Petimo: Enhanced tangible social networking companion for children

Abstract

As social networking widely spreads among the community, especially among the younger generation, the negative influence created on children has become a serious social concern. "Petimo" is an interactive robotic toy designed to protect children from potential risks in social networks and the virtual world and it helps them to make a safely connected social networking environment. It adds a new form of security to social computing through parental authentication, providing extra safety in making friends by physically touching each others robot which is a much preferred form especially by children and natural means of making friends. The concept of Petimo could be extended to any social network thus making it child-safe. As a proof-of-concept a 3D virtual world called "Petimo-World" is developed which includes all of the realizable basic features of traditional online social networks. With the system, children experience enhanced relationships with their friends through interactions in the real and virtual worlds by sending personal thoughts and feelings mediated by their robots with haptic, visual, and audible events. © ACM 2009.