GaiaOnline
Common Sense Media says
Iffy content + constant consumerism = caution.
What parents need to know
Violence
Sex
Language
Consumerism
Drinking, drugs, & smoking
Privacy & safety
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that while Gaia Online may attract young teens with its lively graphics, games, and opportunities to socialize with other kids, if you don't turn the filter on, adult language and topics are common. There's no doubt that your teen will stumble upon threads discussing "masturbation myths and fads" and "WTF moments" in a matter of minutes. The site also pushes kids to buy buy buy with their Gaia Gold virtual currency. The positive side of that is it teaches kids about money -- and to save up for something they like.
What kids can learn
Skills
Communication
- conveying messages effectively
Responsibility & Ethics
- fiscal responsibility
- following codes of conduct
Engagement, Approach, Support
Gaia Online may attract young teens with its lively graphics, games, and opportunities to socialize with other kids who are into anime. Kids may also be drawn to inappropriately adult content on the site.
Kids can feel empowered with a space and place to express themselves. Starting with the creation of an avatar, kids have choices about how they present themselves.
While some users may find support and camaraderie in the forums, there's also a lot of negativity. Parents will probably want to use the filters to manage sexual content and strong language.
User reviews
Parents say
Kids say
What's it about?
Log on to Gaia Online and play games, connect with other 13- to 18-year-old anime fans, collect downloadable wallpaper for cell phones, and buy items in virtual stores with Gaia Cash, which is earned with every session spent on the site. The first stop after your free sign-up is creating your avatar. When kids want to meet new people, they can hang out in virtual spaces such as the town and Virtual Hollywood, where they can chat and go clubbing. Kids also have the opportunity to earn extra Gaia Cash by participating in advertised offers such as completing surveys, signing up for free trials, watching videos, etc.
Is it any good?
QUALITY
Though the site appears to be kid-friendly and moderators are supposed to be trolling the boards for inappropriate images, racist and sexist language, and adult content, if you don't use the word filter it's rampant with such fare. For example, on a recent visit, the following threads appeared: "Your best WTF moment was…?" "What are your fave pick-up lines?" "Masturbation Myths and Fads" and "Poll: I wanna have sex with a boy." Perhaps the moderators were asleep at the wheel or their safety claim is just that -- a claim. Either way, it'd be good to sit down with the kids as they surf the site or just steer them away. There are plenty of others with cleaner content and just as robust audiences.
Online interaction: While some users may find support and camaraderie in the forums, there is also a lot of negativity.
Families can talk about...
Families can talk about maintaining boundaries online. What steps can you take to maintain your safety in a chat room? What information should you keep private in personal profiles and chat rooms?
Website details
| Genre: | Virtual Worlds |
| Pricing structure: | Free |
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QUALITY
REALITY
Gaiaonline is an amazing site for the simple fact that it allows you to develop your opinions and grow somewhat through conversations, debates or roleplaying. I call it a "story site" when people ask me about it. For the simple fact that I am an aspiring writer and being able to roleplay with some of the other members on the site has allowed my writers voice to grow considerablely. I gain amazing ideas from some of the things that I read, the avis that I see or some of the stunning writing, or artwork done by other members.
Yes, there are some bad people on Gaia. Like there are bad people on EVERY site. Really, parents, people against Gaia for any sort of sexual reason, you need to get a grip. If you're trying to ban this site for that reason then you may as well try banning facebook, msn, twitter, youtube, myspace. And any other site that is on the internet. In fact, you may as well try banning the internet all together because even on Wikipedia people can look up "sexual content".
If you don't like the site then I suggest that you keep your own children or teens off of it.
Last I checked, I already have my own parents who tell me what I can and can't do. They trust that I'm not an idiot who would upload a nude picture of myself. I'll let you know a little secret, if there's a nude picture of your child on the internet...its because THEY put it there. Not me, or Gaia, or anyone else. They did it. They made the bad choice they didn't know what to do because YOU didn't teach them.
You can't hide your kids from the world. If you want to try and do that, then move to a community where computers are illegal.
What other families should know
Educational value
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This has nothing to do with the website, it has to do with the parents.
You all say gaia online is this horrible website, where there is porn, cybering, nudity, sexually suggestive content. Have any of you taken the time to turn on your TV to the music station? To the movie stations? Have you seen a PG-13 movie as of late? If you had you'd see that many of the things that are allowed on this website are in those movies, granted yes, there are porn trolls, but trolls don't just exist on gaia, they exist on every forum based website online. Also you should stop blaming the website, stop petitioning it's removal when in fact you need to become more internet savvy, you need to become more aware of what your children are doing, it's not hard to go into your browser history after your child has been on and see what they are up to, and even better, it's not illegal. if you review what they are doing to be wrong you should discuss it with them, you can also buy programs that block the website, firewall it and make it inaccessable to your child unless they have a password. Children are learning about sex in their schools, in what they see on television and what there listening to on the radio, and the books they read. Chances are the things you blame gaia online for are your own short comings, and are things they have known about since they were a child. Hell even when I was a child I knew what sex was before I ever used the internet in my life. Gaia online is a great website, and there are moderators and staff that work as fast as they can to ban people who prey on children and those who post real nudity. All there moderating staff consists of adults and a good amount of those adults are actually parents themselves, I have in my time on the site met many parents who play gaia.
Once again I'll repeat it for the mere sake of being redundant, it's not gaia onlines responsibility to safeguard any child OVER the age of thirteen, that's your responsibility. So become more aware, be in your childs business, but not over their shoulder.
AZK
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best for teens and older children stay off
ive been on it for years and it seems mostly the talk about sexual content and drugs come from the younger children on there trying to act cool if you dont like your kids being on there keep them off cause gaia already tried to disable the ciggarettes but everyone was against it so they brought them i hate how everyone worries about gaia if some talks sexual block them and leave or just wait for them to leave cause usalley its just trolls and dont go into the mature forums you know adults like to post stuff too so i say make it 15 and up and keep your freaking children off the site if your gonna have a hissy fit
What other families should know
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