nspcc

I’ve written previously about how the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has embraced innovation to raise awareness of its cause.

Now Childline, which merged with the NSPCC last year, has created the Childline Zen Garden room in Habbo Hotel - a virtual community for teenagers. The child protection charity hopes that its three-month stay in Habbo (until May) will allow it to reach out to the young audience in their natural browsing environment.

The room was unoccupied when this screengrab was taken as all ‘Habbos’ (the user-created avatars) were in school at the time.

The charity will host events and activities on Habbo aimed at getting young people involved in its anti-bullying campaign, Don’t Hide It.

Rebecca Newton, Safety & Moderation Manager for Habbo’s creators, Sulake Corporation, told me that there’s a promo on the Habbo UK website about the Zen Garden room. This is the primary way of pushing traffic to partnered areas - along with word-of-mouth.

Habbo UK now attracts 750,000 players aged 11-18 each month, according to this BBC article.

Emily Knee, NSPCC’s digital project manager is quoted as saying…

It is imperative that we talk to teenagers in their own environment, much of which is online

She hopes the partnership with Habbo will drive traffic to the NSPCC website, as well as encouraging members of the community to take part in polls and design an anti-bullying themed room.

The NSPCC previously ran some interactive ads on Habbo (as well as Mykindaplace and Bebo).

Habbo started in Finland in 2000, so pre-dates Second Life by three years or so. It’s probably the first successful virtual world this side of the pond.

I like the look of the two-dimensional Habbo. It’s more colourful than Second Life’s 3D environment - and hence, more appealing to teens.

As Rebecca put it:

There’s no peer pressure to look “older” or “cool” since we’re all 2-inch pixelated characters.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has a long history of embracing innovation to raise awareness of its cause. Way back in the 1930s for example, the Society was one of the first charities in the UK to screen fundraising films in cinemas.

The child protection charity is now using Google Maps in the latest phase of the hugely ambitious Full Stop campaign to end cruelty to children, which it launched in March 1999.

The “Be the Full Stop” website shows how the actions of individual fundraisers, donors, campaigners, volunteers link up across the country “to create an unstoppable force against child cruelty.”

To get on the map, you sign up to the following statement:

I believe child cruelty can be ended and I want to get on the map and take action now

Once on the map you can:

• Invite friends to join you and create your own, personal network of support
• Explore the map and see how other people are taking action in your area and beyond
• Visualise how you are part of a committed and active community of NSPCC supporters

I like the way you can easily view the map without first having to add yourself to it, and the tag cloud of people mapped to actions, making you feel you are standing up and being counted.

Since “Full Stop Week”, which ran from 2 - 8 October, an online gallery of photos has been added using a Flickr mashup.

An accessible version (no map of course) allows you to drill down to your own postcode.

The NSPCC has one again teamed up with its digital agency, DNA, to create a wonderfully innovative way to visualise the aggregated actions of thousands of supporters.

This is far from being a full stop, of course; you’re not interrupted by a call to make a donation. This is all about raising awareness, making connections and building deeper relationships with potential supporters.