Thursday, December 4, 2008

I have violated Disney's online MANNER

I have recently started to play and even pay for an online disney game called "Disney Fairies". I can make friend with other fairies there and in fact the game encourages us to, we can earn a badge for making more friends.

There is a instant message function in the game. Some days ago, when I was playing the game, a fairy there greeted me and started to chat with me. I have made friends there before that but I haven't really have a dialogue with them. However, I always wonder how old the person I am talk to is. But then, I have found that many of the words I have typed become "..." in the speech bubble. And the fairy I was talking to started to ask me, "Why aren't you in cool?" I couldn't figure out what she maens. Then she told me, "They don't allow you to say the real thing. So don't try it. We use other words here." I have found that, "school", "homework" and even numbers (like "two")are prohibited words there. To make it short, I can just say I was really glad to know the girl and I would very much love to talk to her in skype or any other platform which we don't have to use secret codes.

The day after that, another girl came to me. Very quickly, we used secret codes to share our account name on facebook. We had a great time chatting in facebook then. However, the next day I woke up, I got an email from Disney Fairies which told me I am a bad guy who has violated their online rules and manner. My account would be suspended for 72 hours as a "reminder". Further violation of the house rule may lead to account suspension and termination. And here are the rules which included in the "term of use" which everyone of us tends to tick and skip reading it:

We are concerned about your safety online, so exchanging personal information through Disney's community of web sites is not permitted. This includes information like your name, age, e-mail address, school name, phone number, or city of residence. In addition, any discussion of Web addresses or social networking Web sites where personal information is or can be posted or exchanged are not allowed...to learn more about online safety and manners. Understand that this 72-hour hold serves as a reminder to promote a safer, more pleasant online experience for all Guests.

Please note that the email started with quoting the dialogue between my friend and I which violates the rule. They have "specialist" in checking our conversation...

I totally understand some underage girl could be exposed to some really bad guys there. However, not only girls play the game, lady and man too. I think this experience worths our attention esp. on how Disney define what is suitable for kids to talk about in the game (like "homework") and how Disney imagine what its customers are.

1 comment:

M said...

The movie was kinda good.
I'm really interested in the Zodiac case.