David Wickenden pointed me to this AdAge story about Wal-Mart’s attempt to appeal to teens’ affinity for the social networking space. The Fortune 1 company has set up a social network of its own called “The Hub” (participants are called—ready?—“hubsters”) aimed at back-to-school (isn’t it only mid-July?), “a place for you to express your individuality and see how other people express theirs” (according to the site’s FAQ).

Why any teen would opt for a page here instead of MySpace is beyond me, unless they’re tempted by the opportunity to win prizes. Funny; MySpace didn’t have to lure any users with prizes. But given the restrictions and limitations of the Wal-Mart site, they’d better have something else to offer. Wal-Mart is censoring content that gets posted, according to the AdAge piece, alerts parents that their children have set up pages, and does not let users contact one another. Sounds like fun, huh, kids?

I clicked around some of the pages that have been set up so far, and most have one or two items on them and the appearance that the creators just gave up. Some have “pending” notices on them, meaning the content is awaiting approval of the Wal-Mart censors. Those that have actual content on them include a couple photos, the results of a “fashion quiz” registered users can take, and a song the user has selected from a list of available music.

AdAge writer Mya Frazier talked to some kids about the site, and they weren’t impressed. I’ll show it to my 17-year-old daughter later today to see what she says, but I can just imagine: “Are they kidding?” (I’ll update this post with her actual reaction.)

It makes you wonder why a company so big can’t figure out the social media space it keeps trying to enter. Remember, this comes just as people are starting to forget the kerfuffle over Wal-Mart’s blogger relations program (the one in which the person contacting bloggers didn’t adequately disclose his relationship with the company). What’s next? A character blog by the ghost of Sam Walton?