Who's Watching Your Children?Value Propositions in Preteen Virtual Worlds

This poster presents a critical, values-oriented investigation of a specific space within the online universe: shared virtual playgrounds designed for preteens. Specifically we investigate three preteen worlds with a focus on the sites' technical features designed to support value concerns (e.g. privacy, security, obedience) and critically examine the potential influence of these features from different stakeholder perspectives. We provide a conceptual framework for analyzing these online environments, drawing upon methods developed for investigating values and information systems. Finally, the poster will outline: 1) a field based investigation gathering designer, parent, and children's perceptions of preteen virtual worlds, 2) a research agenda for the critical study of children's virtual environments as value-laden artifacts, and 3) implications such work may hold for software developers, interaction designers, youth service providers, and researchers in library and information science and human- computer interaction.