Clubhouse

What is Clubhouse?

• Clubhouse is a social audio app – not social media, even though it’s classified with the other, mainstream social media apps like Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Discord.
• Clubhouse is a constant conversation. Imagine joining thousands who are listening in on a live conversation between Oprah and Terry Crews!
• It’s widely used by celebrities, who were the first to adopt and promote the platform. Some might call it Silicon Valley’s current darling, valued at close to $1B during the most recent “race” to invest.
• Conversation topics in Clubhouse are endless! Topics range from, “Daily Habits for the Entrepreneur,” to “Queens of Crypto” to “Healing Trauma” to “BTGV (Let’s sing and vibe together! ??” by Edi Callier!”
• Clubhouse = No likes. No text comments. No videos. It’s the “anti-Facebook.”
• The key difference between Clubhouse and other social media apps is its combination of ephemerality (nothing is recorded and the app prevents you from recording) and verbal intimacy without video, so you “come as you are.”

This quote from the NY Times is good:

Clubhouse is a social media app where venture capitalists have gathered to mingle with one another while they are quarantined in their homes. The app is, for now, invite-only, and buzzy: Seemingly everyone who has been allowed to join the early test version, from celebrities like MC Hammer to activists like DeRay Mckesson, has tweeted about it.

From the Apple App Store:

Clubhouse is a space for casual, drop-in audio conversations—with friends and other interesting people around the world.

Go online anytime to chat with the people you follow, or hop in as a listener and hear what others are talking about.

App Category: Social Networking

Corporate Website: https://www.joinclubhouse.com/

APP Store rating: 

• 17+ in Apple’s App Store
• Teen in Google Play

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What do parents need to know about Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is literally run by a handful of people, who don’t even have a functioning website yet, who now have a company valued at close to $1B. It’s a crazy story of BOOM in Silicon Valley. It has 57k Instagram followers and “doing a Clubhouse” is a new verb. In a span of a few hours, a Tweet from Elon Musk about doing a Clubhouse with Kanye West is going crazy:

The exclusivity of Clubhouse makes it really interesting. This is Chris from PYE, and I created a Clubhouse account, but I wasn’t allowed in. I had to wait three days for someone else, who was already in Clubhouse, to “move me to the front of the line” by using one of their invites to let me in (thank you, Cam Adair @Game Quittters – awesome organization).

Clubhouse is a lot of fun. For those who love podcasts, you might enjoy the raw nature of Clubhouse, which is literally like listening into a live podcast conversation.

It’s live conversation – so anything goes. It’s rated 17+ for this reason.

As of the time of this post, their website is so nascent, that their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service aren’t even available yet.

Is there pornography and explicit content on Clubhouse? Some. No images. But explicit conversations within “room” with explicit themes are present.

Are there predators on Clubhouse? Of course. There always are bad players in any application. And I’m certain they will find ways to invite kids into a Clubhouse to chat, but we’re not seeing reports of that behavior yet. As soon as kids flock to it, and they probably will as soon as the “invite-only” feature disappears, then we’ll need to have some serious predator risk conversations about the app. We hope that it will have a robust reporting process.

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The bottom line: Is Clubhouse safe for your kids?

No, Clubhouse is not for kids and we agree with the adult rating. Anything with live chat is automatically going to get the 17+ rating from Apple. We haven’t seen a ton of kids gravitating toward this app but it’s only matter of time. As a parent, you might want to check it out. If you need an invite, as of the writing of this post, I have 2 extras!

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Now What? 2 amazing ways to keep up on trends like Clubhouse:

 

*There may be affiliate links throughout this post because we’ve tested and trust a small list of parental control solutions. Our work saves you time! If you decide that you agree with us, then we may earn a small commission, which does nothing to your price. Enjoy!