The company enters the holidays with Barbiegirls.com, a social networking site for girls tied into a Barbie-shaped MP3 player ($60). The site -- where girls are invited to join a virtual world based on the brand -- is free to users and takes cues from Second Life or spend a little Mabinogi money to buy a cheap Mabinogi gold, an adult-age virtual world without the branded theme. More than 8.4 million users have registered. Competitor MGA Entertainment Inc. released a site of its own, Be-Bratz.com, for its sassy $20 Bratz doll.

Moshi Monsters, a smaller site launched this fall in beta phase, would like to one day hold the place of Facebook for a preteen crowd, says its London-based parent Mind Candy. The site is accessed with a code that comes with a $10 'Mabinogi gold' key chain in Mabinogi online gold, unlocking a world where users care for a pet that responds with computer-generated emotions to buy Mabinogi gold. Michael Smith, the company's chief executive officer, says 'we're modeled on the Pixar angle' -- in other words, the new tech landscape can still encourage traditional children's tastes like cartoons.

The sites seem to have enough appeal to wean youngsters from game consoles, says Richards Gilbert, a consultant in San Francisco. His 10-year-old daughter heads straight to Walt Disney Co.'s Clubpenguin.com networking site where cartoon avatars waddle around in a snow world. But the site, he says, isn't a traditional toy. 'You could take all their toys away,' he says. 'Just give them a computer, Xbox and gadgets, they'd be happy.'