23 May 2008
The BBC has recently released a children’s Internet game called Adventure Rock. The game is set on an imaginary island and involves completing creative monthly tasks.
Adventure Rock is designed for 6-to-12-year-olds using specifically targeted challenges, set on a monthly basis, to entertain kids. The challenges incorporate “creative studios” where kids can create drawings, animations, music and so on.
The virtual game was launched in a low key manor as the BBC was keen to avoid a fanfare and risk bad publicity. Since release, Adventure Rock has been downloaded 55,000 times and received million page views a month.
The BBC is aware that at least some of the future of children's entertainment lies outside television. Not everybody agrees that it has a role to play here, but it has a justification for spending, in this case, £250,000 of licence fee payers money. Richard Deverell, the controller of children's television, says:
Our remit at the BBC is to engage and delight every child in the country.
He notes that this an era in which children's opportunities to play outside are being curtailed.
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