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Original poster

moshi monsters - harmless or what?

19 replies

TrickyTeenagersMum · 16/03/2010 20:33

DS has discovered this site and is almost as obsessed with it as I am by Mumsnet. Is it Ok, do you think?

Have been through with him and deleted all friends who he doesn't know in real life, and edited his message board. In it one poster (I think a girl) had messaged him about 70 times with the full gamut of a relationship from "Do you like me" to "Give me a present today" to "Do you love me" to "I hate you". She is now barred. DS is 8.
Have reinforced all parental controls and put a password on computer so ds can't access it without me. But what experiences do you guys have of this site?
AND it costs £4.95 a month!
Gotta go so DS can do his daily challenge or something...

OP posts:
brimfull · 16/03/2010 20:36

It's like club penguin and bin weevils

ds has been member of penguin but is now onto bin weevils

harmless imo , although maybe moshi isn't as well moderated as club penguin is.

MultipleUnicorns · 16/03/2010 20:42

Hi my ds (8) has also just become a member of this so will be watching this thread with interest!

It seems harmless enough, but I noticed kast night on ds's that you don;t have to have a parent give consent for your friends so I may have to have a look at that too

ds always uses the computer in the living room with people all around....what other parental things can I do?

You can join it for free, the money every month is just for extra's ds has just bought one month out of his pocket money, but hopefully it's just the latest fad and it'll blow over

CaptainPicardsPineapple · 16/03/2010 20:46

DD(7) goes on there, I think on the whole it's fine, the puzzles are quite fun actually .

So long as you keep regular tabs on what other kids are messaging, delete and report if necessary, then there's no prob.

nighbynight · 16/03/2010 20:51

My children are on it.

They are also on a chinese one called Panfu, which is brilliant.

MM encourages my children to read english, which cant be a bad thing.

AgentZigzag · 16/03/2010 20:56

I let my DD (9) on the site, but never unsupervised and I don't let her chat.

She really got into it last summer holidays and wanted me to pay, I said if she was still playing on it lots in a months time I might think about it, a week later and her enthusiasm had fizzled out and onto Bearsville lol

Original poster
TrickyTeenagersMum · 17/03/2010 20:04

Bump...

OP posts:
Idontknowhowtohelpher · 17/03/2010 20:57

dd2 (8) goes on this site, but she is not a member - which has caused a lot of whinging. I check it with her every now and again but it has been ok. She prefers Club Penguin - I don't (won't ) pay for that either.

kerstina · 17/03/2010 21:14

I was not happy when we realised these childrens site want payment online to become members. I think it is really wrong and out of order to target children in this way. My son whinged and whinged we eventually compromised by letting him buy a membership card from the supermarket with his own pocket money.

Ampersand44 · 17/03/2010 21:23

My DS (8) was on this for a while. Then his monster and house were hacked and everything moved and changed. He was devastated but it was a good lesson in the perils of the internet. He did not even complain when I no longer allowed him on the site! I was furious because when I complained to Moshi Monsters they said he must have given his details away and this was not the case. However I was able to cancel membership and payment easily.

jellybeans · 17/03/2010 21:26

Mine use it, sometimes are members (I get a month card from WH Smiths) no probs here.

ABitBatty · 17/03/2010 21:35

My ds (8) is also on this. He also plays Club Penguin, which I pay for membership for him, instead of regular pocket money. He is also on the bearville site too. He gets messages from girls too and some of the girls in his class play it and they sent him a message saying they fancied him now he says he is going out with her

choosyfloosy · 17/03/2010 21:39

DS is on it. I veer between thinking it's fairly harmless and quite liking the puzzles, to loathing the mindless consumerism it encourages. I wish you could do things with your rox other than buy crap.

I ended up getting a monster myself (I'm not a member obviously) and ds now spends quite a lot of rox sending me presents, so I am in favour of it at the mo [weak mum emoticon]

I am really hoping he gets bored of it tbh but should probably crack down now that the weather is better.

seeker · 17/03/2010 21:43

i think these sites are fine an lots of fun. The only time we've had the slightest problem is when it turned out that dd HAD given a friend his password and his friend uses swear words logged in as ds and got him banned (temporarily!) So don'tt assume, Ampersand, that it's a hacker - that's what I thought at first!

SnotBaby · 17/03/2010 21:51

DD aged 7 uses it on the family PC in the living room. I think it's fine, and has encoraged her to read.

Anyone tried the ice-cream game? Man, it's stressful! Some catchy tunes though, I am always whistling the first one and shouting "Ai yi yi..."

Reallytired · 17/03/2010 21:55

My son loves club penguin. I prefer club penguin because you can set it up so that the child cannot use free type. Instead they use a series of phases. My son also like wizard 101.

I worry about children's social networking sites as they are a target for paedophiles. However I think its good for children to learn about social networking sites. I would rather that my son was on club penguin than sneakly doing Facebook.

CrAbcakes · 25/03/2010 16:27

I thought this site was OK, but it is only lightly monitored, if at all. However, my 12 year old granddaughter broke the rules and gave a "boy" her phone number, and he gave her his as well. When I found out, my granddaughter and the "boy" were booted off. Moshi did NOT catch that phone numbers had been exchanged, and numerous long phone calls ensued before I found out. I do not know if this person was a kid, or man. My granddaughter said he was 14 and to ME, that is bad enough. MoshiMonsters is now blocked in our household. It is TOO easy for predators to use this site to troll for victims. BEWARE.

silentcatastrophe · 25/03/2010 16:37

DD likes it. I like the quizzes and the moshling garden. I don't take much notice of messages and I don't think dd does either. I have told her that it really doesn't matter because MMs are not RL friends. They are cartoon monsters!

nonstop18 · 03/02/2011 19:41

Hi all, does any one use club penguin and can they tell me if it was positive or negative.

I'm not a fan of any computer games or playstations, and I don't have them in the house. To me the children become zombies and don't spend any time outside playing.

They don't learn about the real world outside.

Even if these sites are checked, can they guarantee the safety of your child??

MurkyTurkey · 04/02/2011 10:58

DD age 6 loves moshi monsters. It has really encouraged her reading and the daily challenges and puzzles are fab.

She certainly hasn't turned into a zombie and spends loads of time outside.

She gets to play in the morning after breakfast and when she is completely ready for school.

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