BBC to build online world for kids

CBBC prepares 'Second Life for kids' for Summer launch.

The BBC has announced plans to build a virtual world similar to Second Life designed exclusively for children.

CBBC, the broadcaster's channel for seven to 12 year-olds, said that it would allow children to build an avatar, and to create and share content and interact with the virtual environment.

But the world would lack any of the financial aspects that feature heavily in online worlds like Linden Lab's Second Life.

CBBC believes that, for children born into a digital world, communicating in a virtual environment is a natural, safe and creative medium.

There will apparently be no chat rooms, private areas or functionality allowing for the building of new parts of the world, in a bid to maintain a safe environment.

The new world is expected to go live in the summer, and will be officially launched alongside the CBBC relaunch later in the year.

The BBC did not say whether the children's world will be built using the Second Life code in partnership with Linden Lab.

Linden Lab open sourced its client software earlier this month, but this does not contain any of the server side code for the actual construction of the world.