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Site Philosophy
Your Child's Mental/Emotional Health
We're not trying to be holier than thou, or to control access to information. No way! Look at our Philosophy. We just do our best to make sure that no visitor to this site can be assaulted by information they are not seeking. The Beta testers for this site included eleven-year olds, we are making every attempt to responsibly give them some fun things to do on the web.
If you find anything objectionable about this site, please email the Webmaster with your concerns at: crittermaster@cybercritters.com. All comments will be taken seriously and promptly acted upon where corrective action is required.
This includes ANYTHING this site is linked to: Ads... awards... you name it!
What we do with our information... We may, in future revisions of the site, allow the kids to correspond with their critters by getting critter messages via email. We keep track of which critters are most popular. We put the kids name or fake-name in a cookie (see TechStuff) and use it to address them when they interact with the site. We keep track of number of visits for potential awards to cybercritter care-givers.
Your privacy is ensured. Your kids can just stop here to care and have fun with their critters.
We opted for advertisers. We will not use an agency that pours in random banner ads. We WILL require that advertisements meet our tough standards for keeping this site a fun and safe place for kids to play.
We intend to generate a large clickstream of visitors which will attract advertisers who are targeting the children's audience. If we can think of another way to finance this site, we will do it. Until then, we'll all have to live with those flashing, blinking 468 by 60 pixel banners at the tops and bottoms of our pages.
I almost forgot: Don't you hate it when sites lay a guilt trip on the kids to get 'em back again and again? Our original plans called for the critter to be sad if a kid waited a long time to come back and visit. We junked that function. Who gets to determine how often they have to come back? We don't do guilt trips. Critters don't die if you don't pander to 'em, kids aren't threatened that a critter might disappear if they don't come back and visit often. Seriously we found a kids site that does that.
These critters don't die under any circumstance and there is nothing the visitor can do wrong to or with a critter. They are just for fun, not for addiction. If you find us doing anything remotely like this, it'll be some accidental oversight, please email the Webmaster right away at: crittermaster@cybercritters.com... Pronto! We'll fix it in a hurry!
We did a lot of study before we constructed this site. Sometime you ought to read the stories on certain web pages about broken hearted kids who couldn't keep their electronic pets alive. When they buy a new pet, there is hope that it will outlive their other electronic pet. These are sincere stories from kids who are having emotional experiences with an electronic toy that utilizes random number generators to decide which pet will live and which will die.
We aren't climbing on some high-horse here to tell you we think that is mean and cruel, but you have to admit, it is pretty pathetic to give a kid a sense of failure feeding and caring for an electronic pet that is controlled by a random number generator. Despite tender care and love for those electronic pets, the child may still suffer loss since the outcomes are influenced by the results of random events and an algorithm.
Our philosophy was to create something entertaining and interactive. We don't even profess that our site is educational, although we added the story-telling part (CritterStories) because we were deeply influenced by the work of the Touch The Future Foundation on the importance of children writing as part of playing. If a kid thinks a critter is adorable, we give them a chance to interact with care and pleasure at the outcome. It's no big deal, but it's pretty nice to know we think caring and appreciation are important elements in anyone's life.
Putting together this site has been a labor of care, love and learning. It has been a family affair with my wife creating the adorable clay sculptures and me writing a lot of JavaScript code and HTML. My daughters have been the prime testers and our family's friends have been recruited to help us make things bullet-proof. We have undergone a learning process and you can look at the critter type numbers to see how we are progressing in developing critter creation skills.
It is fair for you to know that even though these critters are limited in ability, they are elementary representations influenced by core research done at a Fortune 50 technology company. The technologies upon which critters are loosely based were developed by a top-notch team of technologists, behaviorists and a psychiatrist and resulted in lots of applications filed at the US Patent Office. You can bet future critters will do more and better things. We hope you enjoy watching us grow.
Based on the outstanding scientific research conducted at the non-profit Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, California. Feelings of care, love and appreciation are good for your health.
In studies, people have experienced statistically significant improvement in their state of health simply by practicing a HeartMath developed method for achieving states of care and appreciation in their everyday jobs. READ ENTIRE ARTICLE. You decide...
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Study particulars
Our study group consisted of 13 executives, managers and admins, and an intact team of 13 software engineers. Additional training was also provided to a manufacturing group (see below). The training and measurements were provided over a six-month period. Training design:
Results
Lower Blood Pressure
Improved Psychological Measures
32% improvement in contentment 14% more happiness 18% less anxiety 26% less burnout 20% less hostility 36% reduction in stress symptoms The study tracked six common symptoms of stress and found an overall 36% reduction in stress symptoms. This included: 56% reduction in sleeplessness 38% reduction in indigestion 31% decrease in rapid heartbeats 27% reduction in headaches 33% reduction in heartburn 30% reduction in trembling due to stress 30 personnel from a manufacturing group were also trained and participated in a three month study, designed as follows: Needs assessment and pre-training
psychological survey.
Results
93% reported increased productivity 57% report at least 50-100% improvement in productivity. 90% reported improved teamwork. 47% said teamwork has improved 50-100%. 93% reported an increased sense of empowerment 56% state they are now 50-100% more empowered. 93% are now healthier. 67% say they have more energy and vitality 57% say they are less tense 27% report fewer physical problems 40% reported greater personal and professional fulfillment 13% reported a reduced need for medication. During the training sessions more than 25 recommendations were made by the associates for improving productivity; most have been implemented or are in the process of being implemented. Both the manager and the supervisor confirmed that these results matched their observation of the line over the previous three months. Both men expressed the desire for more people in the plant to receive the training as soon as possible. The supervisor commented hearing more positives on job satisfaction in one-on-one sessions and noted less conflicts among the people. He said, "It's helped a lot. The whole process has been very positive. The HeartMath System is about developing a more wholesome person who can now deal more effectively with everyday life." |
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