LittleLives Is The New Social Playground For Kids

For many parents, one of the biggest concerns about children joining social media networks such as Facebook and MySpace is the danger of meeting online predators. However instead of restricting children from signing up with such networks, LittleLives founder Ho Sun believes that a better solution would be to come up with a social media network created specially for children. The key point is that a teacher acts as a gatekeeper for the network.

Private Communities For Children

Noting the void created by Facebook’s age restrictions—at present, children must be at least 13 to sign up for an account and this has resulted in children inflating their age to join the network—Sun saw an opportunity to create something “fun and safe” that children could call their own: “Children are always told they’re too young to sign up for Facebook but with LittleLives, they have something of their own and they can tell their older brothers and sisters that they’re too old for it.”

That said, she will have you know that LittleLives is not simply a Facebook clone for children. Rather, unlike the openness of a Facebook network, each LittleLives network operates as a private community that is unique to itself.

To ensure children’s safety, only teachers are allowed to act as administrators and create communities, meaning that they’re the only ones who get to decide who joins the network and what gets published. Therefore, parents don’t have to worry about their children speaking to strangers when they’re on LittleLives.

But what if someone from outside the community wants to join LittleLives? First, they would have to get the teacher’s approval and even then, they would only be able to read what’s been published.

Children Are The Future

Describing herself as someone who likes to solve problems, the former sales and marketing head of communications solutions company Hello Technology says what spurred her to give up her day job for LittleLives was the desire to help children. “I’ve always been passionate about children and I believe they are the future. Reading about poverty and war in the papers made me want to do something about this. I’m not an activist but I believe in taking action.

“I believe that if you connect kids from different countries, this will help promote understanding and make the world a better place. This is why LittleLives’s motto has always been ‘connecting children from around the world.’”

Helping Teachers Navigate the Social Network

Noting that teachers may not be as familiar with social networks as their students, Sun says that the team is currently proposing to the Inter-Ministry Cyber Wellness Steering Committee (ICSC) to help schools familiarize themselves with the platform through the use of a social game on LittleLives that combines training, in-game missions and real-life school experiences.