Popular and safe method for DD to keep in touch with friends online?

[karise]

Ideas anyone? DD is only 7 so I'm hoping to find a website where she can 'chat' to friends from her old school without having her own e-mail address. She can then just tell her best friends her online name & they can join in too (prefereably for free)! A bit like here really, only for kids. Does anything exist? Ideas please!

Bump..

I'm curious why you want to do it via a website, rather than email. I would have thought that email was much safer?

My dd does MSN, she's 13. But at 7...isn't that a bit young?

Club Penguin, run by Disney, is worth a look. It's for 8-14 I think, but is pretty benign. Children take on the identity of a penguin and can play games and chat. I think it's very heavily moderated (I don't think Disney could afford to screw it up).

You have to pay (about a fiver a month?) to be able to participate fully; on the free version children can send each other stock messages from a list but can't chat freely.

I might not be remembering it accurately, but have a look for yourself.

Does your school have a virtual learning environment? Children can use messaging on a VLE (sometimes called a learning platform) safely with their own passwords from school, and it is regularly checked by the school site administrator in case anyone is saying things they shouldn't.

Email is the safest way for a 7 year old to keep in touch with friends,

'Pyrocanthus' thank you!!!!
Found Club Penguin last night & it is just the sort of thing we were looking for! DD is telling all her friends today her 'penguin' name so they can meet her online. She is a very happy girl!!