commonsensemedia

Published 22.04.2020 00:17

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Home Base by Scholastic

A lot or a little?

Parents need to know that Home Base by Scholastic is a large role-playing, virtual world app in which kids can play games with characters from popular book series, read excerpts from those books, and interact with other kids. Kids explore different islands, each of which represents a popular kids' book series from Scholastic, such as Wings of Fire, Goosebumps, or Geronimo Stilton. When kids play as a guest, they're limited to playing games and reading. If kids register, they can access all the community features such as chat, massively multiplayer online games (MMOG), or posts. When registering, kids must provide an email address; it doesn't specify that the address must belong to a parent. The chat has an automatic filter that limits what kids can say. There are also adult moderators who read what kids post to ensure everyone is following the chat guidelines. Moderators also maintain an event calendar that features game meet ups or special chats with authors or other special guests. When kids choose to read, they are transferred out of the app to their device's web browser where they can choose to download an excerpt from the book they've chosen. Home Base by Scholastic requests for access to the camera as kids may find some augmented reality content. Also, it's a large app and takes a long time to download; parents will want to make sure they have plenty of free space on their device. There's a lot to see in the games and other features, including small details, which might be hard to manage on a small screen. Read the developer's privacy policy for details on how your (or your kids') information is collected, used, and shared and any choices you may have in the matter, and note that privacy policies and terms of service frequently change.