[dropcap1]I[/dropcap1]f you haven’t noticed, ourgemcodes has evolved into a site releasing information on 5 games: ourWorld, Animal Jam, vegasWorld, MoshiMonsters, and WoozWorld. Most of these games are marketed toward kids and I’ve gotten many questions asking me if virtual world’s are safe at all. This is a concern for many parents who let their kids play on the internet. And perhaps this post can clear up any negative connotations regarding the safety of virtual world games.
The image above is a snippet of code from the game ourWorld. ourWorld is a game marketed toward tween-girls between ages 9-17. Like other virtual world games, ourWorld has a chat filter that prevents the exposure of explicit content to children. ourWorld also monitor all chats through their system in order to keep it pg-13. According to the code snippet above, the chat is monitored based on keywords and are penalized in 3 different categories:
Password (0 – 3): When players are flagged for scamming, their chat is monitored for words like “scam, password, username, email, etc..”
Sex (0 – 5): Monitored for explicit words like, “sex” and others we’d rather not mention.
Hacking (0 – 3): Monitored for words like, “Hack Gems, Free Coins, Download Program Links.”
Not all games are like ourWorld. But having a chat filter helps add an extra-layer of protection so parents know their kids are safe. This should make users aware their chat is being monitored and recorded. I believe chat logs are only kept for 90 days (for most virtual world games).
I’ll make posts like this sometimes just to keep updates steady on ourgemcodes. And it’s nice to know information like this. So next time you’re in a condo doing all those naughty things we know you do… just think, someone could be watching ;)
Similar posts:
http://www.ourgemcodes.com/2014/02/09/3-ourworld-chat-problems/ [ourWorld]
http://www.ourgemcodes.com/2012/01/07/how-to-get-banned-from-ourworld/ [ourWorld]
http://www.ourgemcodes.com/2013/12/21/4-fun-chat-games/ [ourWorld]
