Paedophile Haven; Habbo don't care

[AgnesIO]

Obviously after the C4 paedophile scandal, Sulake/Habbo must have really wanted to clean up the hotel. Over the past two weeks I have logged on more times to Habbo than I have in around a year - so I guess all publicity is good publicity, right?

But a user "friend requested" me called "Ib@ngh0es". Obviously this is the sort of username Habbo shouldn't want on the hotel, especially after all the media events in recent weeks. I therefore used the report tool (why has that moved lol), and stated the users name pointing out the recent events. This is a screenshot of the response.

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac25/DomCowell/NOCHANGE.png

Sorry if that is too small. However, if you can read it you will see the moderator intelligently told me there is so evidence in the chat logs. I mean, who DO Sulake hire?! I have circled the users name in the bottom of the screenshot.

Whilst it does not particularly bother me about the old dating rooms as no one had to use them, you would have thought this would be the sort of thing where Habbo could show they do know how to protect young teenagers.

Does anyone actually think Habbo will change in the long run?

[Empired]

This is standard Sulake. Habbo will never truly change. They're achieving nothing by doing this "Habbo Mute" thing anyway because as soon as we're all unmuted we'll be back to how we were before.

About the name problem, Habbo does have a filter but there are hundreds of new accounts every day. They should really have somebody checking this out but it costs them money which they don't want to spend. So we're back where we started again.

[PiippBB]

Firstly; silly Mod! Of course there's no evidence in the chat logs... the hotel is muted. Secondly, I do think they care, but I completely agree in that this is the sort of thing they should be tackling right now. The mods should look this up, see the name, and ban the user. Taking care of the rooms, adding a filter, etc, is all well and good, but users with inappropriate names certainly need dealing with too.

EDIT:


This is standard Sulake. Habbo will never truly change. They're achieving nothing by doing this "Habbo Mute" thing anyway because as soon as we're all unmuted we'll be back to how we were before.

About the name problem, Habbo does have a filter but there are hundreds of new accounts every day. They should really have somebody checking this out but it costs them money which they don't want to spend. So we're back where we started again.

Maybe they should introduce a system whereby a user isn't accepted into the hotel until their chosen username has been cleared. They could easily have one of the mods doing this in the background. Yes, it may mean new users have to wait a few hours to actually use the hotel, but in the long run it would save them time looking into these type of queries once in client, and would certainly improve the safety of users, as I feel a lot of people who were doing things they shouldn't have been doing before will probably start using these sort of names to get their point across.

EDIT AGAIN:

Maybe someone could do me the honour of suggesting this to Paul via Twitter? I feel it's actually a really good idea. (I would do it myself, but I'm too embarrassed about using Habbo to associate myself with it via Twitter, lol)

[notahabbo]

Firstly; silly Mod! Of course there's no evidence in the chat logs... the hotel is muted. Secondly, I do think they care, but I completely agree in that this is the sort of thing they should be tackling right now. The mods should look this up, see the name, and ban the user. Taking care of the rooms, adding a filter, etc, is all well and good, but users with inappropriate names certainly need dealing with too.

EDIT:



Maybe they should introduce a system whereby a user isn't accepted into the hotel until their chosen username has been cleared. They could easily have one of the mods doing this in the background. Yes, it may mean new users have to wait a few hours to actually use the hotel, but in the long run it would save them time looking into these type of queries once in client, and would certainly improve the safety of users, as I feel a lot of people who were doing things they shouldn't have been doing before will probably start using these sort of names to get their point across.

EDIT AGAIN:

Maybe someone could do me the honour of suggesting this to Paul via Twitter? I feel it's actually a really good idea. (I would do it myself, but I'm too embarrassed about using Habbo to associate myself with it via Twitter, lol)

Rewrite

There could be a system for users to moderate each other. These exist elsewhere but are very hard to get right, and when they are programmed sloppily and not thought-through they can cause trouble. When they work though they are very effective.

Each habbo has a level of power based upon their experience (e.g. based upon their hours logged in, achievement level or some sort of formulae that factors in many things). For argument sake lets say that each habbo has a power level of 0 - 10. If a habbo is spotted with a bad username, another user can click their avatar > moderate > bad username and some bad points will be added to their account with respect to their username. If their points reach a certain level two things could happen: one, a moderator is alerted, or two an action is forced upon them (e.g. in this example, they may be made to change their username, and until they do/contact player support due to an error their username can be something like ~habbo-0001).

Another example could be during bad chats, other users can select the chatter's avatar > moderate > bad chat. Recall that each habbo has a 'reporting level' of 0 - 10, and assume it takes 20 points from at least 3 habbos to mute someone for 5 mins. Habbos who see someone taking bad can simply press a button to moderate them. If they get muted again after, say, 1 hour a mod will be automatically notified. In an extreme emergency, CFH will be used, so the mod will not be notified in the first instance.

Points against a habbo wouldn't necessary build up against them and last forever, for example if a habbo is user-moderated for bad chat and gets 8 points against them (and to mute them takes 20 points from at least 3 people, for example) over the next 8 minis (again, random number) their 'bad chat points' level falls at one point a min.

Anyone found to be abusing the system of self-moderation can have their ability to self-moderate suspended or removed.

The advantage of this system is two fold: one, save moderation costs by not needing new paid staff and two, letting the community decide what is appropriate. Again it may not work in practice but there we go.

Hope that made sense!

[PiippBB]

Wouldn't it be better for habbos moderate each other?
Each habbo has a weighting of authority, lets call it power and assume it is equal to their achievement.
To report inappropriate username, a habbo could click them > moderate > Bad Username ; when the report points are reached by a aggregate level of reports being made weighted for power (e.g. 10 new users report or 5 old ones and 1 new one), then a mod is alerted. Same for bad chats. If a habbo gets a certain amount of bad chat reports (weighted for power) they are muted for 10 mins. If they get muted again after a mod will be automatically notified. (In an extreme emergency, CFH will be used, so the mod will not be notified in the first instance). A system like this is open to abuse unless it is structured very well... so it probably won't work but there we go...

I hope the above is clear.

But by clearing all names before they're allowed on the hotel, it will mean the mods actually on the client can spend their time moderating the hotel, not looking at usernames. It would prevent these type of names from ever appearing. Yes, it would take time, but they could juggle it between just four moderators quite easily. It would mean all the mods on the hotel are available for actual emergencies. Having a system whereby Habbos use call to help is open to abuse, as you've said, and I just personally think it would be easier for them to prevent these names ever entering the hotel; I've seen it in use on other websites and it's very effective. I can appreciate what you're saying though.

[Fifty-Six]

MODs barely read the Calls for Help, unless they're serious, and the staff is mainly outsourced too, which doesn't help. I don't think they look at usernames/mottos directly, only chat logs. If that person wasn't in the same room as you or hadn't spoken (which they couldn't have), then there wouldn't be any record.

[sex]

this user f/r me but are you serious? its a username get over it
its 99% a silly teen most likely not a peado

[Rottentroll]

What a lowlife scumbag.

Ban him! Ban him now!

[PiippBB]

this user f/r me but are you serious? its a username get over it
its 99% a silly teen most likely not a peado

But that's beyond the point when Habbo are facing the current allegations. You don't know who made that Habbo anymore than I, or Sulake do, and for the purposes of safety, especially considering the current state of affairs regarding the safety of the hotel, they need to show zero tolerance to users who create accounts with names such as this. They can't be seen to be allowing this sort of behaviour.

[Camcorder]

Firstly; silly Mod! Of course there's no evidence in the chat logs... the hotel is muted. Secondly, I do think they care, but I completely agree in that this is the sort of thing they should be tackling right now. The mods should look this up, see the name, and ban the user. Taking care of the rooms, adding a filter, etc, is all well and good, but users with inappropriate names certainly need dealing with too.

EDIT:



Maybe they should introduce a system whereby a user isn't accepted into the hotel until their chosen username has been cleared. They could easily have one of the mods doing this in the background. Yes, it may mean new users have to wait a few hours to actually use the hotel, but in the long run it would save them time looking into these type of queries once in client, and would certainly improve the safety of users, as I feel a lot of people who were doing things they shouldn't have been doing before will probably start using these sort of names to get their point across.

EDIT AGAIN:

Maybe someone could do me the honour of suggesting this to Paul via Twitter? I feel it's actually a really good idea. (I would do it myself, but I'm too embarrassed about using Habbo to associate myself with it via Twitter, lol)

We can become like Pottermore and everyone will use pre-determined names... this they are already doing actually, and new accounts take on usernames generated with your email address. New Habbos can change their name once afterwards, so maybe they can still be in the hotel after signing up, but their preferred usernames will have to be clarified.

"Habbo helpers" or other Habbos can help determine what username is appropriate, and these can periodically chow up to us, and when a username has enough votes from different helpers, it can be approved. No paid work.

[AgnesIO]

MODs barely read the Calls for Help, unless they're serious, and the staff is mainly outsourced too, which doesn't help. I don't think they look at usernames/mottos directly, only chat logs. If that person wasn't in the same room as you or hadn't spoken (which they couldn't have), then there wouldn't be any record.

I gave them the username though, in which case they should have acted on it - perhaps even request the user change their username.


this user f/r me but are you serious? its a username get over it
its 99% a silly teen most likely not a peado

Whilst I accept and agree with you that it almost certainly is, the fact of the matter is Habbo has just had problems with the media over the use of sex in a virtual world which young children can quite easily access. The responses from the moderators do not seem to ignore all of that - and to ask me to be in the room with the chat logs? I mean, come on :L

----

Again, this doesn't bother me as such, but if my parents saw me playing a game when I was much younger and users were allowed to have messages like that - I think they would have cared lol

[MissAlice]

Maybe they should introduce a system whereby a user isn't accepted into the hotel until their chosen username has been cleared. They could easily have one of the mods doing this in the background. Yes, it may mean new users have to wait a few hours to actually use the hotel, but in the long run it would save them time looking into these type of queries once in client, and would certainly improve the safety of users, as I feel a lot of people who were doing things they shouldn't have been doing before will probably start using these sort of names to get their point across.



I agree with you.

The responsibility of unsuitable names lies fully with Sulake. It is their responsibility to monitor what is and isn’t appropriate. Moderators time would then be better spent dealing with issues after arrival.
Players shouldn’t need to report inappropriate names etc. Sulake need to create a system that gives clearance to a users name on creation. If that means someone sitting there and passing approval then so be it. Over time it will become less and less, because immature children and possible predators will get the message. If the same IP address is used more than 3 times to do such a thing, then an IP ban could be used.

Players are there to play the game, yes players can help, but they don't play to police the game.

[e5]

They asked for you to report the user so they can see the chat logs on a muted hotel? o_O

Obviously after the C4 paedophile scandal, Sulake/Habbo must have really wanted to clean up the hotel. Over the past two weeks I have logged on more times to Habbo than I have in around a year - so I guess all publicity is good publicity, right?

But a user "friend requested" me called "Ib@ngh0es". Obviously this is the sort of username Habbo shouldn't want on the hotel, especially after all the media events in recent weeks. I therefore used the report tool (why has that moved lol), and stated the users name pointing out the recent events. This is a screenshot of the response.

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac25/DomCowell/NOCHANGE.png

Sorry if that is too small. However, if you can read it you will see the moderator intelligently told me there is so evidence in the chat logs. I mean, who DO Sulake hire?! I have circled the users name in the bottom of the screenshot.

Whilst it does not particularly bother me about the old dating rooms as no one had to use them, you would have thought this would be the sort of thing where Habbo could show they do know how to protect young teenagers.

Does anyone actually think Habbo will change in the long run?

[Red]

Really can't see any improvements. I reported two people for blocking so far and got back it's been sorted when it clearly wasn't.

[scottish]

I highly doubt mods are currently working and i'm fairly sure sulake are looking more to solve the in game chat problems and future registrations than take a look at 200 million or however many account names exist to see existing problems

The hotel is muted so I highly doubt all the mods will be on duty as normal as without chat they can't really moderate much, all they'll have is a massive spam of OMG WHY CANT I SPK DIS ENT WORKIN PLS TELL ME WUTZ WRONG?!?!??!?!?! so it's most likely automated replies until the 'great unmute' actually unmutes the hotel.

---------- Post added 25-06-2012 at 02:29 PM ----------


Really can't see any improvements. I reported two people for blocking so far and got back it's been sorted when it clearly wasn't.

most mods won't kick as it's not really their job, it's the room owners.

[Red]

Why have a category on the help tool for it then? They always sorted it in the past and most mods have started too again.

[scottish]

They didn't do it for years and always left it to the room owner, and a small amount of mods actually done it (can't remember a single mod kicking people blocking in maze in maybe 2 years, only remember you being kicked from LMS for 'blocking' and jake)

[Red]

They haven't done it since singapore moderation and thats when moderation became poor. They did do it before that and should do.

[DPS]

Honestly does anyone care? because i dont. Habbo is Habbo lol

---------- Post added 25-06-2012 at 03:44 PM ----------


Really can't see any improvements. I reported two people for blocking so far and got back it's been sorted when it clearly wasn't.


LOL u cant be banned for blocking...

[Red]

Didn't say banned but they do kick them from the room.

[e5]

Childrens lives could be a risk, so yes, I care.

Honestly does anyone care? because i dont. Habbo is Habbo lol

---------- Post added 25-06-2012 at 03:44 PM ----------




LOL u cant be banned for blocking...

[DPS]

Childrens lives could be a risk, so yes, I care.


Children shouldnt be on Habbo

[e5]

What? Children shouldn't be on Habbo? :S It's aimed at 11-13 year olds or something! Which I agree, is stupid but it's what Habbo advertise it for.

Children shouldnt be on Habbo

[scottish]

it's 13+ i'm sure.

[PlERO-PPY]

Sulake are the tightest company in the world, they chose to fire all the english & american Moderators (formally hobbas) and bring in call centre pakistani's from china or whereever

[DPS]

What? Children shouldn't be on Habbo? :S It's aimed at 11-13 year olds or something! Which I agree, is stupid but it's what Habbo advertise it for.

Teens aint children imo.. so lol @ you

[scottish]

Sulake are the tightest company in the world, they chose to fire all the english & american Moderators (formally hobbas) and bring in call centre pakistani's from china or whereever

Hobbas weren't fired because they were 'tight' they removed the program as it was a huge security problem.

if they're chinese call centres surely it'd be chinese call centres, not pakistani call centres in china.....................

the only reason they had english/american mods in first place was each hotel was seperate, so ofc they're not gonna keep every single mod from the 6 or so hotels that merged.

[lawrawrrr]

PlERO-PPY;


ok!

1) they didn't fire ALL the english and american mods, there were just too many
2) pakistanis are from pakistan, chinese from china, and the mods are from neither of those places
3) not all the mods were forMERLy Hobbas. Hobbas were a HUGE security threat so I understand why they got removed.

[Empired]

Sulake are the tightest company in the world, they chose to fire all the english & american Moderators (formally hobbas) and bring in call centre pakistani's from china or whereever

Maybe they fired all of the English and American Moderators because they didn't know Pakistanis aren't from China.

As said above, Hobbas were removed because they put so much at risk. Plus there are still American and English MODs because we do need some for the .com Hotel to remain up and running!

[GommeInc]

Just for the record:

Although Habbo is aimed at teenagers (13+), teens aged between 13 and 15 are classified as children (consent, parental responsibility, corporate social responsibility, duty of care guidelines etc etc) given the content that they are and are not allowed to witness. The exposé by Channel 4 was highlighting how much sexual content is apparent in the Hotel, and children between the aforementioned ages really shouldn't be on a site which seems to allow it.

They also do not monitor who uses Habbo, as it would be impossible to determine who is and isn't 13 and over. Although children should not be on Habbo, they will always go on it and when they do Habbo should be making sure their services do not illegitimately allow for such language and content, as they would anyone else who uses the site and services (13+/16+).

Given the current content, it would only be suitable for an audience of 18 and over, or 16 at a push.

[MissAlice]

this user f/r me but are you serious? its a username get over it
its 99% a silly teen most likely not a peado

Or it could be another journalist, or just about anyone testing :O

[PiippBB]

Just for the record:

Although Habbo is aimed at teenagers (13+), teens aged between 13 and 15 are classified as children (consent, parental responsibility, corporate social responsibility, duty of care guidelines etc etc) given the content that they are and are not allowed to witness. The exposé by Channel 4 was highlighting how much sexual content is apparent in the Hotel, and children between the aforementioned ages really shouldn't be on a site which seems to allow it.

They also do not monitor who uses Habbo, as it would be impossible to determine who is and isn't 13 and over. Although children should not be on Habbo, they will always go on it and when they do Habbo should be making sure their services do not illegitimately allow for such language and content, as they would anyone else who uses the site and services (13+/16+).

Given the current content, it would only be suitable for an audience of 18 and over, or 16 at a push.

This ^^ Couldn't have put it better myself. Habbo should never have allowed the type of behaviour they did.

[GommeInc]

This ^^ Couldn't have put it better myself. Habbo should never have allowed the type of behaviour they did.
I made a partial error in that post. Technically you're a child in the eyes of the law until you reach your 18th Birthday, not 16 :P

[scottish]

depends on law really different laws refer to a 'child' by different ages.

[PiippBB]

I made a partial error in that post. Technically you're a child in the eyes of the law until you reach your 18th Birthday, not 16 :P

True. Though it's strange that 16-17 year olds can get married and have children, even learn to drive. Which is another strange thing with laws around age restriction. 16-17 year olds cannot view explicit sexual material, but they can take parts in the acts themselves. I really think these laws need looking at for the Government to make a decision one way or the other because how it stands now it just doesn't make much sense. Regardless of any of that, as I said, Habbo should never have allowed the sort of things they did. Strip clubs and sexy singles? No. Just no.

[iFlame]

Habbo never cared, all they care about is the money that they get off us, it's pathetic and a shambles.

[PlERO-PPY]

Hobbas weren't fired because they were 'tight' they removed the program as it was a huge security problem.

if they're chinese call centres surely it'd be chinese call centres, not pakistani call centres in china.....................

the only reason they had english/american mods in first place was each hotel was seperate, so ofc they're not gonna keep every single mod from the 6 or so hotels that merged.

I didnt say they were tight as in the hobbas, I mean they are tight with money lol

[scottish]

that's what I said

Hobbas weren't fired because sulake are tight with money, they removed the program as it was a huge security threat.

[e5]

Are 11 and 12 year olds now classed as teenagers? :rolleyes:

Teens aint children imo.. so lol @ you

[DPS]

Are 11 and 12 year olds now classed as teenagers? :rolleyes:

Teens = 13+

Sulake say Habbo is for teens+

[e5]

Either way, I don't see them making any efforts to stop 12 and unders joining? I joined when I was 9. They didn't ban me or stop me using the service.

Teens = 13+

Sulake say Habbo is for teens+

[scottish]

Either way, I don't see them making any efforts to stop 12 and unders joining? I joined when I was 9. They didn't ban me or stop me using the service.

because if you lie about your DoB they can't exactly verify it.......

[e5]

Thats my question, if you're honest about your date of birth, and you're like 9, will they block you?
because if you lie about your DoB they can't exactly verify it.......

[scottish]

if you're honest with your date of birth and it's under 13 (or 11 can't remember if they allow 11-13 with parental permission or not) then you can't register.