Minnesota, USA -July 8, 2011 - Most adults have the fond memory of sending and receiving letters from a pen pal or a few. Yet, times have changed since the internet boom; there is no longer a need to neither physically send letters out nor take as much time to find a pen pal. But does this mean that children could still be safe corresponding with others around the world so quickly Without special supervision, the answer is likely to be 'no'; but this is where 'Pen Pal Kids Club' (PPKC) comes into play. It has a special way of monitoring activities to keep children from revealing information that would be uncomfortable for parents. What is the additional perk It is FREE for this month!

 

There are several children's social networking sites available, such as Everloop and Imbee; however, most sites like these are designed to allow children to add others by a special access code that links them directly to another child's profile page. Without knowing that code, there is no way to simply search for someone else. As much as this ensures the safety of children, it also limits their ability to reach outside the circle of people in their communities who they know; this endangers their mindsets to be limited to only thinking about those who are around them.

 

I do not suggest allowing young children to access Facebook or Twitter accounts; yet, the alternative route is joining the PPKC which allows children to connect with other children around the world. Instead of having one or two pen pals, they can have even more pen pals and as a result, gain insight on other cultures.

On top of this, PPKC takes pen paling to another level by taking interaction beyond letters; it gives children the opportunity to play games together as well as send virtual postcards when the others are not online. It also allows children to use an encyclopedia service and gain access to kid-produced videos that are preapproved for other children to view.

Where other services would require children to know the others' languages, PPKC has automated translation for 7 major languages; this includes the most widely spoken languages of Chinese and Spanish along with German, French, English, Italian, and Japanese. The advantage of these languages is that it expands the service to over 80 countries; an impressive opportunity for children to gain friendships with others from every country. In addition, it connects children who would otherwise not connect due to language barriers. It is not to say that children would not be intrigued to learn other languages after knowing another child who speaks them -a likely effect.

The goal of encouraging interaction between children of different cultures is to help them gain an understanding of other people and a sensitivity that many currently lack; in this digital age, it creates tension when we cannot interact well with other cultures because the internet is an easy 'battle ground'.  The only way to change a tension-ridden future is by creating a future generation that understands others.