Moshi Monsters - opinions!

[nylonmeals]

Had a quick question about Moshi Monsters as it seems to be my godson's current major obession (I have toddler and baby, so haven't really come across it yet)

Do your kids play Moshi Monsters? What do you think that they like about it? What do you think of it?

It looks pretty cool to be honest but would love to hear opinions of other parents!

Thanks

[Belle]

My son (3 1/2, so prob a bit young for it really) has loads of the little plastic ones, collects them along with go-gos (sp?), and one big soft one that was a present. hasn't registered online or done anything else with it, is it a game too?

[redjam]

Big craze at my daughters' school - my girls are both (age 7 and 4) obsessed with it. They have their own monster online and I pay ?4.95 a month for them to be a Moshi Member, which means they can access better parts of the site. They send their friends messages through the site (normally exciting things like 'Hi, how are you?') and they can earn 'rox' (Moshi money) by doing vaguely educational games which are clearly a sop to parents - basic sums, word puzzles, naming national flags etc. Your monster can also collect Moshlings, which are little pet-like creatures, by typing in secret codes, and you can decorate your monster's room and change his appearance etc, and look at your friends' monsters too.

I don't mind it at all - though I've had to give them the whole lecture about not sending messages to people they don't know in RL as I don't stand over them at every minute they play it (it's moderated, but I don't think you can 100% trust it). And of course you then get sucked into buying the monthly magazine as it contains more secret codes etc. We've not got into collecting plastic monsters though, thank God - I've got enough plastic crap! What's been interesting is that I've seen both kids start off playing on the computer then migrating into designing their own moshlings - with old-fashioned pen and paper - so it certainly stimulates their imagination. Like most things, I think it's fine in moderation and I'm rather proud of the fact it's British and not massively gender-stereotyped, unlike so many of these kiddie sites.

[Tanza]

Hello - I agree with Redjam's post - Moshi Monsters (and Club Penguin, for that matter) have lots about them that are fun and educational too. (just like the East Dulwich forum!)

My son's writing and reading came on apace thanks to Club Penguin as he was so keen to do the missions. He's also a member of Moshi Monsters and likes both sites pretty much equally.

I like the fact these sites are less passive than TV although in moderation all things have their place, TV included. My son (who is now 8 but was 4 when he started on Club Penguin) has gone on to set up his own Club Penguin fan website which he posts updates and videos on how to complete missions and the latest news.

I've also been impressed by how kids can be creative in terms of how they use these sites as they grow older. On Club Penguin (and I'm sure it's the same on Moshi monsters) my son has played really imaginative games with other children from all over the world, from pretending to be cops and robbers (all played out by typing instructions out at rapid speed on screen)to role playing games.

Club Penguin is very well moderated and all messaging between children happens in public on the screen. CP doesn't lend itself well to anything other than the most fleeting and in-the-moment comments.

My one concern about Moshi Monsters is that anyone can request to be your child's friend and then if your child accepts, they get to post messages on your child's message board, which is tucked away in their home. The onus is on your child to turn them down, so it is a conversation you need to have with your child.

I hadn't realised this was the case, so was slightly un-nerved to discover that my son had been merrily accepting total strangers as friends including adults (they give their age - according to my son the adults on his friends list were Moshi Monsters' personnel - no idea) and teenagers. He then received a couple of mildly flirtatious messages from young teens which I wasn't thrilled about, as he was only 6. I contacted Moshi Monsters to ask if they could put some form of parental lock on it, to which they said they couldn't and it is up to parents to monitor the use of Moshi Monsters. They also pointed out they do moderate it.

Anyway, since then we've had no further problems and the good points about it outweigh my irritation over the messaging. My son has learned a valuable lesson about only accepting real life friends as online friends too.