlSense is centered on shopping and getting other users to buy your fashion creations, so it's no surprise that this site is pretty consumer-heavy. Users can host auctions to sell their looks and make G-cents, the site currency. Ads from casinos, skin care companies, and other companies dot almost every page of the site. GirlSense members can also purchase ad space themselves to get more visits to their boutique or promote their online poll.
Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
Not applicable.
Privacy & safety:
Several concerns. Users' home pages are public and can be read by anyone. Predictive text restrictions won't let you type in a phone number when you're sending another user a note through the site, and the site's rules explicitly tell users not to share personal information. However, the site is lacking basic privacy controls, and there are no parental controls. The auctions include an option to chat with others; you can only chat with people in your age group (12 and under or 13 and older, although it's very easy to lie about your age when you register, so a user's stated age doesn't mean much). Users can disable chat in auctions.
More on GirlSense
Review It
Based on 30 parent & educator reviews:
- 33% say sexual content is an issue
- 30% say there are positive messages
- 27% say language is an issue
Most useful reviews by all members
super sister
parent of 9 year old
parent of 9 year old
This is a very nice website I don't think there is any problem with it. Theres no educational value at all but it's not teaching kids anything bad.It may teach them about sales but thats not all bad overall I think it's a fantastic site.
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horrorlova345
kid, 13 years old
kid, 13 years old
perfect for 11- 90 (for those who still have fashion designer ambitions, but not younger.
I really love this site, but there is a lot of "online dating". There are girls AND boys, not just girls like it seems. The chat rooms in the auctions are monitored, and you can flag inappropriate messages. however sometimes users work around the 'dictionary'. they also refer to 'do u want to do me' but i think this site is fine for 11 and up. it is really fun, designing your own fashions,making a boutique,selling your fashions and making friends.
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redsox
adult
adult
Beware of this website
My daughter wanted to sign up for this website so I checked it out and was horrified. The sexual language was really shocking in some f the "safe chat rooms". Parents please know that I observed that kids or those posing as kids are working the system. Leaving spaces in vulgar words, and using other terms for body parts are a way to sneak in bad content.
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frankiegirl101
kid, 11 years old
kid, 11 years old
GIRL SENSE!
This website is perfect for kids who want to be a faison designer!! I know i love it and anyone can to. It doesn't matter how old you are(but you kinda have to be 5 and older) it is REALLY fun!!!!!!!:):):):)
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SuperIceS8r
teen, 14 years old
teen, 14 years old
Inappropriate on SO many levels...
Ok I'm torn with this one. I love the website cause it's really fun to make clothes and play the games and do auctions (when the people are normal). But lots of people make shirts lately that say "if ur by click here" By meaning bisexual and post them on auctions. Then if you go in one, there are tons of people mostly girls saying "Hey wanna do it" meaning have sex. It's really disturbing. Also if you say something like please stop talking to me then (this has happened to me) they will send you a note saying something gross like "love u plz follow me to an auction so we can do it" I was so disturbed that from then on i stopped going on auctions. With product placement, for weeks at a time they have the same ads all over the website. And grossly, I have seen ads for Trojan condoms. There are girls as young as 6 on there and they have no idea what sex is yet. And if they go in to an auction room with inappropriate content then that is not a good situation. I've seen shirts that say F**K U even though you can't write those words, people use stamps or buttons. And I've also seen the words S**T, B***H, C**P and H E double hockey sticks. Some of the girls (and boys) are way out of line here... Out of 100% I would say that 15% is good about this website.
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tuda
kid, 12 years old
kid, 12 years old
i had a girlsence person and it was not good peole say lets have sex and thats not right and people say that they want to have sex in a chat room
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SMILEznkalonde
teen, 14 years old
teen, 14 years old
GREAT!!!
Girlsense is awesome even though in has some bad contents in it. I think its okay for 12-19 yrs old like me. Parents should worry a little but not sooo much. LISTEN TO ME PARENTS ITS OKAY!!!
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Sillver
kid, 13 years old
kid, 13 years old
Well, the user content, at night... sometimes in the auction area there are things up for sale, often t-shirts that say 'bi people chat here' or 'if you want a gf click here' and sometimes there are explicit drawings of private parts (e.x. breasts). And I think that's reeeaaally disgusting. On the other hand, this usually only goes on at night (9pm-the am), all the other things people create are usually creative & appropriate. I love this game though it can get boring if you aren't sure what to make in your studio.
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96grlpowrCE
teen, 16 years old
teen, 16 years old
It used to be a lot better, but it's still a safe site.
Girlsense is very safe. Sometimes they go too far-- a chat dictionary doesn't allow you to write about anything appropriate, and that's good, but it doesn't allow you to use a very advanced vocabulary at all (highly annoying to me, as I tend to have always had a quite advanced vocabulary myself) and it only includes mainstream celebrities and shows so if you're not into that kind of stuff it makes it very hard for you to write about your interests. Also, they changed the way one designs clothes on the site (it used to be fun to design, you used to be able to use all sorts of cool tricks and techniques and make these characters and quotes t-shirts), dramatically limiting the amount of creativity you have when it comes to creating your clothes and boutique. So I would say in the past it was a lot more worth visiting, but it's not the worst website out there and depending on the person it could be a lot of fun. Nothing for parents to be concerned over, at all, as the website is extremely safe and age-appropriate.
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carolinagirl
adult
adult
Not Safe for Children
My daughter Age 12 has been on GirlSense for several months now and I thought that it was a pretty safe website. However, just this weekend she came to me to tell me that someone chatted with her using sexual references and graphic language. She even asked me to please set up the parental controls on our computer to ban the website completely. I'm just thankful that she came to me with this information. We had a talk about chat rooms and internet safety. I would be very careful about letting your daughters use this site unsupervised.
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KKopR8
parent of 11 year old
parent of 11 year old
Its great if you love your child learning restricted stuff!
This website is terrible! Posers go in auctions rrom and talk about sex. They act like they are doing it for example saying "Undressing HelovesBlondes" "Undressed making out with PrincessHot" I blocked this website on my daughter's computer!
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abby girl
teen, 16 years old
teen, 16 years old
great for girls but i would view the site with a tween before letting them on it
i love the site but some of the different things kids say are not very age appropriate, some kids try to have sex in auctions, not good for un educated kids under 12or even educated kids under that!
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TuscanSun
adult
adult
Older Member R Here 2
Love it! Its a creative outlet in terms of designing. It's fun to talk to people from all over the world. Yes, there are people that want to shock and put inappropriate designs or pictures out. For the most part, it is usually removed quickly. However, where there is a will there is a way to do anything. There are not so much mean as there are rude, thoughtless or sad girls on the site. Just ignore them and try to control your own behavior is my advice. There does seem to be a problem currently with the site not coming up. But I love it and go on it every day. Its my current best loved Internet site. I think the people are for the most part very pleasant and sweet. The average age I think is a bit higher. Girls are girls and love design whatever their age. Also, the older members watch out for the younger ones and report inappropriate content when they see it.
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KaraKake
teen, 14 years old
teen, 14 years old
Girlsense, The do's and don'ts of the Girlsense World.
Parents:
I am 13 years old, and let me tell you what I have learned from this website, teens usually find ways to send either, Negitive or inappropriate messages, but in auctions (or in the market) they have the age groups split up into two groups, 1- 12 and 13-99. the people with in these groups can interact as much as they want.
Kids:
People on this website, may leave you nasty comments or rude remarks, I don't let them get me down so why should you, tell your parents if there is a serious issue, because you can report it to webmaster@girlsense* and the moderator will imediately ban the perosn for his or her actions.
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Jojoishere10
kid, 12 years old
kid, 12 years old
Girlsense reviewed by Commonsense- and it ain't pretty.
There are lots of things to do on website! Though they have some inapropraiate ads on the website, and I've seen 6-year-olds. They also have chat, and it is not as safe as you think. It's very addicting, so I suggest you give your kid a strict time limit for this website- I've spent a whole day on girlsense and, well, let's just say I was very pooped in the morning lol. Also some boys join the website and "go out" with girls. And sometimes when a girl says something bad,she gets away with it! I've seen lots of bullying too. Think twice before joining girlsense, trust me.
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xxhersheyloverxx
kid, 12 years old
kid, 12 years old
One word: Bullying.
I get it.Girlsense is place where girls be unique IN THEIR own way.
But...their are alot going on.The people your child is adding.
This has nothing to do with predators.
But how their FAKE FRIENDS influence them depends how old they are.
And...fake friends are studying on boys (on girlsense)and trying to copy other people so THEY can replace them and be popular instead of unique.And its going to 65 percent influence your young child.THEY will be doing what their doing IF they act innocent to them.Im just giving parents a alert when it your child is join in.This site is 85 percent like i-dressup BUT instead its worst their are rumors and gossips spreading around.If you make your child stay safe everything will be alright.Watch out! Thumbs up if you agree with me!!:)
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LittleRatersGirl
kid, 13 years old
kid, 13 years old
Great for creative girls :)
I was 9 years old when i first came to this website, all the messages and profiles are checked PLUS you can only choose words from a drop down menu for notes and there's a great message: Be creative, be yourself. And Diary789 was partly correct under ware is somewhat inappropriate but, you have to wear under ware and maybe they meant it as a bathing suit this website is great there is some advertisements though. And yes older people can go on the website, you never grow out of creativeness.
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safeparentinghood
parent
parent
Let your kid learn inappropriate stuff if you let them join.
This website isn't the best but isn't the worst...my daughter came to me and asked if she could join so I applyed a fake account to see what stuff was on there. It turns out that there is A LOT OF INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT on there mostly from the teens. First off, the auctions. There are 'by girls click here' auctions. For god's sake, I saw a 6 year old girl on there! Second. I saw too many ads that shouldn't be advertised on a website that's supposed to be appropriate for tweens or younger girls. There are ads for bras, condoms and even tampons! And also, there was one of a woman's vagina! For your teen, there is Babble which is a copy of Twitter and Facebook. I saw a couple of them even calling this Shitsense! And please be aware that your daughter may be lieing about their age so that they an have a babble account. There are also boys going out and 'doing it' with girls on here...THIS WEBSITE IS JUST DISPOINTING. Don't let your kid join unless you want them to learn inappropriate content at an early age like 7 or 8. There is however, spell check in notes which I think is a perk for a change. You can also forward rude notes to the monitor, GSFashionEditor, if there is a problem but I saw that it sometimes takes a long time for her to reply, being the monitor...DECIDE FOR YOUR DAUGHTER'S LEARNING OF INAPPROPRAITE CONTENT OR DECIDE FOR HER SAFETY.
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AgentDelia
teen, 14 years old
teen, 14 years old
Great for girls who really want to build a fashion empire
I think Girlsense is great. It is a way for me to express my creativity and my love of fashion. I know that in auctions girls and boys will 'date' and 'do each other' but if you don't want to be a part of that you don't have to. You can just leave that auction. This stuff usually goes on around late at night and in the early morning. I think parents shouldn't be worried about this stuff because it is completely fake and the users who are 12 and under can only talk to each other and 13 and up can only talk to each other. I have also noticed sexual things usually happen with 13 and older. Really the only way younger kids can be brought into this stuff is if they join in. If gross things are happening in the auction you're in, just leave. I really love this website, it has really helped me understand about fashion and business a bit more. I think if you just stay away from gross auctions, this website is completely age-appropriate. On a scale of 1-10, I give Girlsense an 8.
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iloccorb
kid, 12 years old
kid, 12 years old
I love it, however...
sexual content can be a problem, i'm 11 and i think its great, but i very mature for my age and i am the youngest child and have been exposed to more things. if you don't feel you child is mature enough i wouldn't let them use it. just talk to your children and let them know what is okay and not okay to say and do online, and tell them to tell you if they see anything not okay. and about ads, some make me uncomfortable, like ads for tampons and condoms. But overall great site 8 out of 10 stars
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