: I wanted to inform you of a dangerous online kids' game at www.howrse.com. It's the first time we've ever let the children play a game online. They had seen an ad for it in Horse Magazine which I got for our 18 year old who likes horses. They like horses too and thought this game would be like their old CD-ROM Dogz 4 and Catz 4 by Petz. However, we found out the second day it wasn't anything like it at all!

We didn't know why they spelled horse with a "w" but thought maybe the normal spelling was a taken web name or something. Of course, we had to sign in to even see anything of substance on or about the site. The children chose a horse breed and color and name, etc. Then the program said they could make their horse "immortal." This seemed peculiar, but we figured it was just pretend. Then I saw players could earn "karma" points. This was getting even more disturbing. The software company name was "Owlient." I wondered why owls would be associated with a horse game. I wondered if the "ow" in horse wasn't somehow symbolically related to the "ow" in Owlient. There was also a black barn icon labeled "The Black Market." I thought why black? Any barns around here are red.

It wasn't until the next, the second day, one of the children had a problem while checking on their "horse" that I incidentally (or rather, providentially) saw my son had gone to the "Black Market." When I stopped and inspected that page while backing out of his movements on the site, I noted every link was the name of Greek Mythological and heathen gods/goddesses. Names included Hephaestus, Morpheus, Fertility, Aphrodite, Zeus, Medusa, Eolus, Pandora, Pegasus, Atlantes, and a statement that said, "A God that grants your hoses stamina and speed.....". Yes, the G was capitalized. Okay, these are more than big red flags, these are flashing neon lights that this site is evil!