Habbo caught up in child sex scandal
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/0...ghten-security
(On phone, so sorry for any mistakes)
Thread closed due to bump.
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Habbo caught up in child sex scandal
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/0...ghten-security
(On phone, so sorry for any mistakes)
...and this is why they shouldn't be promoting flirting, dating and "maybe more ;)" in their advertisements. Looks like Sulake are in for a rough patch, let's hope they step it up.
"fingered as a hotbed" isn't the best phrase to use when discussing habbo as a PAEDOPHILE HAVEN. hahahahahQuote:
Originally Posted by scottish
it really makes you think about who you talk to on the internet..
LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by scottish
I LIKE THIS GUYS COMMENT
"Jon Gold · Subscribe · Top commenter · Works at Designed By Gold
1) Habbo was 98% teenagers cybering 11 years ago—when I was a young teenager, mind—people have only just realised?
2) 'has been fingered', 2nd paragraph. Made my day."
he looks about 30 to me
Quote:
Channel 4 discovered sexually explicit messages on Habbo within minutes of logging on to the site. Among the messages discovered were: “Hey licky your v a g i n a. There you go darling. Sticks diick jn you. You’ve lost your virginity. Right NEXT”, “Hey do you have a webcam? You got msn or skype?.. you take off your clothes” and “I want some cute girls not gay ******s”.
Though the company has been informed by Channel 4 of the findings, messages such as “kill this dam [sic] jew” and “you desperate to get someone in your pants you want a threesome” were still appearing on the site this morning.
made me laugh.
Habbo can't really do anything about that though.
C4 turned off filter revealing these words and also mods can only deal with stuff after its been said, unless they were to moderate every single message sent and need to approve every appropriate message... which would just be stupid.
They do have a point, I suppose.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Kernel
http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/12/tro...child-content/
http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...-children-safe
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/1...ns__report.php
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/0...hten-security/
http://gigaom.com/europe/teen-world-...aOM%3A+Tech%29
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/chann...e-haven/097802
..and Channel 4: http://www.channel4.com/news/should-...in-habbo-hotel
Looks like it will be on the news at 7pm. Will probably hit the newspapers tomorrow too.. :O
Direct link to the blog post that the CEO of Sulake wrote/talked about in regards of this:
http://www.sulake.com/blog/entries/p...-from-the-ceo/
In all fairness to those comments that Kernel Mag pulled up... who's to say it's not 13 year old's typing them? Yeah, fair enough they're not appropriate but have the people writing these articles heard how kids speak on the streets these days? They're deluded if they think they can police it back to how it was 50 years ago where no one dared swear or be vulgar.
Oh gawney haha. Now the mute after saying one word makes sense but as Mathew said, why are they still promoting flirting, dating etc? Should be a wakeup call to hire better moderation.
Well this will be fun to watch... LOL
(lol actually sticking up for Sulake here)
I don't think this is a very "fair" report(s) to be quite honest, Sulake can't really do a lot more to start controlling this. Admittedly they shouldn't begin to advertising "flirting", dating or marriage for Habbo because people usually will get the idea that they can associate sex in all of it, if they're allowed to flirt why can't they take it to the level of sex is what they're going to think.
One of the most interesting lines I saw was about how relatively easy it is to fake your age on Habbo... yes, because you can't do that on something like IMVU, Second Life, Facebook etc. etc. I joined second life years ago under age (sure it's 18+?) and got asked for sex with in 5 minutes. On Habbo I never got asked for sex until I MYSELF decided to go into a "Sexy Singles" years ago. You have to go into a certain type of room *usually* to be asked to be cyber tbqh? Sulake are to blame for the fact there are dating rooms, but it is ultimately a user's choice to go enter one of them - I'm sure if I went to a dodgeball game I wouldn't be asked for sex, no?
As for the filter, this is where I think Sulake need to start updating it. It's so easy to type "diick" and get away with it, or "se%" and get away with it. I admit that's a problem Sulake need to fix, cause it's so easy to bypass it if you have filter turned on. As for people who have the filter turned off and complaining about people using sexual words that don't bypass the filter - that's their problem? Not Sulake's.
Quite silly of Balderton Capital to pull out. Cybering on Habbo as occurred for years and years, and after 8 years they randomly decide to pull out? It hasn't just started "this year" so why pull out this year? :l.
70 million lines of conversation is an awful lot, and people have the option to REPORT SOMEONE IF THEY ARE ASKING FOR CYBER SEX. Sulake can really not do much more (apart from respond to CFHs quicker and improve the filter) because Moderators already ban for the issue. If you are disgusted by cybersex, use the report button - don't go claiming it's all Sulake's fault because unless Sulake control whatever we type, it's not their fault. I don't support cyber sex (lala) at all, but ultimately it is the child's fault for going on the website and the parent's fault for not blocking the website if they know dating is going to be involved and sex could be an issue.
Sulake are to blame for an outdated filter, advertising dating and sometimes slow responses to cfhs (but there are only 225 mods lol), everything else is down to the player and the player's parent. Besides, a wide % of the community are adults who don't care about their stuff, a large % of teens who know about this stuff and I imagine only a small/moderate amount of people who have faked their age.
They shouldn't be promoting flirting as this will happen, especially with teenagers who are just reaching sexual maturity...
It'll be interesting to see the News broadcast on Channel 4 tonight. Sulake have gotten themselves in a rough patch..
this wouldnt happen if redtiz still worked there
I wrote numerous articles about this for Habbox and it's an ongoing occurrence. Not the first occasion.
haha, all the popular rooms have gone. kinda find it unfair how they didn't just rename/pickall rooms.. they just deleted them. unfair on owners who spent a lot and thought it would be harmless. erx's group with 40,000 has been deleted, i bet he won't be happy. :P meh, i guess i can see why they're doing all this though, the amount of dating rooms was silly.
In congregation with MattG's post, Channel 4 have provided
a news report that is to be broadcasted at 7pm BST on Channel
4 News...
http://i46.tinypic.com/2564s8z.png
Ik I posted in the other thread, but LOL at that photo. Feel sorry for anyone who was actually one of the strippers ;)
omg im so worried cos i was in those rooms getting screenies for a report a few months ago!!!
imma avoid c4 tonight as my parents found out i had a habbo years ago and BANNED ME from it...
I don't think Habbo is always like that though, I know first impressions and everything but at the end of the day it's only a minority who are like that. There's many other, intersting things to do on Habbo that doesn't involve cybering and such so why don't they do an extensive research instead of just commenting on that?
For years now i've complained about those rooms, many of us have complained about them. Moderators didn't care, the moderators never nipped it in the bud and so it bloomed. Users made these rooms to achieve popularity, and 'Higher achievement score'. I'm glad its finally come to Habbo's attention to finally delete these rooms - the navigator is actually accessible to navigate now without having to see room over room of 'romance clubs'. I'll be looking forward to seeing the news tonight, even though its biased towards 'against Habbo' than the 'for Habbo'.
Ah I bet he won't receive a refund either even though I don't think it's his fault in all fairness, Habbo have allowed it to escalated to 40,000 members so why didn't they stop it earlier. It's obvious they only want to stop it until the heat dies down and then they will just get people doing it again. As many have said they will bypass the filter and such so you can't get rid of them completely but there's a difference between saying a doing, saying you're going to do something and not, saying it's for flirting, the 'meet your love' or something that was on the Habbo Way was shocking and it's bad that not everyone sees that. I for one would never cyber over Habbo as I see no point really, Habbo want to tighten the ship with the cybering and such but as Warren said why didn't they do that years ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by McDonalds
Paul doesn't really give a flying one either.
This is some what related but the mute business now is quite strict, well it was to me last night. I believe I said *strokes* - This was aimed at the caterpillar and I got muted for it. I see Habbo have taken action and deleted peoples rooms but it's not really their fault at the end of the day? They should of just closed them/renamed them.
Channel 4 have even sent the information to the government, **** is gonna go down on Channel 4 News tonight.
Probably a biased as hell article that only went to places which these sorts of actions are likely (wouldn't go to a trade room to find this etc.), just like an alley with a bunch of creeps in. Anyway it's up to the parents to do something about it, so the government shouldn't have to act on this apart from the actual abuse itself of course.
That is terrible lol, sucks to be Habbo right now...
Will
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbgtz
I kind of agree with this.
But also If habbo agrees with everything they said in the blog post about the news report. Why did it take them till they had a bit of bad press coverage to actually take action such as removing date rooms and so on.
'Cause Sulake don't care about the opinions of teens/adult players if it goes against their money making schemes. It takes something big (i.e. the fact that channel 4 is reporting this and that it's on hundreds of sites) from the media to affect anything Sulake do to make profit. Maybe we should get channel 4 to complain about moderation in general? Sure that *could* increase moderation on the hotel ;) (i kid ofc).Quote:
Originally Posted by iBlueBox
I know Jon Gold, he's only about 23 now so it's safe to say 11 years ago he'd definitely have been a teenager.Quote:
Originally Posted by buttons
Since the news article and everything that's happened about channel 4, soon to be on the news.... do you think habbo could shut down because of this? Lots of people have resigned, their entire like.. can't remember the name, but they could end up losing millions lol
The findings are 100% true, Habbo is completely full of vulgarity and cyber sex lately and Sulake knew all about it as it was being reported a lot by users, so i'm glad this has been escalated and they've lost sponsors from it.
Hopefully it'll make them take action on these rooms rather than telling us to "ignore it" so frequently. :rolleyes:
I'm glad Channel 4 have exploited habbo to what it truly is. There are far too much of these kind of activities going on and habbo know it. Imo they hide behind the fact they allow 'flirtatious chatting' to mask what is really going on. From the start of the merge Habbo's moderation has been diabolical and it humours me how only now they're actually combating it. Kudos to Channel 4 for doing this, hopefully Sulake will be forced to change their ways.
I think it's good that now Habbo is shown for what it has mainly been hosting within the site. I hope because of this investigation Habbo realise that it is a problem that needs to be addressed now and not be delayed or ignored.
BBC News also have posted an article too http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18415763
Oh I was trying to find a BBC article (I expected they'd report on it as well), ty xxQuote:
Originally Posted by Jordan
Doubt it, but they will lose money.
Quote:
One of the biggest investors in popular childrens' online game Habbo has pulled out after concerns were raised about "explicitly sexual interactions".
@Paullafo tweets:
What a load of crap! God knows how many times i've gone into cyber sex rooms and reported them, only to be told to "not abuse the call for help system" or "ignore it". Either he is deluded to what the moderators really do or trying to cover up the truth that C4 have uncovered.Quote:
"Rooms that have a context that is inappropriate we close. thanks"
"Freedom of expression and certain role play is part of being social. Cybering is not. So we safely allow one and block other. Thx"
"explicit rooms we search out and ban. We also balance freedom to express. You've made your points. Thanks"
They've only just started this today, but there are still quite a few rooms around. They should simply remove the [DATE] category from the navigator. I have no problem with [Friends] (like 16+, I've been into them loads and have never seen/been asked for sex) or [Party] but [DATE] is the major issue. Also, all the gay bi les rooms have gone... ik one of them certainly didn't deserve to go because the only actually put quite a good word filter in the room (via wired) which I kept getting caught out by :l. I think they just removed all with beds though xD.Quote:
Originally Posted by Storking
Wow that's bleurgh
And to think about 2/3 of Habbox has actually partaken in this "sport" :P