Habbo caught up in child sex scandal / Habbo Mute

[Red]

What the at that newspaper. ;/ This is getting blown so out of proportion and I'm starting to feel kinda sorry for Sulake. That sort of behaviour goes on on a lot of teen sites and it makes me angry how bias the report was. No denying it though, they should have been deleting those rooms. The new habbo way was an absolute joke and they just continued to promote it by adding a dating category to the nav, provocative clothing, bling beds and kissing booths. Costs should not have been cut from moderation. We have all been moaning at them to hire back proper moderation and instead Paul blabbered on about making habbos the stars and releasing statements on his blog about how great the moderators are.... major ops moment for Paul.

[Niall!]

Me too, but it's still their legal responsibility to know, and agree to the T&C. It's not sulake's fault, it's the child for disobeying the rules....

But children won't stop disobeying the rules, it's kinda what they do. Do remember most children these days as young as 10 are for more competent using computers than a lot of adults. This is one thing that causes a huge problem; a child or teen asks for a webcam to talk to friends the parents have no idea what else they could be doing with it.

[MKR&*42]

Oh wow, they seriously had an advert saying that? I don't see their ads anymore 'cause of AdBlock but I would have been horrified if I had a child who'd seen that ad. and been inclined to go on the game.

Shudder-

[Geiranger]

An update has been received from the CEO on the Habbo Blog Website.

[lawrawrrr]

But children won't stop disobeying the rules, it's kinda what they do. Do remember most children these days as young as 10 are for more competent using computers than a lot of adults. This is one thing that causes a huge problem; a child or teen asks for a webcam to talk to friends the parents have no idea what else they could be doing with it.

But it's not fair to blame everything on Sulake. When I was younger (i know things were different then), my mum used to make us use the laptop or computer so the screen faces inwards (so we can't hide things). Parents who are that concerend about paedos on the internet need to teach their children about it, it's just incompetence. They see something like this on the news, they can google, call help lines or even go straight to Habbo (or even call the school, i think schools should teach more about internet safety really) - there are so many books teaching about dangers of the internet. Webcams imo should be STRCITLY monitored by parents. I very very rarely use mine, and when I was younger, we had a webcam but we were only allowed it so they could see what we were doing.

[scottish]

thing is though

channel 4 are taking everyone that engages in 'cyber' with that person (or their own fake accounts for the news report) are pedos, when in 99.99999999999999999999999999% of cases the person on the other end will be another 11-13 year old as well... (at least I ******* hope so judging by their spelling).

[GommeInc]

Sure the moderation could be better, but it clearly states you have to be 13 or older, probably why they changed the story from an 11 year old to a 13 year old.

C4 News are sticking by the original report producer's falsified age of 11. It's other media that is going by the age of 13 (no idea why).

Also, age is irrelevant. Under the age of 16 you shouldn't be exposed to such language or action. So if users are 13, 11 or even 8, it's still completely unacceptable. Moderators should be looking out for clear violations, regardless of age. Habbo is entirely at fault for not protecting their users by giving them a duty of care, and parents are also at fault for not moderating their children - although arguably it is not entirely their fault as they were not taught of internet safety - heck, their children aren't either.

EDIT: Also, the Faily Dail newspaper article isn't about Habbo Hotel - it's about online porn affecting children. It looks like something they've been hiding for special occasions like this. The part about Habbo is a sub-article.

[Bob1]

They see something like this on the news, they can google, call help lines or even go straight to Habbo (or even call the school, i think schools should teach more about internet safety really) - there are so many books teaching about dangers of the internet. Webcams imo should be STRCITLY monitored by parents. I very very rarely use mine, and when I was younger, we had a webcam but we were only allowed it so they could see what we were doing.

I agree, parents can't be ignorant to dangers online, however when their child signs up to a moderated service you assume a degree of safety?
Rules are there to be broken, when I was involved with Sulake the mention of any webcam or cam words immediately flagged up for a team of moderators whose job it was to watch potentially inappropriate chat through a tie-in system known as George, this system flagged up long line numbers (phone numbers), anyone giving out an email address, etc etc. The calls for help and player support efforts were dealt with by different MODs and users could be flagged to be watched by the George team. I think the relaxation of some rules and regs with regards to other social media, webcams, in-game links, is a hot bed for predatory behaviour and makes moderation complicated as potential flags get lost over many sites - this is where Habbo have gone wrong, Paul said in a statement they discourage people from giving contact details or moving from Habbo onto MSN to chat - then why allow people to give out emails, skype, links etc. Habbo 3-4 years ago was so tight on this area!

[Geiranger]

I honestly think this could go on for weeks! And I think that bans will take place. Also Tesco have withdrawn from selling Habbo gift cards.

[Tomm]

It is not on the front page. The article on the front page is talking about a report from the Deputy Children's Commissioner. The Habbo bit is not on the front page and is a separate article in itself. The placement of the article is a bit inappropriate but that is what you get for reading terrible publications like the daily mail.

I unfortunately went on the Daily Mail website and found the online version of the article you posted and found it next to a big message in blocks caps saying "BLOCK ONLINE PORN". Totally seems non-biased.

Seems a bit disappointing that a news reporter can't see through the obvious tricks the newspaper is using and why they placed the article about Habbo where they did.

Genuinel;y didn't think anything of the sort would be a front=page story. Then I saw the Daily Mail's front page lol:





There's a pic of a strip room in Habbo in there lol. It might have been on the telegraph but I'm not sure . One of the things said in the Daily Mail though "On average. one child in every 20 was a victim of sexual abuse online". If that's true, mega cringe :S. Also "his organisation is now distributing films to schools aimed at children between ages 5 to 8".

LOL oh dear, it's on page 8 of the "I" as well: