eBizBlog

Okay, it’s not Mr. Spock with a red dye job and braids, but it is something approaching that. This week saw the launch of annesdiary.com, an Anne of Green Gables theme-site touted as the “world’s first secure social networking site for children”.

The site is designed to use state-of-the-art security features, including biometrics, to ensure that only young girls are allowed in, and predators are kept out. Once admitted to the site, girls can chat with “kindred spirits” around the globe, engage in any number of games or activities, seek homework help and of course shop with abandon for Anne of Green Gables licensed merchandise.

Upon viewing the home page I had two immediate reactions:

1) A video on the website demonstrates “young Anne” entering her own bedroom using a device reminiscent of those used by James T. Kirk and his shipmates on the U.S.S. Enterprise. That is just wrong. How does PEI – a province whose bread and butter depends on creating a sense of a different world and “times gone by” – feel about this new rendering of its most important, albeit fictional spokesperson? Call me sentimental, but there are some characters whose charm and appeal has everything to do with their context. I think Anne is one of them.

2) What kind of testing was done to ensure the efficacy of the site’s security features? We all know that even the securest of sites have cracks. Otherwise, how could important watchdogs like our friends at the RCMP log in and, of necessity, impersonate the people whom they are trying to protect?

I give Logica Holdings, the parent company of annesdiary.com, full credit for a great idea and a successful launch. I just hope that a new generation of girls doesn’t grow up imagining that Anne Shirley was a tech geek.