Tuesday, August 14, 2012

How do Club Penguin Moderators work?

The popularity of online gaming worlds for children is soaring, but how safe are children on the internet? Metro visited the British HQ of Club Penguin, one of the most popular virtual worlds, to find out.

‘Kids want to be online,’ said Lucy Woodward, head of Club Penguin in the UK and Europe. ‘It’s a part of life these days.

‘For parents to be comfortable they should find out more about the sites so they’re not just watching over their kids shoulders 24/7.’

That job, however, falls to the 60 full-time moderators who fill the Brighton office and who monitor every word or phrase that is entered on the site while also making sure that children aren’t being bullied or harassed.

‘All these kinds of sites have technical features, but the human element is very important. Half our staff are moderators,’ said Ms Woodward.

‘Kids move fast and we need to be up to date with trends to update the language filters, but sometimes moderators just go into the game as Penguins themselves to help make sure the kids are having fun.’

Text on Picture: Club Penguin employs more then 200 moderators worldwide. 1 Puffle is equal to 10 moderators. Since Club Penguin launched it has had more then 175 m accounts registered in 190 countries.

Fact: Right now there are 396 Disney Club Penguin Servers available Ultimate list of Club Penguin Servers and every Server has lots of rooms and private Igloos!

On the screen of Simon Pollard, head of UK community support at Club Penguin, the text runs through the chat box fast, while beneath it, penguins waddle around in their online world.

Words that are blocked appear on screen in red and are invisible to the other users. Not surprisingly for a site aimed at eight-year-olds, the chat is comically inane.

‘Everyone say Spiderman!’ and “Let’s all dance!’ flash up on the screen.
One user joins the chat and uses an expletive, which appears in red. The Penguin receives a prompt 24-hour ban. Two more offences and it will be banned for life.

‘Usually they’re just trying their luck to get a swear word through and be provocative, but any effort to manipulate the filter can usually bore the kid pretty quickly,’ said Mr Pollard.

‘There are also phrases that can look harmless but there’s good reason why they’ve been blocked.

‘Sometimes people put stuff through where certain letters in a phrase link together to spell out other words or swear words. Anything that resembles personal information is also automatically blocked.’

“Very little personal information is actually required to join the site. All you need is an email address.”

Adults are allowed to Play Club Penguin too as long they behave and many Parents like to Play in the Online World TOGETHER with their kids :)

Club Penguin’s Safety Measures :)

Safer Internet Day 2012 – Danger Driver Game :)

Lane Merrifield Safer Internet Day 2012 Interview :)

I like that Club Penguin tries to keep us Safe on Internet BUT they can do MORE! As a start they should Fix the VERY OLD How to Remove and Ignore Penguin BUGS so we can protect ourselves from Bad Penguins! Why don’t you fix these Bugs Club Penguin?

How to Stay SAFE on Internet? Tips :)

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for coming Sara
    If you need help finding rockhopper at the adventure party, you can count on me to help!
    Blue92713
    PS
    If you ever get room on your buddy list, could you add me?
    I have been a fan of yours since I joined cp 3 years ago :D

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  2. For the link for Lane Merrifield's interview it is 2012 not 2912.

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  3. For Lane Merrifield's interview for Safer internet Day, the year is 2012 not 2912

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  4. Saraapril, There's this bug where my like button says "Uh Oh" and no one can like and I can't see my likes or like it myself!! I've watched for people with the same amount and more, but I seem to be the only one having this problem!!! It's been going for two days now, and I still can't get likes for my igloo anymore! Please help?

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    Replies
    1. Your not the only one I've had this bug on and off since They released the new iggy experience! -Wingred :)

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