Parents' Guide to SpaceFace

Designed to be an out-of-this-world virtual world, SpaceFace falls a little flat. The space-themed site has the requisite features such as games, chat, ecards, messaging tools, and a social networking function. Users collect SpaceGold, which -- with a paid membership -- can be exchanged for real SpaceFace-branded merchandise, and their avatars are unique caricatures of faces that float around in space throughout the site. The games are fun and some are even mildly educational, but there's not much substance here that can't be found in safer, more engaging places. In fact, the space face avatars themselves are ultimately more interesting than the limited places they visit. You could call it a universe not worthy of inhabiting. At least not for long.

Online interaction: Users can make and collect SpaceFriends and chat with them privately or publicly. Presently, there isn't much interaction occurring, so it's difficult to gauge the quality of the chat, but there is ample opportunity to post practically anything in the chat spaces, including personal information and profanity.