The CBBC Website

A couple of weeks ago when commencing the start of our research, we decided upon us that our first objective would be to conduct an analysis of the CBBC website as it exists at this current moment in time. This would give us a better understand of what the website offers to its target audience, what safety procedures are in place and how the two cohabitate with each other to make a suitable, yet a joyful experience for the children who go on it. I myself visited the CBBC website and began collecting useful infromation that could be featured in our presentation.

It's a very informative and interactive website that constantly tries to engage you with joining in with its bold and impacting imagery/lettering, and it's variety of choice.

Things to do include:

• Playing Games
• Watching Video
• Listening To Music
• Interacting Through Webcasts
• Watching/Getting Involved in the News
• Entering Competitions
• Viewing Content on Their Favourite Shows
• Designing and Createing
• Customiseing Your Computer

There is a vast amount of things to do on the CBBC website; there is no doubt that users are not spoilt for choice from what is offered to them. But after looking through all that is available on the site it becomes apparent that maybe some of its featured content appeals more to the younger side of their target audience rather than catering for all ages. Also with the amount of content that is on the website it can sometimes be hard to navigate through as some pages just seem to be a cluster of links and information.

I wanted to under go a test because I remember from the BBC presentation the representative said that it was difficult for people above 16 to create an account and access the website as it's constantly monitored. So i decided to take it upon myself to create my own account for research purposes only. To be honest I found it relatively easy to create an account and access the website. I was merely doing this to get an idea of how easy it was, because if it was easy for me then it is obviously easy for others to pretend they are a young teenager. I also did it so I could get an idea of the actual content that was available to you as a user and what things the CBBC website offers you to try and keep you coming back for more.

Registration

The registration process consists of giving basic information, a user name (which is for signing in purposes only), password and age (which can easily be falsified). The next page you are directed to ask for your existing e-mail address, and then for you to tick a compulsory box that indicated either your parent/guardian/or teacher (if in use at school) agree to you creating an account and are ok with your e-mail address being given out. The only thing that crosses my mind is what makes the BBC think that all people actually ask a parent/guardian or teacher for permission before creating an acount? 

You’re then asked to provide your parent’s e-mail address so that the registration process can continue. However if you cannot provide this information your e-mail address will not be taken but you’re account will still be created.

Ticking this box and changing my birthday gave me direct access to the website. Now if I can do it then doesn't that show that it is just as easy for people with ultirior motives or people who want to disguise themselves as a younger person. I know the siite is monitored but it still has some areas of danger and I'm not quite sure yet what could be done about it. I'm sure as the research process continues me and my group will come up with some possible improvements for the site. I also remember from the presentation the representative told us a story of how some users were coming up with codes or cryptic messages to send each other private details about themselves. It took awhile for the people who monitor the website to realise this and remove the content but it just shows you how people are always going to try and find away around system.

Once registration is complete you are redirected to a flash image of a sort of lottery machine (shown in the video above). You’re asked to pull the lever which then generates 3 different selections of randomly generated names. You then have to make your selection from the 3 names given. If non of them are to your liking you can generate the machine over and over again until you find a suitable name for yourself. This name is then used as your screen name and cannot be changed. My generated screen name was "IvoryFluteTiger", funny I know.

It is aspects such as this that may drive children to drift away from the website. Not being able to have individuality and way for them to be known as themselves online. It’s just their presence hiding being a randomly generated persona that is compulsory by the CBBC website to conceal their identity.

Yes it's funny at first but would you really want to be known as "IvoryFluteTiger" or whatever random jumbled up words are presented to you as your choice of user names. I'm pretty sure your friends wouldn't let you get away with that. I still think it's all about personalization, having the ability to have some control over how you present yourself. I think presentation is a very big factor, it can build confidence and also bring across personality. I think the CBBC website doesn't have enough customizable options. People want choices and a little bit of freedom so they can stand out from other people and be their own person, it all comes back to having a personal presence online.

Creating an account is not necessary to accessing the website, but it allows you to access a wider range of content on the CBBC website such as the message board, web chats and having your opinions broadcasted.

Site Content
The navigation of the website can be slightly confusing at first as there seems to be so much going on but it kind of becomes second nature after awhile. The only thing it took me awhile to find was the message board. I haven't interacted with the message board because I thought it would be inappropriate for me to do so.

The news, information and educative side of the website are very impressive. I found it really informative and intriguing. It really reflects what the BBC is all about. Some of the games I came across were quite childish and some what patronizing, but they were fun non the less. They try to appeal to all ages and all difficulty levels, but I personally think they target more of the lower spectrum of their target audience rather than making the site equal to all ages. 

There is quite a good mix of things going on. I think it's just the interaction between other users and the ability to have some kind of personal presence on the website that is letting it down. It's almost advertising something and then once you create an account you realise that you actually can't do some of the things that you thought you could do because the BBC want to have that protective barrier.

I think the BBC just need to let the barrier down a bit and test out some ideas to see if it gets young teens interacting with their website more rather than them going off to use other websites. I think they shouldn't be afraid to also do something that isn't seen as being childish, because their ideas of the E-Buds and E-Pets came across as a very childish concept and I could imagine the aesthetics of the concept being very "kiddish".

Safety  
We know from the presentation that was given to us by the representative of the BBC that the website is highly monitored in ordered to protect all its users. The rules that are reinforced on the website or “house rules” as they are referred which are mainly applicable for the message board are
 

-          No sharing personal information: this means no personal information can be displayed or given out at any time during your use of the site. If so the message will be instantly deleted or not posted at all. Full name, e-mail address, pictures or housing addresses are not allowed to be given out. If this rule is continuously breached then the user may be band from the website all together

-          You must be 15 years old or under. As we have already displayed this can be easily cheated

-          No websites outside of CBBC and Newsround meaning no other websites are allowed to be discussed or mentioned due to suitability and safety

-          Films/tv programmes/games/creative writing that are shared must be suitable for children

-          Multiple accounts are not allowed

-          Nasty, rude, offensive or argumentative messages are not allowed

-          No spam or posts over the word limit

-          No coded or foreign languages

-          No copying and pasting text such as song lyrics or film scripts

-          No flirting, no dating or romantic stories

-          Stick to the topic

-          Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not

-          Don’t talk about stars private lives

Monitors of the site are looking out for the use of such content and getting rid of it as soon as possible to make their site safe for the users. But is it too safe? Maybe some of this restrictions are what discourages the users and encourages them to find other websites to tend their needs or interests. Maybe young children want to be able to talk their friends freely, they want to be known for who they actually are, they want freedom of expression and the ability to be able to publicize their interests and views along with playing games and

Some of these rules are great because they target growing issues such as cyber bullying and help prevent children from seeing content unsuitable for them and growing up too fast, but that seems to be the thing that all children want as they become older and start heading into adolescence. They want to be seen more as an individual, as an adult. They want to feel like they are accounted for.

Message Board
The message board is basically a blog for which people can post discussions and interact with each other, so it is seen as the main social aspect of the site. Our problem with when using this was that it isn’t instantaneous as your discussions and comments have to be checked by the monitors first before they are allowed to be posted. This can be seen as time consuming and can make you lose interest when there are other means of social networking which make it a lot simpler for you to talk to friends and various people. But this is why the BBC carries such precautions so that children are protected from talking to strangers who may have ulterior motives.  

Also the blogs you create are only relevant for a short period of time before being pushed back by new entries from other members. Therefore it hard to keep a track of the blogs you are interested in or even the blogs you have posted, and it becomes a struggling and tiresome task searching through the endless pages. The CBBC website would benefit from allowing users to feature their blog posts on some sort of profile that is created by the user at the beginning of the registration process. Therefore blogs could be found just by searching for that user, making the access much more instantaneous.

I have since deleted my account as I thought it would be inappropriate of me to keep the account, plus I have no use for it any more as I have gathered what research I wanted from it.

Research

So the teams have been decided and the question has been set. It is now up to use to complete a full intensive research process and begin to build up our presentation.

In my team there is:
Carl Robertson (Me of course)
Mattew Bradley
Tony Marsh
Billy Hudson

The question we have been given to produce a research presentation on is "How can we create a safe environment for children online without discouraging participation?"

This was my second choice of which question I would have liked to have been given, so I farey pleased. I did a research presentation last year about how to get children of this target age range that we have been given (8-12 year olds) interacting with a website of this nature. I feel like I have some first hand knowledge and understand of the task at hand then.
We have come together as a group and decided on a strategical plan of how we are going to approach this task.

We first think it would be helpful if we set the questions out into sections, so first maybe do research on child safety online. Maybe find out the laws and regulations on what is appropriate and what is not. Then develop some questionnaires for the likes of teachers and parents to see what their views are of the content that is available to their children online, what they think of the websites they go on and if they feel they are at risk.

Once we have got a substantual amount of information through primary and secondary information we can then tackle the participation part of the question and then hopefully bring it all together.

Me and Tony both know teachers so we feel it may be appropriate not only to hand out the questionnaires to them and their staff, but also have an interview with them so we can get some more in depth answers and insight to their thoughts and feelings on the situation.

We have started building a questionnaire together, which currently is in the process of being finished. Once these are complete then we will start handing them out. Billy is currently working on some new and suitable questions that will help us gain a better understanding of what we want to know.

It may be useful in our questionnaires to ask what the parents/teachers what kind of things they go on when they are on the internet, and what sort of things they feel that their children should be going on. This way we can get a sense of how they feel about the whole participation side of the question.

Also with the childrens questionnaire we will have to make it engaging and fun for them so that they actually are interested in filling it out, and giving us appropriate answers. This will have to be done through useful thought of the question structure and visual design.

Matt has come up with an the idea to research into how children are being engaged online, especially on social networks. He wants to get an understanding of how children may be at risk from older people approaching them online by using false indentities. He found this useful link to help us out.http://www.kidpower.org/resources/articles/internet-safety.html

Hypothesis
We have come up with a hypothesis to base all of our research upon. We believe that as children reach the beginning stages of adolescence they want to or begin to explore ways in publishing themselves to a wide audience through the means of the internet. They want to be known as an individual and they want other people to see them for who they are. They want to have this online presence were by their thoughts, feelings, views, interests, hobbies, likes and dislikes, age, gender, location etc are accessible.

CBBC

Presentation 3

20/10/11

How can we create a safe environment for children online without discouraging participation?

Today we were given a presentation from a member of the BBC who deals with the more interactive side that is aimed at teenagers online. The website is based obviously based around the programming that is televised to children/teenagers on the BBC, and it is a some what social network that tries to not only let kids have fun but also educate them at the same time.

The website is aimed at 5-16 year olds and runs on a daily basis. The site is highly monitored as it is a site that tries to engage the users to have a joyful interactive experience whilst trying to keep them as safe as possible.This means keeping to the rules and regulations that is upholded by the law and by what the BBC stands by.

Children and teenagers who create a CBBC account can only have their account up until they are 16 years of age, by this time their account will be automatically deleted as the website is only intended for 5-16 year olds.

Users of the site are not allowed to exchange any kind of personal details so that their personal identity and location is kept safe from people who may be using the CBBC website for the wrong intent. If they should do so the content will be immediately deleted or their account stopped. This means that the users cannot upload images of themselves, or use a self image as a display picture. The website only uses a message board system which is somewhat like a blog, so topics can be created and then comments can be added by users but there isn't instant connections between users unlike such websites as facebook or twitter. This means you can't find your friends and have them join you on the site so you can be continously connected to each other. Everything seems a little disjointed and less connected unlike the social networks that exist today.

The message board also runs on a timing system so can only be accessed between certain periods of time depending on the day, much like recess periods. The representative from the BBC stated that it more females participate in the message board rather than boys, and that they were looking into other ideas to make the site more appealing to the users but still keeping to the safety aspect of it.

They have been researching and prototyping such things as E-Buds/E-Friends were the user creates an avatar as a representation of them. Through this system then they can find their friends and are then able to send message to each other. Another idea was E-Pets which is a virtual pet which is designed by the user and then cared/looked after almost like a real pet. It follows the same principals as a tamogotchi.

Their ideas are good but do children/teenagers want more these days? When there are such things as Facebook and Myspace where they are able to interact with their friends freely and enjoy games. Do children/teenagers want to have a personal presence online?

The BBC representative showed us these two links and told us that they were highly popular with people. We ourselves used them within the class and everyone was hooked for awhile.

The first link is an animation that lets you type in your address, then by accessing google maps it uses images of your street and the surrounding area to play out a scene of a robot destroying your home.

http://chaosinyourtown.com/

The next link is featured on the E4 website and is a video of the hit TV series "Misfits". The video consists of the characters going around cleaning up the town which is filled with posters and flyers. The only thing is that the flyers are advertising you! This is all done once you have uploaded an image of yourself to the site before playing the video.

http://www.e4.com/misfits/mess-with-misfits/index.html

Both of these links were highly addictive and why? I personally think it is that people enjoy things that relate to them, things that are personal to them. You have a sense of firmilularity with what's being shown on the screen. People wether they like to admit it or not are some what self obsessed. People like to be out there, they like to feel like they have some sort of presense, like they have an effect on things, or even just that they matter. It doesn't matter how big or small people still like to publicize themselves to an audience. And with the increase of such things as social networking, blogs, and media uploading sites such as Youtube people are more drawn to these things because they not only have easy access to information but they have a huge platform on which they can be displayed upon. It's all about personal presence online I think, that's what interests and drives people who use the website. It's about being known. But this is just my opinion and when our research is conducted we can find out what this target audience enjoys, what they care about and why when it comes to such websites as the CBBC one.

Hurrican Films

Introduction
Over the next few weeks we will be having presentations from 3 different organisations, each one presenting us with a question to answer over the next couple of months. Their presentations will give us not only some insight to what they do but also some source of information regarding the question they are setting us. It is up to us then to conduct our own research methods in groups and answer these questions, with the end result being a presentation for the representatives of each organisation. Each group will only be answering one of the three questions given, but at this time it is uncertain which question people will be given so it's good to have a starting point for each question.

Presentation 1

6/10/11

How can you engage an online audience in storytelling? - How do you encourage users, especially those from an older generation to participate?

Question posed by Sol Papadopoulos from Hurrican Films.

www.hurricanefilms.net

We were given a presentation by a group about a project that Hurrican Films has developed which is called Peoples Stories.

www.peoples-stories.com

Peoples Stories is a website which is all based around Liverpool post World War II. It is a place were members of the public can go and share their stories, upload photographs, videos etc and generally talk about the evolution of Liverpool over the period of time.
It is a great place not only for older generations to remonice but also for the younger generation to learn/see what it was like all those years ago. It has a great sense of community and is a lovely way to etch historical moments down for everyone to share rather than them being lost in someones attic or just shared amongst a few people. It brings people together in so many ways. I find the concept itself a great idea and it's something that interests me loads. I love the whole fact that someones personal memories can be stored forever online and shared between the world. Learning history and hearing peoples personal experiences of how they grew up and how they have seen the surroundings that we know to day change over a period of time. That sense of change and the storys that can be told from various perspectives is a nice thing to be involved with.

The question itself doesn't really interest me at all, i find it some what boring and not very broad. It feels like there isn't much you can do with this questions.
In my personal opinion i think it's a stereotypical thing that people thing the older generation are not encouraged to participate in the interaction with the internet or that they don't actually do it. I think there of a lot of old people out there who get involved and use the internet for their personal convenience, i just think they don't know about such websites as peoples stories and what it offers. Either that or they just don't want to tell their stories, which i think is a shame.

It would be nice to see more websites like this one, but for all different places around the world. There may already be a lot of them out there but seeing as it's something i've never researched before then i wouldn't know.
Story telling is a huge part of our civilization. It's apart of our nature, apart of who we are. We always have a story to tell no matter how big or small it may be. Each experience stimulates/provokes a story to be told, and a story can do so much more.

Rebel Play

Presentation 2

13/10/11

Do media platforms and genres have specific gender appeal? Why don’t more women play console games?

http://www.rebelplay.com/

Today we had a presentation from a couple of members from RebelPlay which is an independant games company based in Liverpool. RebelPlay use to go by the name "Gaming Inc" until they changed it earlier this year, 2011.

Their question is asking specifically about console games being gender specific and why women don't play these types of games, rather than just gaming in general. In their presentation they showed a lot of facts and statistics which were presented with a lot of graphs to show that women are interested in gaming, just not when it comes to console gaming.

It was stated from a recent research survey that only 38% men play games (in general) and 42% were women. Women seem to be drawn to games that are based on the internet or their phones. Games that don't seem to "waste time" with story lines and plots. Games that have some sense of purpose and productivity.

Now, I know a few girls who are interested in console gaming and are constantly online playing the latest games such as Call Of Duty and other games, but I think RebelPlay know that maybe the percentage of girls who play these sort of games are low and they want to know what it is that puts most girls off. Is it the games plot? Is it the style of game, the games genre? Is it the asthetics of the games? Is it apart of the games mechanics? Is it the controls? Or is it the console itself? 

Are the asthetics of the console itself a huge part of the problem to why most girls don't play console games? That is if the sterotype of most girls not playing console games is true.

They had some interesting facts about things like hypersexualization, whereby a games character's appearance is sexually enhanced just to promote the game. Most of these sexual enhancements are often aimed at the male target audience by often enhancing female characters breasts for example.

Now why are there never male characters that are sexualized for women users? Or are there games out there that use hypersexualization aimed at the female target audience? In my experience of gaming I can't think of any games like this for women but I'm sure there must be something out there that uses this form of comercialization.

They also came up with the way consoles are advertised. I've never noticed before until today but it seems the way consoles are advertised are a huge factor in the target audience they are intended for. Consoles like the Playstation and Xbox seem to have a masculine appearance and often have males promoting them through advertisements. They are seen to be hard, dark, cool and very macho. There are even simple advertisements like the one below that clearly use male hands to promote the Playstation.

These consoles are completely different to the approach the Nintendo Wii takes. It promotes itself as a family console, a way of bringing people together. A console that is to be taken as a bit of fun, that is to be used when groups of people gather together like at parties ect. And as you can see below womens hands are used in the advertisement. The console itself has a much softer look and feel to it. The control doesn't look complex and the system looks very compact and small which are all things that may appeal to women. Also the games that are released for the Wii are interactive fun packed games that seem to relate to everyday interests such as dancing. Maybe the Nintendo Wii has come the closest to breaking the stereotype of women not playing console games.

This question so far is probably the one that appeals to me the most.

I found this advert shown above for the Xbox 360 which clearly shows a female and male teenager joyfully interacting with the console. It seems like they are trying to appeal to both target audiences but not through gaming. This advert is showing the other capabilities of the console, which are it's abilities to link to the internet, watch movies, stream TV episodes, stream music etc. It seems like it's trying to appeal to the female population in other various ways rather than just it's gaming capability, which obviously they feel they are struggling on when it comes to the female gender.