AnnesDiary.com, run by Toronto based LogicaHoldings, is taking a Webkinz style approach to the children’s online entertainment market. Their twist? A fingerprint scanner!
To sign up a child for Anne’s Diary a parent must fill out an application and provide contact information for a sponsor who can attest to the child’s gender (female) and age (6-14). A sponsor must meet several requirements, the most curious being that he or she must be a recognized professional from a list of 46 including: Funeral Director, Christian Science Practitioner, and Member of Parliament.
2-3 weeks later two packages will arrive: a welcome kit (which includes a fingerprint scanner and a copy of the book Anne of Green Gables) at the parents home and a password card at the sponsors home. The sponsor then must call the parents to reveal the password. And that is just the sponsorship piece.
You’ll also have to install the fingerprint scanner and scan a few of your child’s fingerprints (in case the child looses or injures one finger)! All this adds up to a few things not the least of which is a barrier to adoption.
A subscription to Anne’s Diary costs $119.99 a year. For comparisons sake, Club Penguin costs $60 a year and Webkinz $15. The games on Club Penguin are actually pretty fun and you get to play with other penguins! With Webkinz, you get a physical stuffed animal even before you register!
With Anne’s Diary, you get an online journal (more fun than MS Word) and every Christmas a print out of all the journal entries (sweater alert). There are some more features: a few solo games, a birthday calendar, an amazon affiliate site, and a basic instant messenger.
So what does being “the first biometrically-secured social networking site for children in the world” mean in terms of security? We’re not exactly sure… The issue is content not authentication. What’s to stop Uncle Lester from using a logged in but unattended computer?
Monitoring the chat, blocking certain words, and regularly booting bullies should be enough, which is by the way what they do on Club Penguin (now a Walt Disney Company). Anne’s Diary claims to block out dirty words, but using their demo account I was able to draft my own version of The Aristocrats.
Club Penguin and others have proven that there is a huge market in this demographic and that parents absolutely will pay for security and a solid product. The Anne of Green Gables brand license is certainly valuable, time will tell if Logica Holdings is in this for the long haul. Losing the sponsor process and fingerprint scanner would be a good start.
“Marilla, isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” – Anne Shirley
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