Unfortunately, outside blogs and forums is on the lower list of items I check regularly, as I do have customer service emails to attend to.
I'll try to deal with as many general concerns as possible that have been raised here, however, if anyone has an individual concern to do with your child's account or Moshi Monsters experience, you'll need to contact us directly. This can be done at [email protected].
Filtering - You're quite right that the filtering on our pinboard system is an issue. We're aware of the problem and have been working behind the scenes for quite some time. Currently, our messages are run through a simple filtering system, however with over 15 million Monster Owners, this poor little pinboard filter is way over its capacity. We're currently in the process of implementing NetModerator from Crisp (www.crispthinking.com for information), however, the process is slow going.
Vulgarity is not dangerous. It's inappropriate and annoying, yes, but does not compromise the safety of children online. Many of our moderators and managers are parents themselves, and we do understand the frustration with regard to our filtering system. This is something we discuss at least once a day, if not more often, and it's squarely on our radar.
From our CCSO at Mind Candy:
As for filtering systems, they are only as effective as the humans who build them. There is no existing filtering system to date that is 100% accurate and effective. Not because the technology isn't available, but because technology isn't human and can't predict the languages we use to get around a filter. Technology can not predict what you or I might type. It can look at what we type in context and determine how to proceed, based on human subjective rules, but it can never stop us from misbehaving. If I type on one post "you are" and on the next post "a" and the next post "w" (new post) "a" (new post) "n" new post ..you get the idea, there's no way for a filtering system to go back in time (that's the stuff of the 22nd century perhaps, when we can control metaphysical time travel). In the major kid's sites online, the whitelists are easy as pie to get around. Children simply type "look at the first letter of the next sentence to get my first name." "Jump around now end." That spells JANE. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean profanity and bad behavior isn't happening on other sites.
While at a major children's site in 2004, we predicted canned chat would result in the users creating their own language, which we would then have to filter. In fact, that's exactly what happens. Kids create coded language to get around restrictive chat. In the 16+ years I've worked for major web companies and kid's sites, I've seen quite a bit when it comes to filtering and humans avoiding filters. There is no 100% safe online or offline place, short of muzzles and/or disallowing interaction. And when we are too restrictive, we "raise children in captivity," as Dr. Tanya Byron references in the Byron Report, and we raise a child who does not know how to learn about risk and how to deal with risk.
Just as we don't plug our children's ears for the day when they're at school, or follow them around on the playground to be sure they don't hear anything offensive, we can not expect a filtering system to train or protect children or teach them how to behave. It is the responsibility of a website for children to do everything possible to keep children safe and free from bad behavior, absolutely. We do our best and are continually working towards making improvements on the Moshi site.
There's not enough room here to address the difference between a Predator and a Pedophile. Predatory behavior with children under 13 is quite low on the net. The instances of girls over 14 becoming involved with predators is more likely but studies show these girls (and sometimes boys) are not only "at risk" online, they are also "at risk" children offline. Most of our children are under 12 and have parents like you who are concerned with their children's online activities. This puts our young Moshi users in a low risk group. In addition, the fact that we have no way of private messaging to occur on Moshi (all pinboard posts and forums posts are public, and all deleted posts are available to our staff always), keeps our site at very low risk regarding potential predators or potential pedophiles.
We wouldn't claim to be 100% risk-free. No company, organisation or entity offline or online can make such a claim. But we are very sure that children who are properly taught how to use the net safely (just like crossing the street safely), are in good hands.
Forums - Moshi Monsters does not have live chat, however, we do have forums where children can discuss the game or offline interests. Our forum does have an advanced filtering software, which is tested weekly to ensure it's running to peak performance. Many Moshi Parents join into the conversations in our forums, and there is a special parents section of our forums as well. All Moshi Players, regardless of age, are subject to the same rules.
Player Safety - As explained in our CCSO's message above, the likelihood of predatory behaviour in a children's gaming site with live moderation is quite low. Predators generally target post-pubescent children on unmoderated chat sites or via instant messaging services where there is a low possibility of having their behaviour discovered. There is a far higher instance of predatory behaviour offline than online.
We have a team of 20 experienced community professionals moderating all aspects of Moshi Monsters daily. Our community team leaders have, combined, more than 30 years experience managing and moderating online communities for children and teens. While not every message passes the eyes of our moderation team (which is true for any site on the net, honestly), any message reported using our reporting tools on the pinboard or forums is read by a live moderator before any action is taken.
The single best recommendation we can make is that children only add those whom they know offline, such as family members or schoolmates. As simple as this may sound, it's something we find it necessary to reiterate time and time again.
I'd like to thank you all for such spirited feedback, and let you know that your concerns are being heard and dealt with. I've passed all of the information presented here to our Senior Management Team for further review as well.
All the best,
Mags