Hey, kids. Did you know there are more than 700 online virtual worlds, attracting visits from more than 500 million preteens? And that not a single one of them is dedicated to presenting the Bible and its teachings in a social, interactive format?
Not until now.
That’s according to a press release from Kids Bible Adventures, which bills itself as the first 3D virtual world for Christian children aged 5 to 10, allowing them “to explore and experience the world of the Bible and its heroes using the digital and mobile technology of tablets and cell phones as well as computers.” That means that kids’ virtual selves can help Noah lead the animals onto the ark, stand beside David as he loads his slingshot or even “sit at the feet of Jesus, munching on loaves and fishes.”
Fittingly, Kids Bible Adventures began with an epiphany. “Online video games that have no purpose are played by millions, yet wholesome Christian based internet games for kids are almost non-existent,” founder Ian Jones wrote in a blog post last month:
“We noticed that kids were being taught Bible stories, and they were going to Vacation Bible School, but the message didn’t seem to be sinking in as it should. We wanted to give kids the experience of what it was like to be in the Bible with their Bible heroes. And then we wanted them to take that knowledge, and see how to use it in their young lives in today’s 21st century world.”
From what we can tell from the Kids Bible Adventures website, Mr. Jones hasn’t yet succeeded in making his virtual world so. And while we’re not sure how much Mr. Jones is going to have distracting kids from purposeless video games, we can think of at least one incumbent he might disrupt: Sunday school.
