Earning Points with Mom and Dad

by jordan | April 4, 2008 at 09:49 am | 168 views | add comment

Handipoints screen grab (handipoints.com)

The article below discusses a website that allows parents to assign online reward points to kids in exchange for real-world chores. Sounds like a great deal for parents, but not necessarily a useful lesson in the work-reward relationship.

While I'm all in favor of teaching kids the online ropes early on (since the web is as much a part of their social ecosystem as the playground, whether we like it or not), I also think it's important that they understand how basic relationships work in the real world: real friends, real work for real pocket change. Also, were I a wee lad, I wouldn't want points for taking out that stanky trash... I'd want cold, hard cash. Reward points are too intangible to be a true incentive in the eyes of a child, especially since, to be redeemed for real prizes, they must be supplemented with cash.

Handipoints is one of a raft of new child-focused sites and virtual worlds that are competing with established kid favorites like Club Penguin, Gaia Online, and Webkinz. Like those sites, Handipoints runs its own virtual world with games and personalized avatars, but the company has a slightly different angle on fostering community. It's trying first to be a tool for parents and kids.

"We're trying to motivate kids to stay active in the real world," said Viva Chu, who founded the company in January 2007 after helping develop the architecture of Internet marketing company Adteractive.

The company makes money from the sale of goods from the site--books and DVDs, for example--and it plans to sell advertising that would be targeted toward parents.