Exclude that as well please

Even so, most “sex offenders” on myspace aren’t actually trolling for kids – most of them have friends their own age in their profiles.

Most of the cases of “predators” we hear about are cases where a 16 year old girl went and met a 19 year old boy, then when her parents found out she said “rape” so she wouldn’t get in trouble.

The problem that they’re going to face is verifying ages. If you have a hotspot of kids, you’ll attract that small percentage of predators, and they’ll get in somehow. telling kids that they’re safe here instead of teaching them how to stay safe anywhere won’t solve the problem. The problem will be solved when little girls are taught not to meet guys from the internet in real life.

But they do have a large amount of purchasing power. From a quick Google search:

“The value of this exact market hasn’t yet been tallied, but a 2005 report by Packaged Facts counted 29 million U.S. kids ages 8 to 14, with a combined annual purchasing power of $40 billion. Nearly 90 percent of these children are now online, which means there’s a lot of money to be made by websites that can capture the kids’ attention and their impressionable eyeballs.”

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/04/01/8403359/index.htm

The article is a year old, but the value of the market has not shrunk dramatically I’d wager.

Though reading through tweegee’s website (from the name alone I assumed it was a twitter clone at first) I’m shocked at the idea. You’re right that

“They also don’t want to be tweens, they want to do what the older kids are doing.”

Tweens are motivated to be grown up at a younger age, hence the commercial success of Hanna Montana by Disney. They crafted this celebrity to the demands of the Tweet market to make them feel more grown up.

I don’t think the interests of the Tween market (be older faster!) and the $40 billion purchasing power (from the parent’s wallets) will translate into a successful social network.

But being a “destination site that empowers Tweens to express themselves creatively and safely in an innovative and customized online environment.” (emphasis added) will have parent’s looking kindly at Tweegee as an alternative to the ‘sexual predator filled’ Myspace and Facebook if Tweegee can reach these parents.

I know a few people presenting at both TechCrunch and Demo right now, and while 99.99% of these companies suck, there can still be some good ones.

I still use CakeFinancial, for example.