American Girl - Innerstar University

Really? Did they really just say that?

Before I get to the point of this blog post, I need to give a little background. I’ll try to keep it short. For Christmas, several girls in our neighborhood (including my daughter) received American Girl dolls. Apparently these dolls look like you and you can buy matching clothes etc etc. Anyway, the girls like them. In addition to the physical dolls, American Girl also has an online community (Innerstar University) where you can play games and complete activities as your doll.

The girls in our neighborhood were all excited to be friends in this online community. For a couple of days the girls (and their moms) tried to get them “connected” in this online world (Innerstar University). They had no luck. Finally my wife contacted American Girl Technical Support. To paraphrase the bulk of their response, they said you can only see or find a small portion of those online (even those online at the same time). What really got me was their closing line in the email. This is what they said:

“We are sorry if you are disappointed, however, perhaps this would be a good opportunity to make some new friends in our online world!”

Really? I’m more than a little surprised that they are recommending that young eight-year-old girls make "new online friends" with people they don’t even know. Hello, calling all pedophiles, here’s your next great opportunity. Does this seem as stupid to you as it does to me?

Chip