Yoursphere Parent Newsletter April 2009
In this issue:
- Yoursphere In The UK
- Yoursphere In The News
- CNN Espanol
- Undercover Mom In Club Penguin
- Parent Forum
- Inside the 'Sphere: Is Modern Art Really Art?
- New Contest
- Kidz In Command
- Parent Forum
- WeSphere
Hi Friends,
Welcome to the fifth edition of our parent newsletter. Here's a quick snapshot of what's happening at the most secure, most dynamic social networking site for teens and tweens.
Yoursphere Invades The UK
Wow is Yoursphere growing! March saw us expand "across the pond" with the launch of our UK site, yoursphere.co.uk The United Kingdom is quite progressive when it comes to Internet safety, and Yoursphere has been welcomed with open arms!
Yoursphere In The News
Mary Kay was interviewed on ABC's San Francisco affiliate's "View From The Bay" program. Click the icon to watch. 
Yoursphere En Las Noticias
Mary Kay was interviewed at length recently by CNN Espanol. The segment is to be aired mid-May.
Undercover Mom In Club Penguin
Sharon Duke Estroff, former elementary school teacher, child development expert and mom of four spent two weeks undercover in Disney's super popular Club Penguin site. She wrote about the experience in Good Housekeeping, and is now keeping a journal of her experiences as an avatar on some of the most popular kid's networking sites. From NetFamilyNews.org, Estroff explains the flirting and "sexual undercurrent" she found at Club Penguin:
"But keeping our kids safe online doesn't simply mean keeping them away from cyber-predators. It means ensuring their social, emotional, intellectual, moral, and physical well-being in both the real and virtual realms. Which is why, of all my undercover mom surprises to date, I found Club Penguin's sexual undercurrent by far the most unsettling. It's not that every penguin I encountered on CP was engaged in some kind of flirting or dating behavior, but many were. Many, many, many were. It all makes sense if you think about it. The anonymity and lack of adult supervision in children's virtual social worlds like Club Penguin make them natural spaces for curious kids to act out sexual themes they see in the media, even before they're ready in real life. There's no doubt that pretend romantic play is part of the course and magic of childhood, but Club Penguin is not a kindergarten dress up corner. It is a vastly populous virtual playground where digital natives of all ages and maturity levels share the same turf...and grow up faster together."
Estroff's take is balanced--she offers praise for sites like Club Penguin for the areas in which they do well--but the fear that the cute little creatures she is interacting with my be other adults (like her) or predators cannot be denied. Take a look at her six part series detailing her Club Penguin experience and you'll understand why Yoursphere's unique decision to pay for identity verification and sex offender screening is so vital.
Parent Forum Welcomes Your Input
Completely separate from Yoursphere.com, Yoursphere's parent-only forum aims to answer your questions about Yoursphere and Internet safety in general, and provide a nexus for parents like you to share experiences with other adults. It's also a place to listen in as Yoursphere team members blog about tech issues, site news, and all the other intriguing questions that make what we are doing here so unique. Should a few snarky comments qualify as cyber-bullying? How/where do you draw the line? Mary Kay wrestled with the subject recently right here.
Inside The Sphere: "Is Modern Art Really Art?"
In this feature from the Art& Photo sphere, Yoursphere contributing writer Maggie learns that art doesn't have to be traditional:
When I was younger, I admired Renaissance paintings because of their beautiful simplicity and universal renown. At art museums I would head straight towards the gallery that contained the "traditional" artwork and steer clear of any modern or contemporary art. After all, I had come to see artwork from "skilled masters," not a pile of junk some hipster gleaned by dumpster diving!
As I became more interested in art, however, I began to open my mind to all forms of it, both traditional and not. The process was slow. I've never been impressed by the craftsmanship behind works that look like they could have been created by a five-year old (Jackson Pollack's drip paintings, anyone?), but I began to notice that some clearly see such bizarre objects as "art."
When my art class visited contemporary art museums I stood alongside my classmates, stroking my chin and pretending to see how a cube of mirrors "represented the artist's socialist, feminist, and modernist opinions." I nodded in agreement when my teacher declared a statue of a toy infant covered in tattoos "absolutely genius," and I set my facial expression to "awe" as I stared at a ceiling lit by red and orange halogen lights. However, I was faking it! Despite outward displays, I was confused over the message and content of each modern art piece. I began to wonder if what I had seen was actually "art"--thoughtfully composed, expertly executed expression--or if it was just "stuff" given a pretentious title and a hefty price tag.
My curiosity about modern art's appeal led me to visit other museums. The last art museum I visited displayed a urinal--yes, a urinal--titled "The Fountain", a simple painting of two colored rectangles on a large canvas, and a plastic baby doll surrounded by rings of black toy poodles. I mean, huh? This is art?
I saw those objects as strange, but when I asked a docent she said that the baby-doll-and-poodles installation was done by a woman who wanted to leave a lasting impression on observers (mission accomplished!), the painting of the two rectangles was done by a man who had deeply studied color theory, and the urinal was, well, just a urinal. But by being on display, in a museum instead of a men's bathroom, it made me think--or at least see its flowing design in a new way--not just as the functional (and forgettable) furniture of everyday modern society. Art has one purpose-to make you think. And at the very least, these pieces were doing just that!
The further I dug, the more I became intrigued. Despite my first-glance dismissal of items that seemed glued together by a preschooler, almost every modern work in the museum had a unique story or message. Some were political, some were personal and some were simply created to attract attention--but each piece had a point of view. I was beginning to "get" this whole contemporary art thing!
While I still remain confused about the appeal of many "modern masterpieces," I now recognize that art comprises far more than Ye Olde Hall of Renaissance Paintings. No matter how weird, child-like, puzzling, easy to construct, or complex a piece appears, modern art is still...art. It makes you think!
At Yoursphere, Kidz Are In Command
And that's why there's a "Track and Field" sphere (but not a Field and Stream sphere)...
Contest: What Do You Love About Yoursphere?
Our latest contest invites members to star in their own videos. The idea is simple: tell us a few reasons why you love Yoursphere. Top 5 spots will be posted on the Yoursphere home page!
We Sphere-Meet The Folks Behind Yoursphere
Vincent Jones, Director of Technology
A former member of the Department of Justice's Violent Criminal Information Network, where he tracked sex offenders and honed applications such as the department's Megan's Law website, Vincent "Chad" Jones is Yoursphere's technology guru. His head often tucked inside a pair of noise-canceling headphones, Chad lives, sleeps and eats code. (That is, when he's not patching holes in the roof of his house, pounding out a few miles on his treadmill, attending far-flung Drupal conferences, or traveling the world with his lovely wife, Deepali)!
Thank you for continuing to entrust Yoursphere with your child's online experience, and helping "raise the bar" for online social networking,
Mary Kay Hoal & The Yoursphere Team
