Moshi Monsters? internet safety

[misdee]

dh has let dd2 join up to this game site for kids. we have had a chat about internet safety etc.

i browsed the site last night, but couldnt find anything to worry about. is it heavily policed like that club penguin game? would i be better sending her to club penguin?

I have concerns about Moshi Monsters and discovered this thread while searching to see if others have had similar concerns.

My dd1 is 9 and has been playing avidly for a few days. She loves nothing better than to make new friends and visit their virtual "houses".

My spider sense was alerted when she told me that she had a "boyfriend" on Moshi Monsters and that he was calling her "babe". SHe was proud of this, she didn;t sound worried.

I then asked to see the messages he had sent her - allegedly an 8 year old boy.

His first message was "Are you a girl and if so, will you go out with me?"

She said "Yes I am a girl and maby to the going out".

There followed a series of relatively inoffensive messages, but he keeps calling her babe and he tells her that he loves her and follows it with strings of kisses. Of course she says it back.

This filled me with an ENORMOUS sense of foreboding. This is not the way an 8 year old boy talks. His spelling is also correct, except for the fact that he spells "to" the same way my daughter does. eg "I love you to" - which I think is deliberate to make it look like he is a similar age to her.

SO far he has not asked for any details and I have warned her not to give im anything.

I am toying with the idea of allowing her to continue to message him, to give him enough rope to hang himself, as it were.

But I am really not happy about this at all.

Thoughts?

I wouldn't be happy about that sort of contact either. That would be enough for me to stop my child going on Moshi TBH. I know it is difficult to explain to a child, and difficult to just break them off from that sort of game but I would just come off it.

My DSs play club penguin and that is it until I feel confident enough with a 'next stage' game. They are nearly 10 and 5yrs and I just don't want them exposed to this sort of stuff.

my daughter told me last night that she had been asked on Moshi Monsters for her password and those of her friends by someone who said they were Mr Moshi's daughter. They said if she gave the passwords it would prevent them from being blocked and she would receive rox. Unfortunately she gave the passwords. When my daughter said that it must be 'really cool' to be Mr Moshi's daughter the reply came back that it was and sometimes they had sex. My daughter replied that this was not right and then she was blocked by this person. I am really worried - I reported this to Moshi Monsters site as soon as found, but think should report to police. Does anyone have advice please ??

My DS (aged 8) enjoys Moshi Monsters. I had my reservations about him going on it, but I understand that social networking is the way now and in a few years time he'll want a Facebook page so it seems like a good introduction. I like the educational activities and am happy for him to send messages to his friends. He has shown no interest in the forums.

Before letting him set up a page I established certain rules.

1. That I was to have access to his password and could check it whenever I wanted.
2. That he was not to let anyone else have his password
3. That he was not to reveal his full name, address, phone number, school or anything else to anyone online.
4. That if he received any messages that he didn't like he was to tell me immediately.

So far it seems to be working well and he is using the site sensibly and we have had no problems. I wouldn't describe it as a great bonding exercise, but I do sometimes suggest certain games which I know would help his spelling or mental Maths. My one concern is that as suggested I set up my own page (and great fun it is too!) where I gave my age - so quite clearly adult and I have been shocked by how many children (or people who give their age as children) have sent me a friend request. I know it's a status thing to have as many friends as possible, but I would prefer my children to not be adding adults onto their friends list and I think most parents would feel the same.

jilllini - you should report to CEOP.

templemaiden and others - why are you happy for your (young) DCs to talk to unknown children/adults on the internet?
Why can't they just chat to RL friends on line?

Look upthread - even a representative of Moshi says "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 recommend that since you have suspicions you report to CEOP also.

Website on internet safety for DCs.

Thanks for all the advice. I have reported it; she has deleted everyone she doesn't actually know; changed her password; we've changed the email address; and she wont be talking to anyone she doesn't know from now on. Not a nice way for it to happen, but lessons well and truly learnt.

i am new to this site but i have just read that you was looking at the site
moshi monsters and like myself i was very weary also but after a lot of pestering from my daughter i finally gave in, but wish i had'nt now.
only after five days of being on the site my daughter recieved messages containing sexual content earlier this evening and i am very very angry i have reported this matter but i feel everyone needs to know about this i feel
i've been misled about the safety for our children on the site

The messages issue is solved by only allowing friends they know in real life.

My 2 DDs love Moshi Monster. I will monitor more closely after this thread, and I'm going to check out the forums.

Am also interested to hear back from Moshi person on this thread if we can disable the forums.

Since my last post, I checked the forums, and got input on forums from DDs (7 & 9). Neither are currently interested in forums (I can see why - the layout isn't 'immediate' enough for younger kids.) DD2 just turned 7, and her reading skills are fairly limited, so no fear of her reading the forums for another year or so. DD2 is 9, I did a fairly quick browse through several threads, but didn't find anything too offensive. Certainly nothing worse than she might hear at school (she attends a coed school).

All of DD1s friends were people she knows in RL. I have now deleted (with consent) DD2's friends who she does not know in RL.
We have also had (AGAIN) the conversation about not sharing your password or full name or telephone number with anybody on Moshi.
I also checked all their messages - all 16 pages (for each) came from their RL friends. (TG)

BTW - just earlier today I heard from mom of one of their friends that somebody asked for her daughter for her password. Which was provided.. And that 'friend' went into her site and changed her room, colors, etc... My DDs also heard this story from their friend, so the conversation about 'safety' went across in a much more meaningful way.

My DDs get great enjoyment from Moshi Monsters. They collect the magazine, moshling figures, etc. I will not stop their access, but will be more involved in future.

And finally, my DDs LOVED that I took an interest in their Moshi pages. They were so excited to show me how to check their notice boards, friends lists,etc, and loved showing me their 'Moshi' rooms. So yes, participating on the web site with your DS WILL be a meaningful experience for your DC!

I don't have a problem with my DD (6) playing on Moshi Monsters. When she first started to play I made sure I kept a strict eye on what she was doing but now she has been using the site for a while I pretty much do a spot check on her message board every once in a while. The only messages that she has responded to are to friends in RL, (we had a whole internet safety chat when she started up, which she knew from school & often reittereated to her by both of us). She is alowed to 'make friends' but not chat & if she does I alway read their message boards to make sure nothing seems suspicious. I hate to sound old but kids are pretty much internet savvy nowadays and are quite aware of the do's & don't of talking/messaging strangers. I realise it doesn't stop them reading a stray message but I hope I have armed her with enough sense to ignore them & to me about it (fingers crossed!)

Ive read these posts with extreme interest, im a dad and 1st post so picking up on mumsnet jargon. My DD (8) aka 8 year old son ;-) got into moshi a year ago and after warning him about the dangers within a few weeks he had befriended a 13 year old girl from the states and had offered our home town. It seemed innocent but my fear was that even though we had primed our chap to beware he was busily giving out his address easily. Ban ensued.

He then got internet on his ipod and within 1 day had set up a password and got straight back on to Moshi. We had some really uncomfortable conversations as a family about predatory behavior and my wife and I felt terrible but felt we had no choice but to ban again.

Moshi has now come up again and we are keen to find out more hence me reading this post. Great views from Moshi staff, parents for and against and I wish we had just one, 2 or 3 OPTIONAL parental controls built in to Moshi and personally I would be fine with it.

1 - THE ABILITY TO SET UP A PARENT PASSWORD SO ANY FRIEND REQUEST HAS TO BE SIGNED OFF BY A PARENT BY PASSWORD
2 - THE ABILITY TO BLOCK OUR YOUNGSTER FROM THE FORUM BOARDS IF WE CHOOSE TO
3 - MAYBE A COPY OF ALL NOTES TO A CHOSEN PARENTS EMAIL ADDRESS

God I feel completely over the top suggesting these as my childhood was pretty free and I had a brilliant time being a bit risky and crazy. BUT it seems we live in a different world now and we need to be online experts to protect our kids.

I am going to be signing my son up again and feel terrible about the fact that I will be checking a fair bit till he can be trusted to keep it to friends only.

With Facebook around the corner and MSN no doubt not far after its inevitable that good close parenting at this stage should assist in allowing trustworthy and careful online behaviour as he grows in to a teen.

Good luck if you carry on as Moshi parents.

mags mc .could u please tell me how to report bad behavour has everything ive tried has fail i.e. e-mails ,my 7yr old keeps getting asked for sex on the moshi monster from another member ,i think the next step will be to report it to the police

I know you Mummies are happy that your kids are learning very much and they are also happy with Moshi Monsters, but, don't you think there is something wrong with the game. Have you ever checked what is it.

Moshi Monsters is an Illuminati game. They are brain washing your children as well as your child is being educated by Illuminati content. If you don't believe me then checkout the Illuminati symbols which are being viewed but not being recognized on Moshi Monsters.

I found some symbols in a 2 hour research, because I was familiar with this Virtual Brain Washing Game.

I posted a photo gallery to put those symbols on my website. If you doubt me then check them out. Please check them whether you agree or disagree with me.

fancygames.webnode.com/illuminati-games/

Show these pictures to your child and ask him that he visited these places or not. If he hasn't then it means that he hasn't explored all of it.

Another Illuminati game I know is "Second Life".

I clicked that link Umer. You owe me 3 minutes of my life back

I've known a few people who have had issues with Moshi Monsters so will be keeping DD well away.

In fact my daughter also loves Moshi Monsters a lot.
She is addicted to it.

Moshi Monsters is the best game ever, period.

I know this thread is quite old (or at least the start of it where issues were raised). Have they resolved some of the issues now? Can you disable the forums for example? DD is just getting into moshis and I thought she might find the website fun.

My children love Moshi Monsters, and I thought it was a safe site for them - the parents information explains it is moderated. But when I went online, using my son's login to see for myself I was incredibly shocked to find sexual content and possible grooming on the forums. Clearly their filter and moderation systems are not working and leave children exposed to inappropriate and possibly predatory behaviour from adults. Someone on the site had a username of 'yummycum' and their moshling character was called 'fkmydk' - a number of apparently young children were communicating with this person and he was discussing sex. I immediately reported it to the website, but they still took 17 hours to delete this user. I hope Moshi Monsters will take this seriously and fix the moderation problems as the basic concept of the website is great. I feel betrayed by their assurances of safety as detailed in their parents' information section - children are being exposed to potential danger. They need to disable the forums.

similar experience to the previous post - I immediately reported the user and cancelled my daughters membership - do not be fooled this is a business and it does not have security at its heart.

Come on - Moshi Monsters can be LOADS of fun for your DS. \Just keep an eye on who they are friending and their messages. Easy enough to sort out. Consider it a learning experience prior to facebook!

Don't loose track of the fact that the site is fun, and most of their friends at school are playing/collecting figurines/cards.

Instead, educate them to the facts of social networking. Not all messages wll be nice. Persuade them to stay out of the message boards (persuade them boards are boring? mostly are, especially for under 12s).

Parental control is the key.

BRAINYBURY makes some good points. I'd also like to see additional parental controls as suggested above and have already complained to Mind Candy about the moderation of forum posts (probably an impossible task and needs a re-think).

In the meantime, it is very easy to block access to the forums and I have done so for my DS and DD: add forums.moshimonsters.com to the black-list section of you browser's content filter. Job done, no more access.

That just leaves the Friends Tree. I regularly check the friends lists and remove any that aren't known to us in RL. I also encourage DS and DD to ignore requests from strangers themselves.

If your kids are using an internet conected PC and you're not running a content filter, then you should be! I'm using FoxFilter: www.inspiredeffect.com/FoxFilter/

It's an add-on for Firefox and Chrome browsers; it's not too difficult to setup. I'm not affiliated in anyway btw.

Keeping MM safe for your kids is not difficult, but does require a little effort.

Hope this helps.

FYI... the Moshi Monsters 'forums team' have offered to officially block forum access on my kids' accounts.

Why this isn't a standard option available at the time you create the account I don't know. Still, it's good it can be done.

That just leaves the friends' tree to manage manually.

This is quite an old thread, does anyone know if the same issues are occurring? I've let DS1 (6) join, although only supervised by me, and I've not noticed anything odd (yet). We haven't added anyone that we don't know.

If he's still interested in it as he gets older I want to feel that he's in a safe area.

Dd1 has been playing it for a few months now and we've had no issues. I check her message pin board every now and again and they're all fairly innocuous, even though she does 'friend' every one who asks her to in case they 'have stuff she doesn't'

She doesn't use the forum and afiak is not even aware there is a forum.