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Disney targets preteens with social-networking site

May 04, 2007 | Internet Marketing

Walt Disney unveiled a program to let preteens create personal mini Web sites like MySpace's very popular social-networking site for older teens and young adults, with parental controls it hopes will create a safe haven.

The Disney feature, called Disney Xtreme Digital, or Disney XD, is aimed at kids younger than 14, with parents getting control over Internet activities, Paul Yanover, executive vice president and managing director of Disney Online, said in an interview.

A chat feature requires parental approval for kids to go beyond trading canned messages designed to prevent users from revealing personal information, or from using profanity. Kids can gather games, videos and music files from Disney’s promotions-rich Web site and place them on a page that they decorate with a selection of motifs from the company’s rich character library.

Yanover said the feature limits kids to using Disney content on their Web sites, and would allow parents to monitor interaction. At the same time, Disney can protect its image on the freewheeling Web, he said.

“There is a weaving together of entertainment and promotion and marketing,” he added. “It’s difficult to say where one ends and the other begins.”

Get the full story at CNET News.com

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