Neopets World
Source: Neopets

According to Doug Dohring, one of the top investors of the Neopetsshare,

“Over 60 percent of our audience is 13 and over, so it is not like we are dealing with four- to six-year-olds that may not quite understand the difference between content and advertising. And of the 40 percent of our users who are 12 or under, the ages start at around seven or eight years old and go up from there. The preschoolers are not really our audience, because you have to be a pretty fluid reader to navigate the site.” (Neopets, Wikipedia)

Now this was a bitter statement that he made towards a psychology professor at Georgetown University, who criticized Neopets for being self marketing, in the sense that the children do not know what they are seeing. However, this statement shows the true population of Neopets users. This may be surprising since this website seems to be geared towards young children, however these games may be enjoyed by the masses of older teenagers.

The Littlest Social Networkers
Source: Nashville Parent

In fact, I browsed the Internet myself and found a personal Neopets website that talks about the use among adults! Shocking, right? Whoever created this page has quite the passion for Neopets and staying young at heart. This website is called Adults Play Neopets and contains Q&A’s along with misconceptions being misproven about adult usage of Neopets. One interesting misconception that this writer presents is:

“Misconception #2: You accept that adults need to relax and have fun. But why are they here on Neopets? Isn’t this… a kids’ site?”

The writer responds by stating that these children are tricked into believing it is a kid only zone, but that is only because of the bright colors and cartoon animation.

This writer continues by talking about the actual history of Neopets and how this website came to be. According to him or her, Neopets was created by two college students, Donna and Adam, because they missed having pets. In order to cope, they came up with Neopets, so that college students would have a chance to play and interact with pets of their own. Interestingly enough, the sole population that Neopets was being advertised towards were those who were ages 18 to 24 years old. Users were able to buy beer for their pets, and users were also able to release their email so that others may directly contact them.

Neopets World
Source: Profile Engine

However, younger generations slowly started to trickle into the population and that is when the creators decided to make Neopets a more “family friendly” website. This does not mean that older generations are not welcome anymore to this virtual world, emphasizes the author. Everyone, especially children, must remember that the Internet is free to all users, for the most part, and anyone of all ages can access whatever appropriate website.

Now to further my research on the Neopets users population, I found a Neopet General Chat with the title of the chat being, “Average age for neopets?” There was a vast range of ages that people spewed out. Many users claimed to be 17, while others were in their mid and late 20’s. It was interesting to find that many of the older users had been accessing Neopets since they were teens, some starting since the launch of the Neopets website.Furthermore, there were even chatters who talked about quitting but still haven’t gotten the chance to do so. One person posts:

“Well [I] am 17 quitting now (long process). I’ve only told one friend I play neopets. I know some friends on neo who are married, over 25. Many friends on neo I know are around my age.”

I found it very interesting that many of the Neopets users, mostly those who were in their late teens, kept their Neopets usage as a secret. It is seen as an embarrassment to them because Neopets is stigmatized as a children website, due to its childish look.

Another writer states:

“I was here when I was 10. I’m here and I’m 18. 27-year-old friend’s still playing too.

I found this post very interesting and supportive of the population data. Many of these players have been a fan of Neopets for many years. Some come in and out of the game, while others have a constant Neopets habit.