Habbo Hotel

dogpoo

Has anyone had experience of their children logging into this site?

MercilessKiller

Yes. Though I'm at university, years ago when it was first released I personally used it. Ok so not my children, but, as I am now studying computing at uni I have good experience of it.

If you are worried about the safety... don't be. For all the chat rooms for children to use, Habbo is the safest.

Ok it is VERY easy to pose as someone you're not, and probably a LOT of people do (boys pretending to be girls, girls pretending to be older, boys pretending to be older to match girls etc etc....)

As for other safety issues, there are "Habbo Moderators" that wonder round the rooms of habbo 24 hours a day. There is never a chance for habbo's to communication in total privacy. Private messages/rooms are recorded afaik, and if there is any suspicion of so called "grooming" or exchaning of addresses/phone etc, then a flag is raised...

If you allow your children to use chat rooms, then habbo is a good one to use. I however would not allow my child to use anything but msn even though i'm still youngish! Reason being, even with all these precautions, real life friends are much more important, and chat rooms take away many social skills!

MSN however links real life friends.. nothing wrong with that!

Hope i helped

bamberbamboo

my son is on HABBO all the time and is also talking to people on msn that he's met through HABBO, and I can check all conversations that he has on msn through the history on msn, I'm at bit more worried aboput msn as that is instant messages and as the other poster said all HABBO conversations are followed so no swearing or giving personal details are allowed.

black-saturn

My step daughter goes on this whenever shes here and I always run a virus check afterwards and theres always the same one on there which I have to erase. Does anyone know if this site is notorious for putting viruses on your comp?

Suewre

My 13 year old went on this. Then I found out the silly idiot was using the credit on his phone to 'buy' things on Habbo Hotel. I was not very impressed.

MercilessKiller

black-saturn wrote:

My step daughter goes on this whenever shes here and I always run a virus check afterwards and theres always the same one on there which I have to erase. Does anyone know if this site is notorious for putting viruses on your comp?

The chances are the files installed on the pc are "Spyware" files rather than harmful viruses. There is a possibility these files monitor what is been said in habbo hotel for good use rather than malicious. I will start some research however.

Sue, as for spending credit on habbo hotel things, though you may not be impressed, as long as you don't keep giving him more credit on a frequent basis i'm sure he'll learn what's important.. real life communication or virtual worlds...

MercilessKiller

bamberbamboo wrote:

my son is on HABBO all the time and is also talking to people on msn that he's met through HABBO, and I can check all conversations that he has on msn through the history on msn, I'm at bit more worried aboput msn as that is instant messages and as the other poster said all HABBO conversations are followed so no swearing or giving personal details are allowed.

As long as you have access to the computer MSN Messenger conversations can be recorded, however, it can be easily avoided by unchecking one little box, thus I would not recommend it for tight security.

Depending on how technical minded the user is, they may be able to stop any form of "censorship" or monitoring software on pc's, meaning it may be harder to see what you're children are doing than you think!

There is however a device which doesn't cost too much. It goes between the keyboard connector and the back of the pc and monitors every single keystroke entered by the user. It seems like monitoring you're childrens activities would be the best use as its protective rather than malicious use. I will post back with the link soon.

The only requirement is that the keyboard uses a standard PS2 connector. Newer and wireless keyboard tend to use a USB connector (flat, while PS2 is circular).

Stay ready for links..

MercilessKiller

The keylogger device can be found on ebay here:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KeySpyer-KeyKatcher-Keylogger-64k-Surveillance-NEW-UK_W0QQitemZ5869119831QQcategoryZ33964QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(This isn't been sold by me in case you think it's a cheap way of making a sale! I just recommend its use in the circumstance!!!!)

As for Habbo Hotel.. my research has led me to believe that NO spyware/malicious files is installed by the chat client on your machine.

In case you are unsure whether it is habbo or another site that is installing the file, try doing a scan, then going on the program yourself, then doing another scan...

It's easy enough to create an account, takes 5 minutes, quickly log on and off and you should be able to see whether its Habbo or another website.

If it is another website, make sure to check your "History" in the web browser for any untrusted sites that look mysterious. Feel free to post or pm any URL's and I can see whether they install malicious programs (usually done through javascript executables integrated to websites... mainly pornographic/illegal cracks for game websites...)

Hope this helps!