On the playground, kids pilfer lunch money and push each other around. But in the cyber clubhouses they're filling by the millions, kids rig elections, sell fake products and scam each other out of every virtual-worldly possession.
Sophia Stebbins recently joined one such online community, Webkinz, which lets its young members create avatars, play games and hang out. The 9-year-old from Irvine worked in a virtual hamburger shop, earned virtual cash and bought a virtual bed, couch and TV for her virtual house.
Then one day, she logged in to her account to discover that all of her gear and money were gone. She suspects that another kid swiped her password and sold her things.
"I was a little scared," she said. "Sometimes now, I hesitate to go online."
An estimated 12 million children and teens will visit virtual worlds this year, according to research firm EMarketer Inc. So it's no wonder that such sites have become big business.
In the last two years, Walt Disney Co. acquired Club Penguin in a deal worth as much as $700 million, and media giant Viacom Inc. bought Neopets for $160 million.
The sites get the parental stamp of approval by closely monitoring their users and trying to keep out grown-ups with bad intentions. They offer children a place to play online without fear of being approached by pedophiles and other preying adults.
But it's turned out to be hard work protecting the kids from one another.
To keep these worlds from turning into a virtual "Lord of the Flies," websites are monitoring every word children type, limiting them to only preapproved dialogue and patrolling the websites with employees undercover as kids. Some also are giving kids the equivalent of a 911 call, so they can holler for help.
"When you're at school, there's mostly good people, but there are a few people who try to bully and scam you and do nasty things," said Hazel Dixon, a 16-year-old from Reading, England. "It's the same in Whyville."
When she was 11, Hazel trusted the wrong person in the virtual world with her password (he promised her an avatar makeover) and had every dime of her in-game currency stolen.
Most sites emphasize that children should never give anyone their passwords. But many fall victim to a common scam: They're told that their avatars will look better or that their account will be stocked with virtual currency. Instead, their accounts are usually wiped out.
