Whyville

Website review by Dana Anderson, Common Sense Media
Whyville Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 12+

Social site with good edu value needs supervision.

http://www.whyville.com/
Rate website

Parents say

age 12+

Based on 13 reviews

Kids say

age 11+

Based on 33 reviews

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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this website.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this site is a popular virtual community created for kids (mostly girls) ages 8 to 15, although it may not be appropriate for the younger side of that wide span. The main concern is that although the site uses a language filter and city workers review the chat log and warrant "duct tape sentences" to offenders, the chat is not monitored 24/7. But kids must take a instructive chat license test that teaches online safety features. Numerous safety measures built into the site help protect kids from online predators.

Community Reviews

aliz11
aliz11 Adult
November 18, 2015
age 9+

Great Community

Growing up, I found Whyville in an issue of Family Fun magazine, and found it to be a great environment for kids my age. Now, the majority of the kids who stayed on from the very early stages of Whyville's development are older. I see a lot of mature behaviour from them, but Whyville is launching a brand new website just for the older kids, where we can talk more about the things that interest us, such as social media, and some adult content. It definitely wont be a free-for-all, but the goal is to make the main site age appropriate again. The best thing about Whyville is that it provides a good sense of community. You're guaranteed to find at LEAST one good friend, who you might end up knowing for years. My oldest friend on Whyville is of 6 years. We still talk all the time. The games on Whyville are fun and educational. My favorite is the new activity in the Wellness center, where you help stressed and upset avatars cope with different scenarios, so that you can learn to use the same skills and apply them to situations in your own life. Whyville, like any other website, has for sure had some bumps down the road. But overall, it is an amazing place for kids and teens to go, and I'm really grateful to be a part of it. Don't let the bad reviews sway you. Take the time to see Whyville with your own eyes as a guest on the site. We are a welcoming community, and we love to see new members join us.

This title has:

Great messages
JakwonCy
JakwonCy Adult
November 12, 2015
age 9+

Fun and Educational - 7+ years on whyville

I have made life long friends that I talk to regularly in chat, ymail, or on the forums. My favorite feature on whyville is the Face Factory. This is where I can design and sell "face parts" for anyone on whyville to buy and wear on their avatar. There are a lot of fun and educational games on whyville, too. My favorite game is project tricho, where you help real scientists identify and categorize bacteria. A lot of these games are even used in class rooms. Overall whyville is a great website for children to socialize safely and learn new things in a fun and interesting way. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to try something new. To this day I have still not come across another website like this one.

This title has:

Great messages
See all 13 parent reviews

What’s It About?

On Whyville, users create an avatar and meet others. Together, they play science- and math-centric learning games, chat, spend virtual (or actual) money, and hang out. Set up to mirror a real-life community, users can participate in government. As in adult virtual communities such as Teen Second Life, users spend virtual money -- called clams, here -- to buy cars, build their own homes, and fancy up their avatars. Clams can be purchased with real money via PayPal or through gameplay.

Is It Any Good?

Although creators have included a number of safety measures (including registering for the site with a parent's email, requiring a parental permission slip to be sent via snail mail, taking a thorough pre-chat test, and reporting abuses by other players through a "911 report"), one of the site's major mishaps is that the chat rooms aren't monitored around the clock, so there can be predictable teen-like interchanges about "hooking up" and some inappropriately frank -- and sometimes hurtful -- comments.

Many of the educational components within Whyville are sponsored by well-respected institutions in the science, art, health and math fields, such as NASA and the John Paul Getty Trust. On the negative side, however, there are a lot of advertisers on the site, including Wal-Mart, Disney, and the car maker Scion. The constant call for clams and trumpeting of big-ticket items like cars makes Whyville somewhat of a conundrum for parents: Do the educational benefits outweigh the commercial influences?

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how some activities on this site are different from other virtual worlds. Do your kids come to the site because it offers good community activities? Does the safety test help them feel safer exploring the site. Families can also take a tour of the site together and talk about what they see.

Website Details

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