Habbo caught up in child sex scandal / Habbo Mute

[MissAlice]

They need fully trained CRB checked staff, and as nice as it sounds, having volunteers won’t do enough, and staff need to be accountable for their actions. They need to employ staff in the countries where the majority of players are registered.

[Bob1]

There are some incredibly clever tools out there that can analyse the lines of chat for moderators, and pick out the serious ones from the usual conversations. Habbo must not be using one or only have ones that pick up people saying "5 credits, sex time?"

We used to use a lot of this, no idea what they do now, we used to have dedicated teams for monitoring flagged Habbos and automatically flagged chat, also a tool that was very big brother-esq and could allow us to spectate. It doesn't cost that much, we used to do it a lot better, never had problems of this scale RE: convicted paedophiles.
Wouldn't expect the mute to end tonight, 7pm Channel 4 news has another report tonight on cyber bullying and trolls, Habbo will feature. So many kids threatening reporters not realising they just add fuel to the fire.

[Lewis]

Misses the point. The rooms "sexy teenagers" shouldn't exist int he first place. They went into those rooms because they existed. Yes, you can avoid them, but loads of people use them. As nice as you are trying to stick up for Habbo, you've not quite grasped why the Report is so scatching.

the fact is, in the past few years I have reported old scripted rooms and these type of rooms. Whenever I did, they got removed instantly. I guarantee if someone actually tried to report one of these rooms at the time, they would've got deleted.

[Seikou]

they just need more active mods really

[Bob1]

So you think those moderators work for free lol? You think if they were volunteers they wouldn't be a MAJOR security risk like habbos a few years ago? Think about it again. Sulake has been runnning habbo for nearly 10 years, I THINK they know what to do better than some kid who plays runescape.

In my opinion Habbo may have been running for 10 years but pretty sure the entirely new managment team that was put into place in September and new CEO has something to do with the current state of affairs so maybe not as qualified as you would assume.
Your point RE: volunteers is very valid though, not the right time for them to even consider that but maybe hiring professionals rather than call centre workers would be a good start.

[Samantha]

Some facts I agree with but I was sure you could say MSN and not get muted? I very much agreed with the fact about TinyChat, I feel it's gone on too long.

Anyway, I tweeted the video, got 2 retweets atm.

[lTraditional]

Great points however if they don't improve moderation then they can be "shut down" legally. However, I must say that Channel 4 did us all a favour, you all know how terrible moderation was and this means we won't get banned for reporting people because the mods abused the command and we hopefully can get faster responses which are actually useful. However, Channel 4 did break a lot of terms and conditions but not entering accurate information etc.

[Channel4]

Wait a second, you mean a company is TRYING TO MAKE MONEY? OH MY ******* GOD? HOW DARE THEY DO THAT. WE SHOULD GET EVERYTHIGN FOR FREE AND SO NOTHING COSTS RIGHT. HOW DARE THEY WANT TO FEED THEIR FAMILIES AND HAVE A JOB, DISGUSTING.

Oh hush. You know this is true dont put Habbo on a pedestal. As for "children safety" that will never happen to the extent that parents will want. You know why? Because this is the internet.

If you want to make sure your child isnt a victim then perhaps you yourself should encounter what Habbo is to get a better understanding. Parents love to blame everyone else

As I have said before the common thing for Habbo now is "Change" its a constant thing and has been for a long time. Whenever I speak with old users that return to Habbo after years I explain to them to be prepared for Habbos constant shape shifting.

Now as for Habbo wanting to make money, this is obviously a business and they should be attempting to make money but you need to look real hard at the things they do rather than be like on this is different and thats different now. As i mentioned before they are making this place now a website you wouldn't want to use if you did not pay for anything. Making young users strive to get coins by selling their personal info which in turn is their parents personal info. You can put all the disclaimers and "suggestions" to what they should do and who they should ask before doing so but they will rarely follow these instructions. Because they are children

---------- Post added 14-06-2012 at 03:29 PM ----------

All of our loyal and silent Habbos will receive a badge to recognise their commitment through this period. I will be sure to update you on further developments just as soon as I am able. In the meantime, my thanks again for your ongoing support. -CEO

Ohh wow a badge! Amazing and so cool! How about not wasting my money more and more. SMH

[lTraditional]

Ohh wow a badge! Amazing and so cool! How about not wasting my money more and more. SMH

At least you get a badge, very rare to get freebies on Habbo. Anyway, blame Channel 4!

[lawrawrrr]

They're a company at the end of the day, you can't expect them to happily make a loss, or even break even. It's disgusting how much they do extort money from the users, and they know they can do it because children will ask and beg parents for money.

Nowadays though, children are asking for Habbo gift cards rather than toys from Hasbro, etc, so what's the difference really?