For parents who didn't manage to get your children to clear the clutter before Christmas, now is a good time to do it with the incentive of swapping toys and books they've grown out of for something they'd like to own.
National Swapping Week runs on Swapit.co.uk from 3 January, 2011. On Swapit (www.swapit.co.uk), users trade unwanted items for a virtual currency called swapits, which they then use to bid on whichever gadgets, consoles, games or collectables they desire.
On Swapit, young people are given the responsibility of earning things for themselves and spending their assets as they see fit – skills which will help them in the real world too.
Swapit is also super safe. Real money doesn’t exist on the site, it’s all virtual currency. And there is no direct contact between swappers – all users have nicknames and no personal messages are sent. All parcels go through the Swapit postroom, parental consent is required for under-eights and Swapit only works with responsible brands such as the BBC, LEGO, Topps Europe, NSPCC, COI and Childline – with whom Swappers engage in quizzes, competitions, polls and surveys to earn themselves bonus Swapits.
Just like ebay, the clock ticks away, counting down to the end of the auction for a particular item and you can see how many bids are in and so on. A great way for children and teens to acquire something they want without having to spend money.
There's a handy guide to postage and costs (and remember that you have to send the same amount of stamps so that it can be forwarded).
No one from Parenting Without Tears has tried out Swapit yet but when they do we'll let you know how they fared. Or if your child or teen has used it let us know.