CompuServe of Columbus, Ohio, is attempting to woo new home customers to an on-line service with a brand-new product, including a kids service, named WOW!.

While 55 million Americans use an on-line service, only 11 percent are home users. And this is the market CompuServe foresees as ‘the next generation of on-line users,’ says Debra Young, manager of communications for WOW!.

WOW! will include content developed by CompuServe and information providers, as well as access to the Internet and chat groups.

It will also be split into an area for adults and another for kids. ‘It’s the only on-line service that has a separate kids area where you don’t have to navigate through the adult area to get to the kids area,’ says Young.

CompuServe has also developed the kids area with parents in mind, addressing their concerns over exposure to inappropriate information. A third-party advisory panel will help to determine kids content.

WOW! will be available in the U.S. and Canada later this month, with plans to enter Europe by the end of 1996.

CompuServe will initially raise awareness of WOW! with direct-response print and TV ads, followed by a TV image campaign later this year.

In other on-line news, Prodigy Services Company of White Plains, New York, will offer its subscribers Microsystems’ Cyber Patrol Internet access management software next month. Cyber Patrol enables parents to block specific Web sites or whole categories of sites from viewing by their children. The software has been available to CompuServe subscribers since mid-February.