Report Labels Habbo a "Pedophile Haven"
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Can you even get Channel 4 in North America, or are you thinking of a different Channel 4?Antari said:
Channel 4 in the UK, who reported this, isn't anything like Fox News at all.
I'd even go as far to say that even the most un-Fox-like news program in North America is still more like Fox News than Channel 4 is.
You wouldn't see it if you played it. With the rise of F2P MMORPGS (especially with MapleStory) their active population actually took a huuuge nosedive. I remember when there was enough players for there to be a Canadian version that was actually very busy and players made and hosted their own radio stations that got significant traffic.BENZOOKA said:
But the Canada Habbo got too slow so they merged it with the US version, and it's no where near as populous as it used to be. I'm sure the vast majority of the 9-million new users per month play it once or twice before never touching it again. Probably left when they realized it wasn't a game at all and just a glorified chatroom.
EDIT: Out of curiosity I made a new account on Habbo. Turns out the entire thing is muted for all players due to this news segment and there's an investigation going on.
What is jokes?Yan007 said:
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Hold on guys... What if the pedophiles on habbo are actually hitting... on other pedophiles?
Or it could just be the target demo. Hard to really say on the internet. You find all kinds of weirdos, trolls and crazies out there, and as much as we'd like to believe otherwise, some of them aren't balding 40 year olds with pencil mustaches.
Christ on a pogostick, that old thing? Habbo Hotel was uncool even in my entire school, even the nerdiest of the nerds were like: 'Pft that's lame.'
Not surprised, 'games' that give you little else to do but make your own little virtual simulation of a real life are going to eventually degenerate into 'zomg sex pls'. It's inevitable.
Lame then, still lame now, and I honestly cannot believe that many people go within a foot of it, makes me feel unclean just hearing the name.
Not surprised, 'games' that give you little else to do but make your own little virtual simulation of a real life are going to eventually degenerate into 'zomg sex pls'. It's inevitable.
Lame then, still lame now, and I honestly cannot believe that many people go within a foot of it, makes me feel unclean just hearing the name.
Wait wait wait, how do they know there are pedophiles using this? Habbo's demographic is teenagers right? TEENAGERS? The same ones that are into sexting and send naked cellphone pictures of themselves to the opposite sex? I wouldn't surprised if it was a 13 year old rather than a pedophile that was typing those things.
As a pervert, I'm getting extremely tired of being lumped in with pedophiles, just because I roam the internet for sexual thrills.
I think the rationale was this.
Some Pedophiles own computers - therefore anything on the internet is a haven for pedos.
To be honest, if pedos are getting off talking to people who are pretending to be kids, then great, I consider that some kinda methadone. If both sides are getting their kicks and no actual children are actually being assaulted, then that's not really a problem.
As above, too, the moment puberty kicks in, teenagers are going to start talking and thinking about sex... a lot. Either talk to them, or let them learn about how sex works from one of the many err... educational sites online.
I foresee a future - 2020 - couple goes to the doctor, unable to get pregnant.
Doctor: 'And you're having sex regularly?'
Guy: 'Sure, the normal way, she blows me, I cram it up her ass then jerk off over her tits, and we just can't seem to conceive.'
I think the rationale was this.
Some Pedophiles own computers - therefore anything on the internet is a haven for pedos.
To be honest, if pedos are getting off talking to people who are pretending to be kids, then great, I consider that some kinda methadone. If both sides are getting their kicks and no actual children are actually being assaulted, then that's not really a problem.
As above, too, the moment puberty kicks in, teenagers are going to start talking and thinking about sex... a lot. Either talk to them, or let them learn about how sex works from one of the many err... educational sites online.
I foresee a future - 2020 - couple goes to the doctor, unable to get pregnant.
Doctor: 'And you're having sex regularly?'
Guy: 'Sure, the normal way, she blows me, I cram it up her ass then jerk off over her tits, and we just can't seem to conceive.'
Wait, wait, wait.
So the reporter heard explicit things said on game targeted at 'young teenagers'?
Ummm...well I'm not saying that there aren't unsavoury people on the internet, but I've heard some pretty grown up words from decidedly not grown up people in my time on Xbox Live. I don't think we should immediately assume paedophiles given the propensity of pre-teens to say 'fuck' a lot.
So the reporter heard explicit things said on game targeted at 'young teenagers'?
Ummm...well I'm not saying that there aren't unsavoury people on the internet, but I've heard some pretty grown up words from decidedly not grown up people in my time on Xbox Live. I don't think we should immediately assume paedophiles given the propensity of pre-teens to say 'fuck' a lot.
As people pointed out: Who is to say that the people posting explicit/sexual chat were not teens/kids themselves?
I remember when I was younger I saw my older brother on an internet chat room, he was around 14/15 at the time and the conversations were constantly sexual.
I remember when I was younger I saw my older brother on an internet chat room, he was around 14/15 at the time and the conversations were constantly sexual.
I cant imagine how anyone can successfully have cyber sex on that thing. I played habbo a couple of times just for the novelty of chatting to random people like I used to on some internet forums only in a videogame format. Heaps of young foreign girls kept approaching me & ditched me the moment I told them my age (Im not on it for suspicious reasons so I dont need to lie about it).
One girl didn't care & took me back to her habbo apartment & tried cybering only I didn't know it because it had to be done in code or you get warnings if you say certain words. It took me a while to figure out exactly what was going on because I couldn't figure out what the hell she was saying. By the time I realsied she was actually cybering she must have let a word slip & got banned on the spot.
So honestly, I dont know how it could be breached any more than that.
One girl didn't care & took me back to her habbo apartment & tried cybering only I didn't know it because it had to be done in code or you get warnings if you say certain words. It took me a while to figure out exactly what was going on because I couldn't figure out what the hell she was saying. By the time I realsied she was actually cybering she must have let a word slip & got banned on the spot.
So honestly, I dont know how it could be breached any more than that.
Channel 4 article [//www.channel4.com/news/striptease-and-cyber-sex-my-stay-at-habbo-hotel]: "Rachel Seifert writes for Channel 4 News about her shocking and sometimes sexually-explicit experiences playing the popular online game Habbo Hotel while posing as an 11-year old girl".Treblaine said:
There it is, posing as an underage player, cut and dried. Take all that as you will, I guess.
I am surprised as everyone else that it's being said adults are the ones who say these things. You only have to play almost any online game these days to be met with a huge wave of homophobia, racism and every other form of insult and creepy request under the sun.
I can honestly say I never remember doing that whilst playing sonic the hedgehog on my megadrive. Some people just shouldn't be allowed near the internet, they seem to leave any form of acceptable behaviour at the door when they have the mighty shield of no one knowing who they are.
I can honestly say I never remember doing that whilst playing sonic the hedgehog on my megadrive. Some people just shouldn't be allowed near the internet, they seem to leave any form of acceptable behaviour at the door when they have the mighty shield of no one knowing who they are.
I wish people would pay more attention to the places children are actually being harmed -- their homes. We spend so much time afraid of the boogeyman on the internet and in the streets that most of us seem to forget that the vast, vast majority of children that are abused, are abused in their own home by a family member.
Yeah, stranger danger is bad. But odds are a kid is more likely to be molested by their parents than a stranger on the street. Let's drop the scare tactics and focus on the forest fire, not the matchstick.
Yeah, stranger danger is bad. But odds are a kid is more likely to be molested by their parents than a stranger on the street. Let's drop the scare tactics and focus on the forest fire, not the matchstick.
This service IS for teenagers and right away she is breaking the rules in either masquerading as an 11 year old - they are clear that you must be over the age of 13 to join Habbo - or from actually being an adult lying about their age. The very same thing that supposedly allows homosexuals is the very thing that let her conduct this report. She could not do he equivalent in a secondary school (high school) where all the children REALLY ARE 13-18 years old. I remember the lascivious talk amongst students when I was in school that age and from the whiny voices on Xbox live clearly of young teenagers yet the foul, sexual and perverse comments these are most likely all dumb kids on Habbo talking dirty.IndianaJonny said:
And how the hell does one pose as an 11-year old in a game entirely made up of adult looking teenage avatars and where the age/D.O.B is not displayed in vital statistics? Were they targeted only after they stated they were 11?!? Or did they have an interest in her presumably as an adult teenager and probably (rightly) thought they were bullshitting about being 11.
Look, can we accept that teenagers are going to talk about sex to each other or are we going to indulge in some ridiculous delusion that children are completely asexual till suddenly they reach age of majority? Or worse some oppressive idea that it can or even should be forcibly suppressed? We don't hold that dangerous delusions in our schools where 13 year olds are given full sex education, access to condoms and even birth control pills. Schools do not have a zero tolerance policy of forbidding sexual banter between all students. In fact last time I checked UK schools aren't even pushing abstinence for secondary school kids.
ANYWHERE that completely censors teenagers from talking about sex cannot work. There ARE sites for under 13 year olds and parents have a responsibility to make sure they don't go on those sites just like they make sure they don't go on ogrish.
So this journalist is breaking the rules right from the start, not doing anything to report or discourage this and objecting to a lack of regulation. But ANY form of the sexual exploitation of children is totally dependent on the victims reporting, whether it is Habbo or just in a play park or in their own home with male relatives.
Yet the reporter did not take this to Habbo's formal internal polcie force to be immediately followed up on, they instead waited 2 months and wrote a broad and yellow-journalist report to go straight to their investors. THAT is sensationalist bullshit.
Habbo has 3 options, only one of them is practical:
(1) implement a universal absolute censorship system that hold every single comment to be vetted by a human being before being transmitted and file full criminal charges to anyone who says something remotely sexual
(2) shut down completely, and shut down any service from any other company which does not only forbid anyone under the age of 18 interacting online on their site, but actively enforcing this by demanding constant credit card-based agee verification. This includes Facebook, Youtube, Xbox Live and even The Escapist.
(3) continue as they are, being good moderators and acting on everything that is reported and working with the police and social services to educate and empower teenagers to report any harassment and teach them how to cut off unwanted communications.
Family homes have been around since John Snow was a child so he doesn't try to ban families after cases like Baby P, just that there should be better enforcement.Clearing the Eye said:
Yet Habbo is new and different, so fuck accountable enforcement, just ban this new stuff and "go outside and play you damn kids" oh wait playing outside in a park the exact same thing could happen only with far worse repercussions and no recording and tracing on IP address of interactions. Habbo is WAY safer place to learn to report unwanted advances and break off communication.
Channel 4 news is being UTTERLY NAIVE saying that every single communication should have a live and instantaneous moderator. That REALLY is the equivalent of a school having a teacher hound every single student throughout the entire school day.
Yeah, like all men. Every man has the potential to be a rapist, and arguing there can be a "good man" is a slippery slope; unless a man gets help via castration to control his sexual urges, he remains a very real risk to the men or women around him.Yan007 said:
OT: I don't like the way this report is being used. Read an article in the paper - a decent paper, too, not a red-top - about the Children's Minister (or something) taking this as justification for rampant "They're everywhere! Lock up your kids, paedos are actively hunting them all all times! BE AFRAID OF EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE!" paranoia.