The Lego Group launched Lego Life, a social networking app for kids under the age of 13. The digital experience lets kids connect with a community of like-minded peers to express their creativity, share their Lego creations, and interact with Lego characters. The app is available in the U.S., Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Switzerland, with additional markets launching throughout the year and next year.
The Lego Life app lets kids personalize their LEGO experience through direct interaction with their favorite LEGO characters, exclusive content, an in-depth 3-D Lego minifigure avatar creator, and fun building inspiration and challenges. Lego Life also introduces a custom LEGO Emoji Keyboard with which kids and tweens can communicate about what they create in Lego form, as well as comment on what their peers share.
Similar to mainstream social media platforms, Lego Life delivers a newsfeed customized to user preferences. The app encourages kids and tweens to identify and “follow” topics of interest so that their feed is populated with relevant images, challenges, and more. For example, kids can choose to follow groups dedicated to certain animals, vehicles, heroes, specific LEGO themes, seasonal programs, or regional topics that they find most relevant.
To inspire creativity, Lego Master Builders will share creations and issue a variety of building challenges within Lego Life to encourage building and sharing among the community. Characters such as Master Wu from Lego Ninjago, Emma from Lego Friends, and Lego Batman will share building inspiration and will appear within the app to comment on member builds. New features will be continually added to the experience.
Designed to be a child’s first digital social experience, Lego Life prevents kids from sharing personal information, images, or anything that could allow users to identify and locate one another. For example, when a user creates an account, he or she uses the random name generator to create a silly 3-word mix for a display name, such as “DukeCharmingShrimp” or “ChairmanWilyDolphin.” In place of real or facial photos for LEGO Life profiles, users create their avatar by selecting the LEGO minifigure or minidoll of their choice, adding clothing, hair, and more to create their virtual persona.
All content and comments on the app is monitored by Lego employees who specialize in moderation to ensure that it is Lego Life-appropriate and child-friendly. All moderators go through brand and child safety training, and the moderation team is located in Lego offices around the world to ensure quality, always-on service. Use of the LegoEmoji Keyboard replaces actual text when commenting on user-generated content. Commenting is tightly controlled and pre-moderated while emoji comments are post-moderated.
