EMERYVILLE, Calif., June 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Industrious Kid Inc., a new company dedicated to the development of innovative, age-appropriate online destinations for children, has launched imbee.com; a new secure social networking and blogging destination designed specifically for kids ages 8 to 14. In reaction to the rapidly expanding population of young users now accessing the Internet, imbee.com was created to provide a secure, dynamic environment where kids can safely begin to explore the social aspects of the Internet while having fun creating and exchanging information with their friends and family members.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060619/SFM034)

At imbee.com, kids can participate in a variety of creative activities, including creating their own blogs and personalizing them with their own images or with artwork from one of the many custom imbee galleries; uploading graphics or music files; and exchanging messages with their friends. For parents, imbee.com provides tools that enable them to better guide their children as they begin to develop those important digital skill sets and judgment necessary to make their personal online experiences fun, educational, and empowering.

"We recognized from the beginning that the Internet is now organic to children, yet despite this fact, there is a real lack of intelligent destinations specially designed with young users in mind," said Jeanette Symons, founder and CEO of Industrious Kid. "We designed imbee to be the first real social network for kids. The biggest difference between what imbee offers verses other social networks, is that we've taken into account requirements such as security and content privacy, which are so critical when supporting the online experiences of young users."

The imbee.com Difference

Imbee.com has been designed to ensure the greatest level of fun, safety, and satisfaction for its members, and peace of mind, participation, and effective guidance for concerned parents or guardians.

"Providing a safe, secure environment for children as they begin to graduate on to the Internet and into our digital social society is rising in importance every day," said Allen Weiner, Research Vice-president with Gartner, Inc. "As our children grow, the Internet will continue to play a huge role in their lives. The future of kid-focused Internet products that are based on real world applications and not just entertainment looks to be a bright one."

User Authentication

Unlike many of the open social networking destinations that offer non- secure, unauthenticated access to their membership populations, imbee.com ensures a greater level of security by requiring a parent or legal guardian to register with each child. As part of the adult registration, the parent or guardian is authenticated through the submission of a valid credit card. Once registered, imbee.com provides all members with a secure environment where they are free to share and communicate with their friends without fear of unknown intruders.

Member Privacy

Most people today have little understanding that what they publish on the Internet can come back to haunt them now ... or in the future. This is especially true for children. Currently, much of the information that is posted online is stored indefinitely, can be easily searched and can be accessible long after it was originally published. To address this concern, imbee.com protects its members by keeping their personal online content private and secure. All member-generated content is stored behind a secure firewall and cannot be accessed by Internet search engines or unauthorized users.

Parental Insight

Imbee.com provides a suite of sophisticated tools that offer parents more insight and control of their child's online publishing and communications activities. These tools allow parents to monitor, approve, and if necessary modify settings related to their child's activities on imbee.com, including the files they upload and download, what they post on their blog, the comments they make on their friend's blogs, and the messages they send and receive. These powerful controls enable any parent to easily manage and help guide their child as they begin to sharpen their online skills. As a child learns and grows, parents can modify the monitoring parameters, letting their children develop into a more independent online user.

Easy to Use

The imbee.com blogging, communications and monitoring capabilities have been designed to make it easy for kids and their parents to use. Now even the youngest user can generate their own content, create and personalize their own blog, and send and receive messages from their friends. For adults who might be intimidated by technology, imbee.com has made its powerful parental monitoring tools easy-to-use and making it simple for parents and guardians to have effective insight and control over their child's online activities.

"imbee.com -- this is actually big kid-tech news. It's the first product I have seen of its kind, and it's a great idea," said Anne Collier, executive director of NetFamilyNews.com and co-director of BlogSafety.com. "imbee.com does two things: gives budding online socializers a safe place to blog and socialize and gives parents on-the-job training. It supports parent-child communication and demystifies social networking for parents."

Pricing and Availability

For all registered users, imbee.com's unique social networking features are free, including the ability for any member to create a personal user name and persona, exchange messages with other members while having the ability to comment on a subscribing members blog or photo album. For members who want to create, customize and share their own personal blog page the cost for subscribing is $3.95 per month (includes access for two kid members and one adult) with the first three months for free.

Imbee.com's unique social networking and blogging destination for kids is available today and now accepting members.

In separate release today, imbee.com was named the "official kids social networking destination" of Paramount Parks and will kick off its promotional tour on June 19th at Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara, CA. (see "imbee.com Named Paramount's Great America's Official Social Networking and Blogging Destination for Kids")

About Industrious Kid, Inc.

Industrious Kid is an innovative company that develops premium online destinations that are purpose-built for the rapidly expanding population of children now accessing and using the Internet. The company's age-appropriate solutions strike a unique balance between the fun and stimulation that children desire and the safety and guidance that their parents demand. Industrious Kid's first product is imbee.com, a secure social networking and blogging destination designed specifically for kids ages 8 to 14. The company is headquartered in Emeryville, Calif. For more information about Industrious Kid and imbee.com, please visit http://www.industriouskid.com/.

CONTACT: Shannon Malliet of Industrious Kid, Inc., +1-831-430-9826, or
shannon@industriouskid.com

Web site: http://www.industriouskid.com/