Parents' Guide to

Bitstrips

By Erin Brereton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Comics creator doesn't require art skills, just imagination.

Website http://www.bitstrips.com/
Bitstrips Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this website.

Community Reviews

See all
age 9+

Based on 2 parent reviews

ABdullah Zufar
ABdullah Zufar Adult
July 10, 2015
age 10+

Me

My Families good

This title has:

Great messages
jordanc
jordanc Adult
October 5, 2014
age 8+

Bitstrips Review

Bitstrips Bitstrips is a free, easy to use comic website that can do the following: create your own virtual comics, create your own personalized characters, look at other peoples created comics and sort out by topic, share your comics for others to see and share to Facebook, and have your own profile with friends, favorites, and scenes. Bitstrips can also be used in education and has their own separate website for those purposes. The features on the educational website include: activities according to subject, featured activities and more. You can also create a profile as a teacher and have your students join your classroom and create their own avatars for your classroom. You can monitor their activities and teach them through virtual hands on games and projects. Signing up with Bitstrips is quick, easy, and convenient. You can sing up through Facebook or email. Accounts are free, but school accounts however cost money. Bitstrips is very similar to a social networking site and is all about interaction and sharing. Your comics can be shared to Facebook as well as your profile and the Bitstrips feed. Bitstrips can also be used as an app on iPhone or Android. The app is more complicated to figure out and navigate through and can even restrict your creativity with limited options. When looking through reviews, I Found both negative and positives. The app store reviews- has 85 ratings and was given 4 ½ out of 5 stars. Some of the comments I found on the app store for Apple says: there is a lack of updating- no new clothing, no fixed bugs, etc., the app is slow to opening and very slow in general, and it is a fun app to use with Facebook. Another review website I found said they liked the freedom the website offers. But, some complained that the website is ruining Facebook. They say that if they wanted to see comics on their feed they would read the comics in the newspaper and the comics should we kept off their Facebook feeds.
See all 2 parent reviews

What’s It About?

Kids can choose from different features to customize characters, and then use them to make a comic strip on BITSTRIPS. They're guided through each step and can flex their creativity without feeling like they need to have advanced artistic abilities. A companion site, BITSTRIPS FOR SCHOOLS, lets teachers create a classroom portal and assign suggested activities that will help kids learn about various Common Core Standard topics, including specific subjects like geometric math principles and more general topics, like interpersonal skills.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2):
Kids say (1):

The BITSTRIPS community-based site gives kids a chance to create and share narrative comic strips. They can customize characters (including themselves), insert them into comics, add text, and post the result on the site. The comic creation tool, which includes drag-and-drop and click-to-select features, is easy to use. But it provides kids with an impressive amount of options and eliminates the need to draw things by hand, which makes the experience faster and less frustrating than some creative sites.

A spin-off website, BITSTRIPS FOR SCHOOLS, makes the tool a stronger learning resource by offering virtual classroom set-up and dozens of activities teachers can assign to kids, covering topics like math, history, and business.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what chronological order means and how it's used in writing. Can your child identify the beginning, middle, and end of a favorite story?

  • How does a story change when you tell it to someone, instead of writing it down? What things can be conveyed better in print than with your voice?

  • Creating a story is an entirely different experience that hearing or reading one. Discuss a recent event in your child's life that could be turned into a comic strip or story. What pictures would your child include? Is there any information that should be left out because it doesn't really relate to the main point?

Website Details

  • Subjects: Language & Reading: discussion, storytelling, Arts: drawing, script writing
  • Skills: Tech Skills: digital creation, using and applying technology, Creativity: imagination, producing new content
  • Genre: Creating
  • Pricing structure: Free
  • Last updated: April 7, 2016

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

See all recommended website lists

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate