Let's Talk About Chat

Chat the Cool Way, Using Avatars

TV versus books. Computer games versus board games. No contest in your kids' minds, right? So if they're bored with the usual chat room, take them to ThePalace.com --assuming they haven't already discovered it. This chat site specializes in avatars--cartoon characters you pick (or, if you're really artistic, create yourself) to represent your presence on screen. Rather than look at boring text, you see others' avatars--and they can see yours--against cool backgrounds. You can move your avatar around the screen, play sounds and, of course, type messages. Here though, the text appears in little speech balloons, as if you were in a comic strip. This puppetlike chat is a hoot, especially for kids.

The Palace isn't the only avatar chat site on the Web (another, much less family-oriented site is Worlds), but The Palace is by far the best for families. The Palace software is free, comes in versions for both Windows and Macs, and can be downloaded in about 15 minutes. (You can try out The Palace without downloading the software by using your Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator browser.)

And there are plenty of kid- and family-friendly chat rooms to visit, including those dedicated to the environment, science fiction and kids of all ages. (Kids Nation has more than 60 rooms.) You can even download software that lets you create private chat rooms that are large enough to hold eight people at once.

With so many ways to chat, I may never stop. At least I know that I can always find others who are ready to gab by simply logging onto the Internet.