The Internet is a huge place, so huge in face that it makes it difficult to find appropriate sites for children to visit. I work with an afterschool program at a local elementary school, and one of the most popular after school electives is “Computers”, where the children are unleashed on the world wide web on their own for an hour to do whatever they please. The school have pretty extensive security of the computers, so much so that I can’t even check my email so the children don’t venture to inappropriate sites, but they also have a tough time finding entertaining ones.
One popular site for the children is the 4Kids.tv site, when I walk around the room at school I usually see at least three of four children on this site at a given time. The site features information and games for kids on popular cartoon characters. The site has a section for:
- Power Rangers
- Winx Club
- Capsule Monsters
- Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Cabbage Patch
- The Dog
- Monster Jam
- GI Joe
- One Piece
- Kirby
- Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles
- and more…
Make no mistake, there is nothing educational whatsoever about this website, and the site is for the most part meant to promote the cartoons it features. This is not the type of site you want your children to spend the entire day on, but in the afternoon when their homework is done and they want to spend a little time on the internet, this can be a good place.
Everything on the site is designed with kids in mind. The sections are written in language that is easy for younger children to understand, and the site is designed in bright colors to catch a child attention quickly and easily. Besides the blatant advertisements for cartoons and sugar cereal I really saw nothing inappropriate about the site that should restrict it from any child’s internet experience.