Togetherville, a social network for children under the age of 10, has confirmed that it was purchased by Disney.
The site’s terms of service now read, “Welcome to the Internet sites of the Walt Disney Internet Group.”
Togetherville launched in May and set itself apart from other social networks for children by facilitating parent-child interactions. In addition to viewing their children’s social network activity on the sites, parents also can post messages to their walls, allocate “virtual allowances” and send virtual gifts.
The social network will join Disney’s powerful portfolio of sites aimed at children, which includes its 2007 $700 million acquisition of the game world Club Penguin and Funschool.com. Disney didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail regarding its intentions for its new acquisition.
Safe social networks for children who are not legally entitled to a Facebook account (at least according to the U.S. COPPA law) is a need that a bevy of new websites are vying to fill. Togetherville competitor Everloop announced last week that it was launching in 56,000 schools through a partnership with Internet safety education program i-Safe, and tween network What’s What? launched last week. Whether the magic of Disney will turn Togetherville, instead of another site, into a synonym for Facebook in the vocabulary of children remains to be seen.
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