Industrious Kid Launches Imbee

Posted on June 17, 2006

Industrious Kid has launched Imbee, a service it bills as the "the first secure social networking and blogging destination for kids." Back in March the company announced they raised $6 million to create a safe MySpace competitor. Silicon Beat describes how the new service works.

The site will charge $3.95 a month if you want your own blog. If you want to just leave comments or send email through the system, it is free. The company recognizes that blogging software is widely available elsewhere on the net for free. But it says the charge is for the parental control capabilities. A credit card is required for registration, which allows imbee to gather and authenticate information about the parent/guardian and their child. This requirement is why imbee says it is different from other youth-oriented sites, such as YFly, Tagged and Xanga. (Most of these other sites, provide tips to younger users, for example, that they shouldn't give out telephone numbers to strangers, but none of it is binding).
Kids can only network with real people they know. An invitation can come in from someone wanting to talk with a child, and the guardian can see it, and decide to approve it or reject it. But you can't search for people to network with by hobby, geography, high-school or other general category. The only way to connect is to have pre-existing relationship with the person, and send them an email to request the connection.

Services like Imbee might become popular with parents who want to let their younger kids try blogging and social networking but are afraid to let them use the wide-open and public social networks.