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?

My daughter has been using it for over a year now, I also have a monster but I don't go on there much. I check my daughters monster every day and look on her pin board for messages and she know's not to tell anyone where she lives or any personal details at all.
The other day some random girl asked for her password which I thought was a bit odd, I asked her why and she said so I can look after your monster and change your decorations! Needless to say we said no thanks! We also have people sending a friend request and then asking for a gift immediately.
Other than that we've had no problems at all.

@BerryLellow yes, there are still dodgy postings on the forums from time to time (as I posted, I've recently complained for this reason) and random 'friends' still have the option of posting bad stuff on your kid's pin board.

I have been told that most forum posts are reviewed before they go public, but some members are allowed to bypass the approval process - for some reason.

I've never been on the forum other than to look up the moshling codes!

I am an IT professional who positively encourages my kids to be on-line.

However I recently checked out Moshi Monsters and was horrified.

I posted this for all my friends on Facebook but others have asked too so here it is.

I have just been checking out Moshi Monsters for John (7) who wanted to become a full member (£5 per month )

I am very PRO IT but I was very disappointed with what I saw. It is clearly not a safe place for young children.

You can see every childs wall - yes all 50M of them - and you are encouraged to surf strangers walls.

Of the 6 random walls I visited I saw

Messages asking for passwords
Offensive comments and language ( gay bashing, dic head , ass hole etc )
Children leaving details of school addresses
Most children accepting many friends who they could not possible know
The forum area is not great and includes people asking for valentine cards and asking are they sexy.

The site pushes membership on you at every opportunity

There is a very "gift based" theme to the site. I'm not comfortable with gifts and strangers in one place.

I now have an inconsolable little boy who can't understand why he cannot continue to use this site again.

People describe it as "facebook for kids" - its nowhere near as controlled a facebook.

My advice would be just don't let your kids even start.

If they have already started and it is too much to take them off then you need to be reading their walls and the walls of their "friends".

Sean

DS had recently started using the free element, only has 3 friends! This thread has sent me trawling the forum which I'm pretty sure he has not been on. I found 'do u suk balls?' as a post which had been reported earlier by another user but was still visible with subsequent comments.

I've taken the advice above and made the forum off limits through our own security settings.

Machinista thanks for the good advice.

I have joined up for the sole purpose of adding my (late) response to this conversation.

The username I have registered here is the same one as my online alias on MM, to keep things simple- and I'll lay out some basic information about myself and MM.

I am, as of 2011, 14 years old. That particular milestone also makes clear how long it has been since I joined MM- late 2009. I like to think myself as an internet-aware person, steering clear of things that would be dangerous or potentially harmful to myself and the computer.

Moshi Monsters, the forum, and the people on it, have never caused me any alarm. The stories people paint of MM are often quite horrifically negative- but quite honestly it is in the distinct minority of times that anything like that happens.

To take another example- the forums. The forums are, I would suggest, not suitable for under 10s. The age demographic of a lot of the forum members(myself included) is now usually in the 10-13 range, and although the forum is on occasion slightly brusque in conversation topics, once again nothing has ever caught my eye that alarmed or disturbed me to a sufficient degree to click away.

If you are trying to protect your children from Moshi Monsters, I am slightly bemused. So long as you have told them the risks and advised them of when to get them(say if they inadvertently clicked on a virus) to be helped, there is no need for privacy settings, no reason to protect them from the website. I have been totally left to my own devices on the internet since I was 10, and have never been worried by anything I saw on the Internet. Moshi Monsters is a tame website with no reason to worry, so long as you have kitted out your children with knowledge of the Internet.

Feel free to debate my point as you wish.

Bumping a Zombie thread! Has anything changed on the Moshi Monsters website? My daughter (6) is desperate to join so I'm trying to educate myself before making a decision. This thread has terrified me a bit but I'm aware it's a few years old and things may be different now.

I will bump this too as my ds is dying to go on and I was going to get him membership for his birthday,reading this I'm not so sure!

My DD has been on this website for a few months now and there's been no problems at all. I've not paid for membership though, she just has the basic stuff.

my ds3 who is 7 has just started using moshi monsters
he doesnt go on the forums, just plays games.

i shall have a closer look at the site.mydelf tomorrow but so far we havent had any issues.

hold it hold it oh PHEW! I thought you where gonna complain! Anyways Moshe monsters is BORING!