• Is it age appropriate?

  About our ratings

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  Not age appropriate for kids under 11, age appropriate for kids over 13; suggested age 13.

• Is it any good?

  2.0

• Common Sense says

  Ambitious teen social network shows promise but needs work.

Why We Rated This for Ages 13 and Up

The good stuff

• Educational value:

  Kids can learn a bit of HTML and other Web design skills by trading tips with other members. Journal writing and places to post videos and photos provide other creative outlets.
• User-created content:

  The little creative content up on the site so far consists mostly of wallpaper, short HTML tutorials, and other downloadable knickknacks such as emoticons, plus a few journal entries. 
• Messages:

  The site's name is a little confusing. Most kids will think it refers to the popular sarcastic comeback, "whatever." According to the founder's blog, it's a shortened version of a motto,  "whatever life you want to lead," a nicer message if kids get it. In any case, the site's small but supportive kid-programmer community can give kids, especially girls, the self-confidence to try Web design.      

What to watch out for

• Violence:

  Not an issue.
• Sex:

  One old photo of Mark Wahlberg from his underwear modeling days, and come-hither profile photos of teen girls showing cleavage and kissing their boyfriends.
• Language:

  Liberal use of OMG. One "bitch."
• Consumerism:

  This not-quite-completed site is already overloaded with ads. None of the products are objectionable but there are banners on most pages, Google text ads and ads users have to click through before accessing certain parts of the site. Even user profiles have ads, in our case a 15-second Woolite commercial and a large teeth whitener ad. Like most kids’ social networks, this one awards points kids can use to buy schwag at a virtual mall and even lets kids buy points, called WhateverBucks, with real money. That's not all: the site asks kids for cash donations to keep it going, PayPal accepted.  
• Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

  Not an issue.

How safe is it?

• Personal privacy:

  Privacy seems excellent, at least on the surface. Kids can choose who sees every bit of personal information from join date to online status. Other great options: kids can choose to get email at a personal inbox instead of the site’s, delete their own accounts, even hide visits to others' profiles.  We're not sure how safe kids' information is from third parties, though. While signing up we were greeted with the odd message, "We care about the quality of our profiles and guarantee that every user of our system is real, so if you purchase someone's contact information, you can be sure that your money isn't wasted."  The site did not return an email asking about the message.
• Online interaction:

  The beta version of the site was very quiet when we visited in October 2009. The chat room was empty and the message board was not yet working. However, the few posts up, mostly requests for specific types of wallpaper and a handful of events, were friendly and positive.
   
• Parental controls:

  Children younger than 13 need parents' emailed permission to join, but like most social networking sites, this one makes it easy for kids to lie about their ages.

What Parents Need to Know

About Whateverlife

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