Fight My Monster

Players can choose to accept, deny, or negotiate battles and trades, which teaches kids negotiation skills. Also, even monsters who have a very low percentage possibility of winning sometimes win, exhibiting to kids that underdogs can prevail.

None observed, but if you are friends with another player you can chat with each other off of the pre-scripted text; what is in those messages would vary widely. Parents of kids under 13 may see their child's chat activity and block any offending player.

There's a huge push for paid membership (listed at 4.95 English pounds, which comes in at about $8 U.S. dollars). A membership icon is prominent on each player's profile page. When kids click on some features, such as a design-your-own-monster tool, a message pops up indicating it's a feature for paid members only. "Members of the Week" earn prizes like a DS, which is also promoted at the top of the site's pages.

Parents will benefit from reading through the privacy policy on the site, especially before purchasing a membership. The privacy and safety policies here are complex and change between ages. Parents of kids under 13 get their own account to monitor their players' interactions on the site and de-friend or block other users if they feel they are not interacting positively with their kids. That said, this site is open to adults as well as teens and tweens, so kids may be interacting with adults and parents of kids 13 and older do not have the same sort of oversight. Pre-scripted chat is all that's allowed for players who haven't friended each other, but those who have accepted each other as friends can chat openly. The terms say that players shouldn't use their real names on the site or give out personal information, but other than bullying there's no mention of rules against sexual banter or swearing. Members can also file-share and use video phones, and the site periodically takes snapshots of those video interactions for monitoring.