Last week, New Moon Girls launched Girl2Girl Talk, an IM program, as a new member-only benefit.  Lots of special safety features make this different from typical IM services like AIM or Yahoo.  It’s a safe way for girls to starting IMing with friends and learn about safe internet behavior in a supportive environment.  Parents may read transcripts of their daughter’s chats, too, if they want to know what’s going on in them.

Safety and fun are the  top priorities at New Moon and G2G has strong safety features:

1. No girl can begin instant chatting without receiving parental permission first.

2. G2G allows members to add each other to their Friends Lists. Girls can chat instantly, one-on-one or in groups, to other girls on their Friends Lists. Only New Moon Girls members have access to Girl2Girl Talk.

3. Parents control their child’s Girl2Girl Talk account through the Parent Account they create. In the parent account, they can:
a. Allow or Remove a child’s access to Girl2Girl Talk
b. Review, block, and unblock members on a child’s Friends List
c. Enable or disable weekly transcripts. When transcripts are enabled, a once-weekly record of a child’s chat activity is sent to a parent email address.

4. Girl2Girl Talk allows real-time chatting. It uses advanced filtering technology to prevent the sharing of phone numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses, profanity, and other inappropriate language and information sharing.

5. Girl2Girl Talk includes a “report abuse” button. Pushing the button sends a chat’s transcript to New Moon staff. Girls can use the button if a conversation makes them feel unsafe or uncomfortable, or if the girl they are chatting with breaks New Moon Girls’ membership rules. Girls who abuse the Girl2Girl feature are contacted by the staff and risk having their membership canceled.

I’d like to hear your thoughts on girls IMing. What safety features do you think are most important?  Please comment!