Age Group, Privacy, Safety...

reina__ · November 2008

When Virtualpups first started, what was the age group it was intended for? It seems a little elementary (I'm not saying that's a bad thing, hey, I play it too). How did you attract teenagers, young adults, and even the middle-aged to it? I find it a little strange that this website allows every age, or the fact that it does not have a minimum allowed age or grade. I think if a minimum age was reinforced it would: a) Lower the amount of scam artists. b) Lower the amount of rulebreakers/multiple novice account creators [due to not reading the TOS]). c) Lower the amount of victims in a scam/fight situation, AND being a victim to indecent/perverted messages. Like I know that 13 seems old, but I think a child is grown up enough to realize that they are being hit on by a whacko child molester or whatever, more so than say, a 6 year old. I've met a couple 6 and 5 year olds on this game. Just thinking of that makes me a little weirded out. That is extremely young. The calibre of this website's privacy and safety isn't that reputable in the sense that ANYONE can message you. If age limit isn't reinforced, I think maybe the messaging area should have a "preferences" tab that allows you to pick who can message you. Something like: O Allow only these people to message you (and then you can type the usernames) O Allow only messages with Subjects to reach you O Allow only messages from Sponsor Accounts O Do not allow messages O Send each message to your email (where you can type your parent's email or whatever) Although the Privacy Policy and tips how to not attract creeps has been amplified many times, I don't think that all people, ESPECIALLY the young ones under 10 years of age, read it. Maybe a little quiz on the Terms of Service would work well for the signup process. Like, you have to read it or else you won't pass the quiz. Something along those lines.

Alabama · November 2008

VP doesn't have a minimum age, most of the scammers/rule breakers actually tend to be older teenagers (15, 16 and 17) and older. What rules the younger kids tend to break tend to not be severe and are usually corrected with a word from a game moderator. It's the older kids that purposely break the rules and try to get away with things that wreak havoc. Like you said, younger kids sometimes tend to be the ones more susceptable to scamming, but they are also more likely to report when they think someone has stolen from them. It's a lesson I think I'd rather them learn on a game than in real life. So, I can't see in this respect how setting a minimum age would help this in the least, except to remove some of the more minor rule breakers that eventually might turn into very good game players. If you have players of any age that are giving their ages, you should report them to an Op so we can have a word with them and perhaps teach them a bit about internet safety. Likewise, if someone asks your age, or for that matter where you live or your gender, you should also report them. Not reporting someone for asking personal questions can earn you the same punishment as the person who is asking. And we do look at private messages from time to time, especially when someone reports something wrong. You would be surprised, or maybe not, even on games with age restrictions, how many underage kids play. There is no way to really confirm anyone's age on the internet. The reasons other games have age limits is because of legal reasons. They don't want to mess with security for younger kids and by setting a minimum age, if something happens, they cannot be held responsible legally. Virtual Pups has a great group of players of all ages and Ops are notified pretty quickly when someone is displaying or sending content that's not appropriate and we can react to these situations quickly. Virtual Pups is intended to be a community and what restrictions you place on private messagese will impact that community. How's a new player supposed to learn the game if not by talking to other players? If you're new to the game and don't know anyone, how do you know who to let message you? Sponsor accounts are just a likely to harbor scammers/rule breakers/perverts as novice accounts

I know, I've banned more than a few sponsor accounts for these reasons. As for subject, that's easily gotten around. I just type an appropriate subject, but send whatever message I want. That's how spam e-mail gets past spam filters. The quiz idea is a good one and I believe suggested before. VHR used to have something like that, but it didn't do any good and turned people away from playing, which hurts the pocketbook, so was removed. Honestly, I think VP is about as safe as any game out there. Ops are vigilant and we try to stay close with the players so they aren't hesitant to report things they think is wrong. As with any game/place, bad apples are going to get in the bunch, but I think we do a good job of removing them quickly and "nipping in the bud" when someone starts heading down a wrong path.

reina__ · November 2008

Thanks for the quick and thorough reply. I think you nailed it.

Pepper97 · November 2008

I think you should be over 10. VP seems like a great game for all ages, and over ten you should be able to know not to gie info out. maybe 11. I think thirteen seems a bit high for the range of ages on this game.

Parker · November 2008

&& to add to the whole age restrictions. Technically there is an age on this forum. If you tell the forum you are under thirteen it won't let you sign up. So, technically, you have to be 13 to play... on the forums, at least. but... you could always lie about age.

Jazz · November 2008

You actually can sign up for the forums if you're under 13, I was 12 and my mom had to call Nef or something to get my account activated.

lovefrompaige · November 2008

Maybe, for most games when you sign up, you have to get an activacation code or something. That can give time to Nef or other Ops to look at the name of the kennel and player and decide if they think this person is acceptable... Like Alabama said, its mostly the teens on VP that do the really bad things... This can give them either an early chance to not accept the kennel or to give them a heads up of possible multiple accounts. I read on the front page when you log in that Nef was thinking about making sign ups harder... I say, by all means, do it! If your planning on being a bad person on this game, then you should have a hard time signing up. Most of the bad people will just give up if they can't sign in right away... You know? - This is just my personal idea. I might be right but then again, I could be wrong about things...

Parker · November 2008

Personally for me, if the sign up is too hard, I just won't sign up. but, idk, that's just me.

DiamondPuppy0809 · November 2008

Parker wrote:

Personally for me, if the sign up is too hard, I just won't sign up. but, idk, that's just me.

xD That's me, too. And I remember them having hard tests to sign up -anyways-, didn't they?

lovefrompaige · November 2008

Not to the extremes were nobody would want to get on... Just a little tougher...

Jellybeanjoe · November 2008

Ah, but then you are adding to our Oply duties. And as much as I'm pretty sure you all think otherwise, us Opsies are real human beings, and we have real lives. Including Nef :P The first hour I get on every time tends to be spent cleaning up MM deals, checking replied from people who have asked questions, dealing with problems, etc and so forth. Thats an hour before I even get a chance to sit down, chat with friends and play the game. Whenever Nef gets on, she's bombarded with stuff that needs fixing, IP bans, retrieving lost usernames/passwords, checking PayPal and upgrading accounts, colouring dogs their new colours, adding new breeds . . . And with upgrades to happen shortly on VP, she'll be busy with all the bugs on that (she's currently having to deal with new bugs on VHR). Trust me, no easy fixes

Making sign up harder? There was a quiz at one point when making an account on VHR. Just a simple multiple choice quiz on Internet safety. Many of the regulars couldn't get past it on the first try. It was removed. *Edit* Bama said what I wanted to say about a quiz on another post xD

It was tried with VHR for a long while and didn't work the way they thought it would. Rule breakers still broke rules and the quiz turned away a lot of possible revenue since join rates decreased dramatically.

Having us Ops/Nef manually check the account to see if they should play? Would take a while, there's always the chance the person would lie and get past, and we could lose a lot of players who might not do anything wrong. No, personally I think the system is good as it is

Ops keep an eye out as much as possible, and its thanks to all you guys in letting us know when you've seen something before we have.

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Age Group, Privacy, Safety...

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