Club Penguin

Club Penguin

Imagine a snow-covered wonderland populated by colourful, animated penguins. A virtual playgrounds where millions of children from around the globe gather online to interact with friends, explore, play games and let their imaginations soar. Club Penguin is that place.

Create a penguin and waddle around the island of Club Penguin, engaging in a variety of fun and imaginative activities. Chat with your friends, join an ice hockey game or participate in a friendly snowball fight. Don a costume and take the leading role in the latest stage play or test your pizza-making skills at the Pizza Palor. There's always something exciting happening in the Club Penguin virtual world, with a new content, such as games and theme parties, added every week. And you can use the coins you earn through game play to design the perfect igloo and create hundreds of outfits for your penguin.

With its continually evolving content, third-party advertising-free environment and proven commitment to safety, the virtual world of Club Penguin ™ offers fun for kids and peace of mind for parents.

Susan McLean explained that it 'the issue with Club Penguin and every single thing on the internet is that 99% of parents do not understand that the other little penguin can be anyone. Club Penguin was a game on its own, privately owned before Disney bought it several years ago; the Disney brand evokes a sense of security and safety in people. People are incredulous when I say -I can play Club Penguin' and they say -No, no, it's a game for little children' and I respond -Who said'?

There are a lot of things you can do to make it safer and that is of course sitting with your child. Club Penguin is not necessarily one of the most dangerous things online but I was on Club Penguin last week and I read the page for parents and you have a former police officer from Vancouver who says 'I love recommending Club Penguin" then you have a mother who says 'I never worry about what my child is doing when they're on Club Penguin" but that is poor parenting in the extreme because cyber bullying occurs on Club Penguin. Any group of young children will tell me that they have been bullied on Club Penguin. 99% of parents do not understand that a pedophile could be the other penguin because they do not understand the reality. This is the case for all games that children play it is a fact that anyone can be anyone online; this isn't like older computer games were you put a disc in and you play it on the interface of the computer, the games are on the internet and children are interacting with random people.

A common situation is when someone asks -Did you say your name was Sally?' and of course the young child will say -Oh no, no, my name is Mary' and that is how they get information. It can go as far as -Oh, that's right you go to St Francis' and the young child responds -Oh no, no, I go to St Peters'. Young children can give out information without realising what they are doing.

Club Penguin is certainly -safer' than a lot of other places but it is not 100% safe. I would love Disney to come out and explain that they do everything they can and Club Penguin is as safe a place that you will find for your children however you must understand there are dangers in all areas of the internet. I am happy to say that Club Penguin has fabulous in-build safety features, which it does, but parents need to acknowledge that there is potential problems because if you don't it gives a false sense of security. I am not saying don't let you children play Club Penguin because it is a lot of fun and kids in their school play it but parents need to keep an eye on what they're actually doing. The biggest thing is that most parents do not know that anyone can play Club Penguin; you cannot age or identify anyone online, it is a physical impossibility. I can be whoever I want to be and go wherever I want to go online and so can anyone else."

 

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