Three dads, a penguin and online gaming

MANILA, Philippines – Like a broken record, we parents always remind our kids before they step out of the house to never talk to strangers or accept anything from them. It’s the simplest and easiest way to keep them from harm’s way. Or so we think.

My 12-year-old son Karl spends a considerable amount of time in front of the computer. For him and other tech-savvy kids, the computer is just a tool to get their homework done, a virtual playground where they can engage in clean fun and learn things through social interaction.

What alarms me is that my son hasn’t accepted my friend request on Facebook, but adds total strangers as “friends,” logs on to chat rooms alone, and clicks links out of curiosity.

I know many parents — younger or older than I am — who experience the same dilemma. My son, like most other kids, argues that it is “his own space” and that I should respect it. You know how kids today are. They like to express themselves in their own ways — whether we agree or not.

Prohibiting our children from using the computer won’t work as it will only tickle their curiosity. Besides they can always have Internet access in school, in the Internet café, or even in their classmates’ homes. What my husband Randy and I did was discuss with Karl the risks of being addicted to the Net, and the importance of using good judgment. I’m glad he listened.

The online world holds just as many dangers as the “real” one, and as parents, we need to protect our children from online predators.

Daddy knows best

Rob Beeston, head of Disney Online Studios, Asia Pacific

Alarmed by the phenomenon, three fathers from Kelowna, a little town in Canada, created a virtual world online that offers a fun and safe environment for their tech-savvy kids. In October 2005, they unveiled their children’s secret paradise to the whole world — Club Penguin, a snow-covered virtual island inhabited by penguins. It is one of the largest and fastest-growing virtual worlds for children.

“Kids are really tied into these products so much so that when Disney acquired the company in August 2007, we had more than 12 million active players and over 700,000 paying members,” enthuses Rob Beeston, head of Disney Online Studios, Asia Pacific.

Disney Online Studios is a division of The Walt Disney Company. It was formed to basically bring together all the virtual world products that Disney operates. Currently, it offers five products: TwinTown online, Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney Fairies, Cars Online, and Club Penguin.

Club Penguin and The Walt Disney Company are committed to offer children and families online experiences that are as dedicated to safety as they are fun and entertaining.

Waddle your way to some serious fun

A global community played in more than 190 countries, Club Penguin lets you interact with other “penguins” from around the globe in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, and have fun. It’s truly a global community played in more than 190 countries. Penguins playing in any given language are all connected on the same server. So English-speaking penguins in the Philippines are actually playing with other children in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the rest of the world.

Club Penguin is a big place and it can seem a bit overwhelming for the first-time visitor. A good way to start is to use the map at the bottom of the left hand corner of your screen. This will show you all the different areas on the island — just click on the one you want to visit. Players can customize their own penguin and their own virtual worlds. It encourages you to let your creative juices flow. You can be a doctor penguin, a surfer, an astronaut, or a chef. The choices are endless.

“If you feel like stretching your imagination, Club Penguin is the place to do it. The children who play Club Penguin love to organize igloo parties and other fun events within the world and joining in is a great way to experience some of the true magic of our snow-covered island,” shares Beeston.

Whether you join a band, hit the floor of the nightclub for an impromptu penguin dance party or take on a job in a construction crew, role-playing is a key part of what makes Club Penguin fun.

Safety first

Club Penguin uses a range of human and technological processes and tools in its efforts to create a fun and safe online experience. But active parental involvement, oversight, and guidance are essential.

As part of its efforts to partner with parents, Club Penguin has developed a set of tools, which give parents more involvement in, and control of, their child’s time online.

Parents can create an account, which allows them to log in and see their child’s account history, change their child’s password or choose a different chat mode. There’s also an integrated egg timer, which allows parents to set the time of day and duration of their child’s visit to Club Penguin.

“We also encourage parents to spend time exploring Club Penguin with their child. When it comes to safety, nothing is as effective as parental involvement,” Beeston notes.

Club Penguin’s highly trained live moderators and a sophisticated filter system work to ensure inappropriate comments and personally identifiable information such as phone numbers can’t be communicated on the site.

References to drugs and alcohol-related activities, and sexual, racial or otherwise inappropriate talk are not permitted.

“Our filtering system prevents inappropriate words being sent by other users. Although you can still see the bad words you’ve typed on your computer screen, if the message content is inappropriate or breaks the rules, the filter is designed to block it from being seen by other players,” explains Beeston.

And depending on the level of the offense, players might receive a ban.

“Automatic bans occur when a player uses inappropriate language flagged by our filter. These bans take effect immediately,” Beeston adds.

Club Penguin employs a community support staff of over 170 members across the globe who are constantly researching and discovering pop terms used by kids and teens nowadays. So the support staff constantly updates their “dictionary” to make their filtering system strong.

“What one word means today may have an entirely different meaning tomorrow in pop culture terms. We really have to keep up with the kids. We have to be always ahead of them. We need to know what’s cool and what’s not,” Beeston says.

For jejemon penguins, sowie poh. Only English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish words can pass through the filtering system.

Welcome to the club

All the fun and creativity of Club Penguin is now more accessible to children and families in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

The snow-covered online playground is free to play, but offers additional benefits to those who purchase subscription memberships.

In response to its steady growth in popularity throughout Southeast Asia, Club Penguin recently launched the option to purchase memberships in local currency — Singaporean dollars, Philippine peso, and Malaysian ringgit. Here in the Philippines, the monthly membership is only P195 per month.

“Children and families in Southeast Asia have really embraced Club Penguin and it was important to us to respond to that demand by making it easier for them to purchase memberships in the virtual world,” explains Beeston during the press conference held in Singapore recently. He met with members of the press from Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines to announce this latest development.

“There’s no third-party advertising at Club Penguin. And thanks to the players who purchase memberships, we are able to maintain that no-ads policy as well as a large team of trained moderators and player support staff,” he adds.

Here’s more. Parents in Southeast Asia have more reasons to let their children play Club Penguin because based on research conducted by Professor Jackie Marsh, head of the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Sheffield in England, the popular online playground helps boost children’s reading activity.

“Individual research showed that, after game playing, the most popular activity on Club Penguin was reading. In addition, children, particularly boys, reported being more motivated to read in Club Penguin than offline,” Beeston enthuses.

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To subscribe, visit www.clubpenguin.com.