Vikidia facts for kids
Vikidia is an encyclopedia made with a wiki, using MediaWiki. Its goals are to be readable by a child from 8 to 13 years old and to allow easy understanding by people learning French, Italian, Spanish, English, Russian, Catalan, Basque, Armenian, and Sicilian.
It was inspired by WikiKids, a Dutch website, much in the style of the larger and better known Wikipedia. The major difference is in the fact that these sites are meant for minors. They are for children from the age of 8 to about 13 and everything in between, although there is no age limit.
Characteristics
Like Wikipedia, Vikidia is an open wiki, so everybody is allowed to edit the articles. But Vikidia is also a wiki for children, so all inappropriate or shocking content, especially vandalism, is quickly removed by the site's administrators.
Vikidia helps children to contribute, and some schools and teachers have involved their classes to write articles as a school project.
The Simple English Wikipedia is much like Vikidia, but it is written for mature people learning English with a lesser focus on children.
History
WikiKids and Vikidia were started in November 2006.
The Dutch WikiKids now has around 28,500 articles, while French Vikidia has around 30,000 articles in March 2020.
The Spanish version of Vikidia was started in May 2008, the Italian one in 2011, the Russian one in 2012, the English one in 2014, the Catalan one in 2015, and the Basque and Armenian ones in 2018.
- Vikidia, l'encyclopédie des ados, Luc Ihaddadène, in Okapi, June 2007.
