The Achilles Effect

I’m fairly new to the whole concept of online communities for kids. My son heard about Moshi Monsters from a friend and I let him access so I could check it out.

Here’s how it works, from what I can tell. Kids can access the site for free and create a monster. To care for the monster, kids have to feed it and, as the site’s FAQ page notes, the “monster will become happier when [they] buy it stuff from the shops as well as when [they] feed it.” Purchases are made with Rox, the site’s equivalent of currency. Shops are located throughout a virtual town where the monsters live.

The site’s owners claim that one of the goals of the site is “education”. Here is what it says under “Education” on the For Parents page: “Every day your child’s monster will create a series of fun puzzles that test everything from vocabulary and arithmetic to logic and spatial skills. The better your child does at these puzzles, the more Rox they’ll earn to buy cool things for their monster.”

So the message is not for children to do well at puzzles for the sake of achievement, but to earn money to buy things for their pet. Apparently shopping is a continuous activity: “Each shop’s selection is always changing, so keep checking back!”

There is also a social networking aspect to the site which I have yet to explore in any detail. One thing I do know is that under “news” my son received a message about going to the port to get new “gizmos”. Alas, when I clicked the Port link, I was told he needed a membership.

On this site, membership has its privileges. As members children can “buy ultra rare items at the port” and ““[h]op on the ferry to Gift Island where [they] can buy exclusive gifts for all [their] friends.”

I understand that complex websites like this cost money to develop and maintain, hence the need for a membership, but at $6 a month, a child’s parent is expected to pay $72 per year for the privilege of what exactly?

The puzzles – the only educational aspect of the site that I could see – appear to be free, but the best Rox purchases appear to come only with membership. So what message are we sending to children?

Buy, buy, buy. Buy a membership to get access to more areas on the site. Buy stuff for your monsters. Buy exclusive gifts to make them really happy.

And if a monster isn’t happy? This is where the real manipulation comes in. To make a monster really happy, your child needs to buy it stuff. Its happiness meter, prominently displayed on the home page, will tell your child the level of happiness.

There is also a health meter. To keep a monster healthy, children need to visit often to feed it. The more they visit, of course, the more they get messages about the benefits of membership and all the cool stuff they can access.

If your child does not tend to his monster on a regular basis, it could get sick. This last aspect was particularly troubling to my son who was very upset that his monster had become ill. (Nowhere did I see a recommended age on this site so kids of a younger age may have considerable trouble with their pet becoming sick.)

Out of curiosity’s sake, I’ll leave the little critter a while longer without food and gifts and see what happens. My son, however, will not be going near this site again. The only thing it appears to teach children is how to be a perfect consumer – a lesson my son can certainly do without.