Will Imbee Work?

Due to the relentless (and over exaggerated) media coverage of the dangers of Myspace, there have been a few social networks that have launched with the selling point of being a safer social networking environment. One site, Imbee, will be launching this month, and is suppose to be for 8-14 year olds. The founder, Jeanette Symons, hopes to create a very safe social networking environment by involving parents. From an article on MTV.com:

“Her site, which will debut in June and be geared toward 8- to 14-year-old kids, will allow parents to monitor their children’s blogs and remove any posts they deem potentially harmful. Daily or weekly snapshots of blog entries will be sent to parents, who also will be able to approve friends. The site will require credit card information to verify its users’ identities, even though its services will be free.”

Personally, I think this type of parent involvement contradicts the reason most people join social networking sites, self expression and interaction with friends. I remember when I was that young I would rarely talk on the phone or in person with a friend when a parent was in the same room. So why would a kid want to participate in a site where their parents were going to be watching their every move?

In my opinion, a site needs to be built around their actual users. How popular do you think linkedin would be if a person’s boss was sent information on their activity? Imbee wants their users to be 8-14 years old, when their strategy targets parents 30 and above. This strategy is like building the newest BMW for an 8 year old who can’t even drive….useless.

[tags]Social Networking, Social Networks, Imbee, Safety, Privacy, Myspace, Brian Balfour[/tags]