Accessible to both Windows and Mac users

Dubit is a free online community for UK teenagers. Its virtual world, called "dubitisland 3D Chat," is just one of several social networking features including message boards, IM, blogs, and sponsored games and competitions. One thing you'll notice right away about Dubit is its heavy emphasis on corporate sponsorship. Advertisements for various movies, services, and products dominate the web site, the chat rooms, and even the instant messages used by members. In fact, there are so many ads that the site comes off as something that exists solely to market various brands to teenage customers. Members are encouraged to sign up as "informers" to keep the company apprised of marketing trends and are even recruited to help advertise products and services to their friends. With such an unabashedly commercial spin on a virtual world, you'd expect the community to be filled with shallow, materialistic, impossibly trendy teens, right?

Wrong. One of the beautiful ironies of Dubit is that within this ultra-commercial space of movie and Pizza Hut promotions exists one of the nicest, most mature and charming, close-knit communities of teens online. While in-world advertising is certainly more prevalent in Dubit than any of the other teen-oriented worlds reviewed on VWR, the absence of an in-world economy means that this community's focus is more on socializing rather than buying/selling/earning virtual goods. The issue of scamming is virtually non-existent and the presence of friendly moderators means that any griefer issues are handled quickly and efficiently.

One major issue with Dubit that actually delayed the posting of this review for over 9 months is that the virtual chat areas tend to be frequently inaccessible. This appears to be a long-term problem and one that is trying the patience of even the most loyal Dubit members. However, if you're a UK teen looking for a nice group of online buddies and don't mind swimming past ads and error messages, Dubit just might be the perfect community for you.

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