Skid-e-Kids: Social Network for Kids

  — March 5, 2010 at 4:52 pm

No one ever saw it coming. A social networking site made for kids, inspired by kids. All of the fun activities that other social networking sites have, with the added bonus of safety measures to help prevent the things that can make the internet unsafe for kids. Skid-e-Kids.com is the new wave in social networking and technology, and creator Mickel Godwin hopes to continue his success in these uncharted waters.

The overall goal of the company is to “improve the quality of life between the parent and the child,” says Brandon Mychals, co-founder. He explains that through the website, children can make friends, play games, write blogs, and join groups while their parents are doing the same things with other parents. Mychals says that the site was designed with the child in mind. While the website is still very young, it is not at all underdeveloped. It was initially created for kids between four and eleven years old, but that has changed. Mychals says, “We’re going to let the people on the site tell us the way they want it to go.”

“Skid-e-Kids” is an acronym for Super Kids In Development Enjoying Kindled Interest Driving Success. Although it is a website for kids, it has something for everyone. Parents might find the site useful for making extra cash, networking, chatting, or blogging about parenthood. For teachers, the site has activity sheets, game ideas, homework tools, and a pen pal function.

The website also features a number of colorful characters who are citizens of “Skid-e-Ville”. In the beginning, the characters were marketing tools created to be role models for kids and a means of moderating the site. Since then, the cartoons have taken a life of their own. “They have a say-so in the direction they go," says Mychals.

Each cartoon character, represents a different type of personality. One character, Hang Time the friendly ghost, is an athlete. He is not the best at playing sports and he has never won any awards, but he never gives up.

Something Mychals hasn’t told anyone is that Skid-e-Kids.com will soon be releasing a quiz that allows members of the website to see which character they are most like because he says, “There is a character to [reflect] every type of child.”

The founders of Skid-e-Kids Network agree that their journey has not been easy. There have been lifestyle adjustments and sacrifices along the way. Mychals says, “For me, it’s a lot of work. Each day we want to make progress.” He says that the sacrifices he has made for the company don’t feel like sacrifices in retrospect “because results outweigh everything else.”

Mychals says he hopes the work he has put in will be a blueprint for a very successful legacy. To other rising entrepreneurs, Mychals says, “My advice is to make sure you donate time to your dream. If you don’t, it will burn off.”

The website is currently endorsed by the Department of Education in Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. They are also in partnership with Communities In Schools, an organization dedicated to connect community resources with schools to help young people successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life.

Projected to be “the next Google” in terms of its fast growing success, Skid-e-Kids.com and the Skid-e-Kids Network represent the future of social networking. Their key to success, Mychals says, is to “force what’s in the outter world to match what’s in your head.”