I think a particular hurdle for a standalone WMF-affiliated kidipedia project is the COPPA, and other similar laws both in the US and elsewhere that could potentially increase civil liability. Another hurdle is that America is very aware, perhaps overly aware, of the potential safety risks when children are involved in websites. Then you add in the fact that kids are likely to continue editing Wikipedia instead of Kidipedia, and it’s not worth the extra effort.  This effort would include hiring/reassigning staff so you can have a team of people for just Kidipedia, along with the background checks and identity verification needed. None of that are obstacles that aren’t in the way of kids editing the existing projects.

I predict a WMF-affiliated kidipedia would largely be abandoned quite quickly.

From,
I dream of horses
She/her

On Jun 21, 2022, at 1:53 PM, Mathias Damour <mathias.damour@gmx.fr> wrote:

Hi Ziko, Samuel and everybody,
 
De: "Ziko van Dijk" <zvandijk@gmail.com>
Hello Samuel,
 
Thank you for your mail. I would like to see more attention from the Wikimedia movement for the target group children age ca. 8-14.
 
I am afraid there is no real comprehensive study about the best way to provide encyclopedic wiki content to children, or even to involve them in the content creation.
 
In general, children are a very special and vulnerable group. This can become problematic when they are directly involved on a platform, and when it comes to the content itself.
 
And yet it works well with Vikidia, which has been active for more than 15 years, writing an average of 6 articles par day since the beginning !
There is some blog posts that elaborate how it works, what it implies and what it means to let a multi-age community work together, unfortunatly only in french (except one in english):
My english is certainly not good enought to translate them properly, yet I would be glad to get some help to do so or to find a way to get them translated (anybody tell me if you wish to help translating 2 or 3 of theses posts !)
One also reviews some of the commons objections to such a project and how we adress them.
 
Samuel Klein <meta.sj@gmail.com> schrieb am Mo. 20. Juni 2022 um 02:25:
 
More languages should try that.   a) simple skin hack, b) loving and lovely idea, c) more compelling to me than the standalone kidipedia projects :)   Anyway, thanks for improving my weekend, Txikipedians.   SJ
 
Actually when you have a "standalone kidipedia project", it has the great benefit to allow to have its own community, and not to be marginalized inside a much bigger project. Both young readers and young editors love it. I guess that the choice may depend on the size of the "mother" Wikipedia and the potential community to gather on this project.
 
Mathias Damour
[[User:Astirmays]]
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