Habbo caught up in child sex scandal / Habbo Mute

[MKR&*42]

Anyone fancy taking a photo of the newspaper articles and post them here? I'd be quite interested in having a look since i can't get a newspaper atm.

Also, is the hotel still muted?

Yes, everything is muted now lol. No invites, no PMs, no SnowStorm chat. I don't think I can even chat via helper chat? :S.

The articles are online as well I'm sure someone already posted the daily mail link ages ago, but I'll go find that and the other ones:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...=feeds-newsxml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...phic-chat.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18415763

OH LOL. I just noticed that the telegraph have also reported about the global mute:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...legations.html

and so have the BBC (check iBlueBox's post ^)

BBC: "Social network Club Penguin puts safety at the top of its agenda by using filters that limit what can be discussed.While Moshi Monsters, another child-friendly social network, bans private messaging."

That's just silly tbqh. You can't compare Habbo to Club Penguin or Moshi Monsters. Both of the games are dreadful because chat is so limited (not to mention you can get banned on Club Penguin for nearly everything I believe? )

[Niall!]

Yeah of course it does. Who's right is it to set that line though? I'm contradicting myself here (I always do) but if Person A says 'I'm 18' and then progesses to cyber with Person B who's actually over 18, is the Person B to blame? They didn't have impure intentions, just wanted to get their jollies.

Sex laws - especially pertaining to the internet should be better published IMO, even I wasn't sure what the legal age was for things to be honest.

Well what you raise now is not only the online question but an issue that is heavily debated in real life as well. I'll admit I'm not as clued in this area as I should be but I believe it's up to the adult in most cases to affirm the person they're planning to.. have relations with and unless they can prove that the underage person lied to them it's them that goes down for life as a scumbag. It's a dodgy law considering it's quite often people aren't going to say "Can I see your ID before you hop in my bed please?" but that's what it comes to. That's why online dating even for someone who is looking for an adult relationship with a fellow adult is perilous.

[Paige.]

thanks for posting this, was a good read and i like the last line haha

[Smurfed-]

New Article on bbc about the mute.

Many felt the move to mute conversations was unnecessary.

One tweeted: "Habbo Hotel has always been full of paedophiles. Avoiding them was part of the game."

I saw this tweet last night, they probably haven't done Sulake any favors.

[lawrawrrr]

Well what you raise now is not only the online question but an issue that is heavily debated in real life as well. I'll admit I'm not as clued in this area as I should be but I believe it's up to the adult in most cases to affirm the person they're planning to.. have relations with and unless they can prove that the underage person lied to them it's them that goes down for life as a scumbag. It's a dodgy law considering it's quite often people aren't going to say "Can I see your ID before you hop in my bed please?" but that's what it comes to. That's why online dating even for someone who is looking for an adult relationship with a fellow adult is perilous.

Yeah. I actually know someone at uni who was asked to provide ID before she had sex with a guy, as he had been accused of paedophilia before as he had been with a 16-y-o who lied to him. The court didn't believe him though, i think he was given community service though and told to be more careful. It's so tricky when you get to the age of 18 ish and are looking for a relationship - even more so online as you can conceal so much more. But that's the individual's fault...

[Calvin]

What is the point in this global mute exactly? They're punishing everyone who uses Habbo to chat and interact with friends, just because of a bunch of horny little boys who wanted cyber sex. Not everyone is into that **** so only those few users should be punished, I mean a good option after the whole Channel 4 thing would be to temporarily remove the Dating Rooms category from the navigator and getting moderators to keep an eye out in the other categories, not muting the whole hotel!

If I was a new user and only went on to chat with friends to find that the whole chat was muted and had been for several hours then I would probably find something else to do to keep me occupied, which couldd mean me forgetting to go back on there. This could possibly be the case with most new users at the moment so it isn't the best of moves.

And about the Channel4 thing, moderation on Habbo has sucked for quite a while but none of the staff have bothered doing anything to fix it, instead they care more about making **** loads of money by releasing new and useless furniture all the time so this is their own fault. They deserve everything they get.

[Niall!]

Yeah. I actually know someone at uni who was asked to provide ID before she had sex with a guy, as he had been accused of paedophilia before as he had been with a 16-y-o who lied to him. The court didn't believe him though, i think he was given community service though and told to be more careful. It's so tricky when you get to the age of 18 ish and are looking for a relationship - even more so online as you can conceal so much more. But that's the individual's fault...

Huh? 16 is the legal age of consent, why the hell did he get community service for that? Why did it even go to court!?! And which individual are you talking about, the guy who was lied to or the guy who tried to get photographs from yourself?

[lawrawrrr]

What is the point in this global mute exactly? They're punishing everyone who uses Habbo to chat and interact with friends, just because of a bunch of horny little boys who wanted cyber sex. Not everyone is into that **** so only those few users should be punished, I mean a good option after the whole Channel 4 thing would be to temporarily remove the Dating Rooms category from the navigator and getting moderators to keep an eye out in the other categories, not muting the whole hotel!

If I was a new user and only went on to chat with friends to find that the whole chat was muted and had been for several hours then I would probably find something else to do to keep me occupied, which couldd mean me forgetting to go back on there. This could possibly be the case with most new users at the moment so it isn't the best of moves.

And about the Channel4 thing, moderation on Habbo has sucked for quite a while but none of the staff have bothered doing anything to fix it, instead they care more about making **** loads of money by releasing new and useless furniture all the time so this is their own fault. They deserve everything they get.

They have removed all dating rooms, many of the owners of them decided to pickall and delete groups after the report was published anyway. The mute.... well it does stop cybering.... but not in a very effective manner really. I've seen almost noone online all day, but a few days of mute won't detract that many new users from joining, nothing compared to a 13-year, almost-quarter-of-a-billion strong community.

Hopefully now the moderation will get better with this wakeup call.

[iBlueBox]

Also habbo will be on again at Channel 4 news.

[lawrawrrr]

Huh? 16 is the legal age of consent, why the hell did he get community service for that? Why did it even go to court!?! And which individual are you talking about, the guy who was lied to or the guy who tried to get photographs from yourself?

oh she must have been under 16 then, the girl told me he was punished. This is a different person to the guy I spoke about earlier.