Minyanville, Kaboose Launch Financial Education MinyanLand

Financial media company Minyanville Publishing and Multimedia and family-oriented online portal Kaboose have partnered to launch MinyanLand, a virtual world aimed at teaching children the basics of fiscal responsibility. Users create custom avatars ("critters") and are given $5000 in MinyanMoney, which can be augmented by working or investing and used to shop or move houses. "The gap between what people know about finance and what they need to know has never been greater,”  Todd Harrison, founder and CEO of Minyanville, said in a statement. “MinyanLand teaches kids at an early age the basic responsibility of earning money, spending and saving wisely, and the meaning of charity.”

MinyanLand is labeled as the first free financial community for kids, which may be part true. There have been plenty of real-world banks with a presence in Second Life to offer financial consulting, services, and recruiting, but there have also been other financial education efforts in broader kid's worlds. Bankinter set up shop in Whyville in October after Scion had been working in the same direction for some time.

However, as a white label effort dedicated solely to finance, MinyanLand is the leader. With additional services--parents can control the income with a "virtual allowance" tied to real-world activities, like chores (thus ending the argument that virtual worlds are a fantasy escape from reality)--it offers a unique angle.  Instead of bringing education to the environment where the kids are already socializing, it seems aimed at drawing kids (through parents) into the educational environment.

"Parents today need the right tools to engage their children especially when it comes to teaching them the basics of finance,” said Jonathan Graff, vice chairman of Kaboose. “By partnering with Minyanville, we’ve provided a digital and interactive platform that entertains and teaches their children, without preaching to them.” 

Of course, the kids will probably be interested too.The first 50,000 registrants will get a $50,000 in MinyanMoney bonus.