The most coveted last-minute gifts this holiday season may not be something you can wrap and put into a stocking. In a recent study at Carnegie Mellon University, researchers talked to young people about their most prized possessions. Many said that virtual assets — music, photos, Facebook gifts, and items in online games — were more important to them than material possessions such as clothes.
To parents, the value of “stuff” made out of bits and bytes may seem dubious. Teens, however, treasure these virtual assets because they are portable, can be customized, and help strengthen social networks. According to the researchers, many young people prefer a digital photo that friends have tagged, linked and annotated to a photo in an album or a frame. Young people also like the “placelessness” of virtual possessions, which are usually stored online so they are accessible anywhere. They also appreciate the fact that virtual possessions are so easily modified in response to new stages of development or even everyday moods.
From a parent’s point of view, virtual possessions also have advantages. For one thing, they minimize clutter. A music collection that’s stored in a cloud takes up a lot less space than a CD collection.
Even with younger children, some parents have found that kids get more satisfaction from purchasing an inexpensive add-on to a favorite game rather than a cheap plastic toy that is soon broken or forgotten. In some households, virtual assets have become the standard reward for chores completed or goals accomplished.
Virtual assets fall into two categories. The first mirrors goods that are available in the offline world — such as music, photographs, and books. At this point, most parents are quite comfortable giving kids a phone with a built-in camera or a gift card for downloading music. When you give one of these gifts, you also get the opportunity to talk about and, if necessary, oversee content so you can be sure it’s age appropriate and consistent with your family’s values.
A second kind of virtual asset is less familiar to many parents. These include items that exist only in an online environment. Although virtual goods are very popular in Asia and have been enthusiastically embraced by hardcore gamers, they have only recently become mainstream in this country, thanks to Facebook games such as Farmville, Cityville and Sims Social. Many young people start playing these games for free and then want to accelerate their progress and enhance their status by purchasing items ranging from virtual weapons to playthings for virtual pets.
Virtual goods also include other apps that amuse, educate, inform, and educate. Although many of these tiny programs are free, it’s definitely a gift for parents to locate apps that connect with a child’s interests and then scrutinize them to be sure they are free of adware (adjunct software that displays advertising while the program it is attached to is running) or malware (software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems). Here are tips that will help you give your child virtual assets that aren’t contaminated by real problems.
• Designate one credit card for all online transactions. (Don’t use a debit card). Use the card only on sites that show a locked padlock on the status bar, and if you use Paypal or another online payment service, link your account to the card. When the bill for the online credit card arrives, go over it item by item to be sure every charge is legitimate.
• Download games and apps only from trustworthy websites. Download.com, a site run by C-Net, does rigorous screening to be sure the programs it offers don’t introduce viruses into your system or surreptitiously collect information about what your child does online. NEVER download anything from a window that pops up, asking if you want software you didn’t request.
• If you think an older teen is ready for discretionary spending, consider Facebook credits, which allow your child to purchase gifts or game accessories within Facebook. At the holidays, this may actually be a good way to use up unwanted gift cards. For information about how Plastic Jungle converts cards to credits, visit https://www.facebook.com/credits/.
From a merchant’s point of view, digital products are perfect. Design costs are minimal, and there are no costs for manufacturing, storing or shipping. From a consumer’s point of view, this almost looks like a scam — unless you think of digital goods as entertainment, as enjoyable, and as potentially ephemeral as the movie your kids saw last weekend.
Thinking about digital goods as entertainment also helps parents establish and enforce the same rules that apply to other amusements. The ideal virtual gift will reinforce your ideas about healthy, wholesome development. That kind of thoughtful, involved parenting is always the best gift a child can get.
Carolyn Jabs, MA, has been writing about families and the Internet for more than 15 years. She is the mother of three computer-savvy kids. Other Growing Up Online columns appear on her website, www.growing-up-online.com.
© 2011, Carolyn Jabs. All rights reserved.
