Habbo caught up in child sex scandal / Habbo Mute

[GommeInc]

I suppose you're right! Bobba Bar is ten times worse, but it's aimed at 18+ so I assume it would be acceptable. This whole situation has been quite surreal indeed.

I did a piece on social networking last year Working in particular industries immediately sets you up with problems, and the industry and age group Habbo have focused on is impossible to work with in this day and age. Interestingly, Habbo call themselves a social networking site when they're not, under any definition, one of them.

[GommeInc]

It's a stupid way of doing it, but I suppose it'll spark less rumours than if it went offline?

It will cause just the same amount really. We're already discussing rumours after all Turning it offline will just mean Habbo can't make a quick buck and some Habbos who focus on room building will have to do without.

Is anyone on Habbo at the moment? Do they stop users from using the messenger service? That's if they still have it - the Habbo Console may not exist anymore for all I know

[alexxxxx]

I've come back on HabboxForum to air my views on the matter seeing as it's on virtually all the major news outlets, a headline 10 minute report on Channel 4 News in prime time, trending at #4 on the BBC and it's also being spoke about a lot on Twitter (Although I don't believe its trended).

This is incredibly damaging for Habbo Hotel and I honestly don't think it can bounce back from this. It's been pointed out growth in Habbo has been stagnant for around 5 years and if I'm honest I think this marks the decline of Habbo Hotel and I don't say that to scare people or just to make an outrageous comment, I firmly believe this. The whole things about it being closed down are utter rubbish however, that won't happen any time soon. Investors pulling out and Tesco supposedly pulling the sale of the gift cards are particularly bad news though and will only contribute further to its decline.

Habbo has always prided its self on the safety of it's users and for years to come whenever "Habbo" is Googled, these incredibly damaging news reports will be right near the top of search engine results. Any parent who wants to check out whether the game is safe for their child will first of all Google it, when they see a Channel 4 article near the top of the results calling it a paedofile's haven, that's it, game over.

The media has ruthlessly attacked Habbo and it's reputation is permanently in shatters, it will be remembered as a paedofiles haven thanks to this and as has already been pointed out, there's a risk more paedofiles will simply be attracted to it (even if Sulake do start clamping down, which I suppose they have already). The PR response from Sulake to this matter is awful, Paul Lafontine declined an interview with the news and instead has just sent out rubbish "tweets" in defence of the company, there's been no immediate or solid reversals in Habbo policy, for instance if he were to announce the end of moderation being outsourced and the filter returned, Habbo might have a chance of a future but the damage limitation exercise by Sulake to limit the bad press surrounding Habbo has been awful to none existent.

Has the media been unfair in the way it's treated Habbo though? No. Habbo is not the same safe place it was when I joined it in 2005, whilst it's changed in virtually every way, the only way the safety of it's users has gone is down. The extreme cost cutting by Sulake has compromised it's safety by outsourcing to useless moderators in foreign countries on a poor wage with a poor grasp of the English language, there also appears to be a lot less moderators on the game as there used to be and the quality has also gone down seeing as they've got to race quickly through the call-for-helps (CFHs). The removal of the filter for "older users" was also a step too far, the Bobba filter was far more effective, especially when it was universal. There's also been a general laziness to remove the "sex" and "dating" rooms. As well as that there has been an encouragement around "dating/flirting" in the hotel, more explicit clothes than ever before (which just encourages it really) and a decline in the furniture standards with "vibrating" furni. Habbo used to have far stricter standards and was known as a 24/7 safe haven as a result. Of course it's always possible on the internet for people to get around filters or be banned later but Habbo was generally at the top of its game in the past and cost cutting measures show this is no longer the case, it is widespread throughout the hotel.

Good riddance, your reputation has been ruined by your constant demands to change everything about the game and the cost cutting has gone too far. Safety was a key selling point to the teenage social network, now it will forever be known by the media and parents as a paedofiles heaven. It's taken 11 years to build up a reputation and now it's gone.

Agree 100% Jordy. Just seen the thing on BBC and thought i'd come and see the reaction. I haven't logged on here in a long time. I was on habbo a long time a go, although not as long as some people here, and to see habbo (hotel) turn into what it is now is a real sign of mismanagement. I remember when just on habbo UK there were at times over 10k logged on. Habbo was always seen as safe especially when the 'hobba' system was around, that's where they went wrong, basically free and plentiful moderation. Apart from a few scandals in housekeeping, it worked well. A brief read on here suggests outsourcing of moderation now and mass muting?? Habbo will be gone soon, the merge was just a way of cost-saving, the real decline was before then. The hundreds of pounds people spent on acquiring thrones will be wasted too. I don't even remember when i stopped playing but i knew when even i regularly posted on this site a couple of years a go it was declining because of the lack of new users on this forum.

btw jordy, i hope your A-level exams are going well.

[peteyt]

I told him to consider updating the filter whilst the channel 4 thing was on ( i rlly hope everyone isn't muted cause of that LOL) and i imagine a lot of others did because the filtering system is poor. I genuinely feel sorry for everyone in Sulake at this moment (this is probably the only time I will), Channel 4 did an unfair attack on them when they could have simply discretely complained about it to the government about sites IN GENERAL.

I'll go on second life now and probably be asked for cyber in 5 mins without going to a specific place for it tbf (i'm not sure how it works tbh).

Completely agree. Habbo definately has users who cause problems and paedophiles but so does Facebook and many other sites which have under-age users. The news should be trying to get parents to teach their children about how to be safe online instead of trying to cause a mass panic. It's like 11/10 year old's being made to do things on cam - I don't think parents should let their children even have a cam at that age I didn't get one till late on and was always told the dangers.

What I don't get is, the reporter that went on Habbo for 2 months was posing as an 11 year old girl. If your going to pose
as anyone, at least make them within the age range of the target audience.

That was obviously to show how easy under age users can access the site. The problem is computers are being used more and more - at 11 when I was young I didn't have a computer never mind internet access and the internet was young then - I remember dial up. Nowadays however people are using computers from an early age and know how to get around things. Thus children who shouldn't be accessing sites are accessing sites.

They should probably try fast-track the guides/helpers system and get those advanced guides/helpers into place to help regulate the hotel, add a much stricter filter which is enabled for all unless your date of birth is 18 and not able to enable/disable on your choice, clamp down on these e-dating rooms and other rooms which could cause issues and just monitor the hotel a lot more stricter for awhile while reviewing their strategy.

Basically the same as I've just said above - you can put age ratings on things but do you think anyone is going to listen to it - all them sites e.g. your about to watch a game trailer or a film trailer and their for a certain age - most smart kids will just put a false date of birth and this is what happens with sites like Habbo. The problem is it's not like it's an adult site e.g. a porn site so it's a site aimed for children so it can't get away with something like this if it turns out a lot of adult content is available.

Like I said I think parents need to at least pay interest into the sites they are using - Sulake should definitely do more to sort the site out, better filtering and so on but it will never be able to fully sort the problem out, I don't think any site could. That's why parents have to take on part of the problem, and make sure their children understand what could happen - if children new the dangerous then when someone asked them to strip they'd know that it might be someone 50 and know to click ignore

[Mathew]

It will cause just the same amount really. We're already discussing rumours after all Turning it offline will just mean Habbo can't make a quick buck and some Habbos who focus on room building will have to do without.

Is anyone on Habbo at the moment? Do they stop users from using the messenger service? That's if they still have it - the Habbo Console may not exist anymore for all I know

Yeah, I'm sat in my grabber room and there's 23 people sat here, doing nothing! You can send out invites to communicate with each other, but I think that's the only way as the Minimail tool has been taken down too. I'm holding up the number signs so people are still able to take part in the grabber.

[Xedia]

Young kids can access any site they want now, hardly new news.

[lawrawrrr]

It will cause just the same amount really. We're already discussing rumours after all Turning it offline will just mean Habbo can't make a quick buck and some Habbos who focus on room building will have to do without.

Is anyone on Habbo at the moment? Do they stop users from using the messenger service? That's if they still have it - the Habbo Console may not exist anymore for all I know

Good point... yeah they have disabled pretty much every way of talking, I was on but got fed up of the constant 'invites'

[alexxxxx]

I suppose you're right! Bobba Bar is ten times worse, but it's aimed at 18+ so I assume it would be acceptable. This whole situation has been quite surreal indeed.

What 18+?? I find it hard to believe there are that many people >18 playing on habbo. seems weird. from what ive read it all sounds a bit creepy now.

[Recursion]

I think the biggest problem here is that the current generation of parents aren't as technologically inept as their children... policing your child's internet usage doesn't really work when they're say a sixth or even less of your age yet know how to use a computer far more competently.

That said, I never had any sort of restrictions on internet usage, I learnt from mistakes and I turned out fine... lol

[DPS]

They shouldnt have removed Hobbas.. imo this could of stopped what happen today.

Remember this theres around 2 mods on habbo at once.. they cant check all the C4H's

---------- Post added 13-06-2012 at 02:04 AM ----------

Still muted? Lol. Sulake is bricking it incase another news company records one of the rooms again, that's clearly the reason for the mute ;P

ITV news tweeted bout it.