didnt get this..HOw do you intend to make money if you simply want to subcribe than building it?

Could work, I need to think some more about it....

Ever considered TALKING to your children?
Tommy

I think this could be a great idea if it was set up as a wiki built by and for parents to review and comment on things. If you specifically target the parent audience, you could get much more tailored content than a general wikipedia article. I haven't seen anything specifically like this, but there are parent-centric movie and toy review sites that seem to do very well.

For a business model, do you really think an editor-controlled subscription site would be better than an ad-supported wiki-type site?

vanhees, "talking" to one's children sounds tedious.

I do like this idea. I mean I don't think it would be terribly practical. But it could be enormously entertaining. Have you ever seen Pokemon, teen bands and movies made for kids? Its (mostly) mind numbingly stupid.

What Jerry Springer does for poor people, these "Cliff Notes" could do for youngsters.

"But Gord, weren't you young once?" you ask...

Yes, and I watched, read, and listened to some real crap. If someone had called me on all the crap I was consuming, maybe I would have avoided it.

Oh, and I'm not too keen on the book format. You could always regurgitate the findings in such formats, but you'll really need an engaging website (wiki perhaps with lots of strict moderators) to collect the data in the first place. Just make it interesting to start, and get traffic.

(My 2 cents.)

Yeah make a blog what parents should know.

I think it's important to decide what format these notes will take. I like Entreparent's idea of a standardised layout that will make them easy-to-use and readable as a series. That might work in a blog, but probably not (reliably) with a wiki system.

I do agree with Gordon about the book though - the very nature of these fads means that an online system will be the only way to keep up.

Would it work to combine with thunderbear's idea "Jubril's Who's who for kids"? [A little extra incentive for parental donation]

Someone can clue me in regarding how a Wiki works in a business model.

Nice idea to boost parent awareness in general.

Wikipedia really seems to fill this niche well enough.

I also love the talk to your children comment. Definitely the real problem here.

"for dummies" books!

???didnt get that last comment Kevin_Cox?

cool!

Talking to your kids is not a viable alternative here. I talk to my kids all the time, I know what they're interested in, and I know THEIR opinion of the latest fad. But getting THEIR take on Pokemon or Transformers or whatever else is hot is not enough. That's what "bad" parents do; if the kids enjoy it, it must be okay. This idea is about giving the parent a more complete and objective description of what their kids are doing so they can evaluate it properly.

Talking to your kids is a necessary but not sufficient part of being a good parent. It's not a real alternative to every parent-targeted idea.

"???didnt get that last comment Kevin_Cox?"
Tells you everything about just about any topic in a simple way.
LINK:
http://www.dummies.com

I still like the idea, even though I'm unsure if the niche market for it will be enough. Perhaps if you could add other things in order to generate income. Build vendor relationships and sell the items involved ? Or if you actually made it a place where kids and parents could both somehow contribute to generate more buzz ... because lets face it - children are the greatest advertisers when it comes to "Mommy I want a ...."

Here's a similar site that posts reviews by both children and adults of movies, TV, games, etc.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/

I think there's room in this space to cover these topics better and to cover other topics that aren't strictly media.

Good idea and I like it, but how do you plan to gain an insight into the "world of kids" without at least consulting them? It would seem like painstaking media analysis coupled with kid consultants could be the only way that this idea could work. Kid consultants might be the only way for parents to know what fads mean to them--which, when I was a kid, wasn't information I wanted to give my parents. Once they knew about whatever it was I was into, it was kinda no longer that cool.

Another thing about fads is that they are often localized and therefore parents would have to wade through a lot before they got to the stuff their kids were into--at least in a magazine/book format. I recommend a wiki-style site like micco suggested--fads are fads because they are quickly outdated.

Also, have you ever seen those specials on the evening news that claim to give parents an idea of what the latest internet lingo or drug slang means? They are always hokey, outdated, and ultimately uninformative.

I agree with vanhees, talking to your kids is always your best bet.

The revenue model? advertising would not necessarily pay the yearly domain fees.

HA HA thats great idea. I recommend you create a free section paid for by ads and a membership sections as well.

I like the idea (can not participate because I'm completely off such stuff as my daughter is 10 months old) and can offer a wiki site to launch it.

Entreparent (this is a French mix, albeit some may prefer "Entreparents", with a final 's'): je suis francophone (English version: "I speak French").

Entreparent seems to be gone, what can we do?