Media Chaperone’s Piggyback lets parents monitor kid gamers on Facebook

The audience for social networks is getting younger and younger as more children are drawn to the cute social games that have become the most popular form of entertainment.

So Media Chaperone has created its Piggyback app for Facebook that lets parents stay in the loop with their children’s online socializing and gaming activity.

Chicago-based Media Chaperone said its software will help allay parents’ concerns about safety on the social networks. (Facebook doesn’t allow kids on its social network, but somehow they manage to get on there anyway, often through accounts created by parents).

Media Chaperone allows parents to monitor web usage as well as reward and encourage their children to accomplish tasks online. Parents are notified when Media Chaperone detects a safety issue, or if the child achieves something inside a game. The parents can send virtual goods as rewards to their children using Media Chaperone. The company’s “family identity” technology pairs a parent’s identification with a child’s in a secure and anonymous way.

Three kid-focused game worlds with more than 12 million registered users have partnered with Media Chaperone to deliver the Piggyback app: Whyville.net, Planet Cazmo, and Woozworld. Media Chaperone was founded in 2009 and is backed by $250,000 in investment by angel investors. Rivals include services such as SafetyWeb, SocialShield (is in the news today), Reputation Defender and MyChild. Media Chaperone’s founders include Ed Lewis, a father of two, and Dave Shemenski, a father of six. Shemenski was one of the  software architects at Orbitz and serves as Media Chaperone’s chief technology officer. Lewis is chief executive. The company has five employees. Lewis previously worked as an executive at iPIX and Telular.