A MOTHER was horrified when her eight-year-old son was sent obscene messages while playing a children's online computer game.

Chantal Absolom's children have been playing MovieStarPlanet.co.uk for the past year.

But yesterday the 32-year-old Portslade mum discovered her son was subject to a stream of sexually suggestive messages - sometimes as regularly as five or six times an hour.

She said: “I was shocked and horrified. It's very creepy, worrying and seems to be a hotbed for sexual conversation from children, and maybe adults pretending to be younger.

“There is no way some of the comments were written by children judging by the language used in the comments.

“I think people need to know the dangers and we shouldn't turn a blind eye, we should do something about it.”

The free MovieStarPlanet.co.uk game creates a virtual world where youngsters can assume a character, dress it up in different clothing, shop and chat to other players.

On Thursday and Friday Mrs Absolom spotted sexually explicit messages on an open forum entitled “dirty story”.

Some of the messages seen by The Argus described young teenagers being intimate.

A tale of a 13-year-old girl who lived with an “inappropriate uncle” was also posted.

Mrs Absolom's son was contacted by users asking if he wanted to go on a date.

This is seen as part of the game but Mrs Absolom fears this could be used as a tool for child grooming.

She raised the alarm with Benfield Primary School, complained to the website and reported the incident to Sussex Police. She is setting up a Facebook page so parents can warn each other about websites they fear could be harmful.

Mrs Absolom added: “Thankfully a firewall is set up at school. Clearly I should have studied the website more but I thought it was an innocent kids' game.”

Vernon Jones, head of safety at the Denmark based company, apologised for the concern caused and said inappropriate posts were cleared from the UK forums and word filters were updated.

MovieStarPlanet.co.uk displays extensive user guidelines and safety warnings on its website.

He said: “The safety of children using the online community is of paramount concern. We are constantly developing new ways of dealing with inappropriate language and behaviour.”

He said the company “does not hesitate to make changes” and sanctions users for posting obscene comments.

Sussex Police have been unable to provide a comment so far. 

MovieStarPlanet.co.uk's statement in full:

"In relation to this particular incident, we have assessed the automated filters and re-calibrated them to include certain words that might be getting through the filtering system. We have also gone through the Forum area on the UK site to remove any posts with inappropriate language. 

"We would of course like to apologise to users or parents who feels they may have been offended by certain user generated comments they might have seen on the forum feature."

Please can you explain why young children are being subject to this type of wording when they use the website?

The safety of children using the online community is of paramount concern to everyone working at MovieStarPlanet and we are constantly developing new ways of dealing with inappropriate language and behavior. Children do test boundaries, especially within an online context, and will attempt to find ways to write inappropriate language on message boards. We remove inappropriate posts in the Forum that are not subject to the stringent automated filtering system we have in operation. We constantly monitor and update these filters. We also monitor our child safeguarding measures and will not hesitate to make changes if there is a need to further improve these safety measures.

And how you are trying to stop this from happening please?

The monitoring of Forums and Chat Rooms is undertaken by a combination of technical filters and by live moderation by trained moderators. Due to the vast amount of generated content, the automated filtering systems are employed as a first response to inappropriate language. The CRISP1 Automated Filtering and Content Management System is in operation to alert moderators about inappropriate behavior and child safeguarding issues. This fully automated filtering system is seen as enhancing our comprehensive support and safety mechanisms.
These filters alert human moderators, who systematically review forum content. In addition to employing trained moderators, a dedicated team of Support Managers evaluate online content, implement safety measures and provide online support to parents and children using the MovieStarPlanet site. All moderators undergo an induction course and internal training related to online safety and child safeguarding issues. They have also received specialized training in relation to online grooming, conflict resolution and cyber bullying from the Online Safety Team at Save the Children Denmark and other experts who specialize in online child protection. When online, Moderators can be distinguished from users by a “Moderator badge” attached to their avatar.
We cooperate with law enforcement agencies such as CEOP and the UK Safer Internet Centre in relation to child safeguarding issues. A safety video has recently been produced to give children and parents a better insight into our online safety measures. We worked with Child Net International in producing this safety video.


How many complaints have you had about sexually explicit content on the website in the last year and how have you dealt with these?

We have received 2 similar cases in the last year to the one you are referring to. All reports are assessed by the trained support team and appropriate action is taken to remove inappropriate Forum Posts. Sanctions are also given to users who have written inappropriate messages on the Forum or in Chat Rooms. This could be a warning or a lock from using the game. Moderators can refer to their Support Manager for help and assistance on complex issues. If it is assessed that a child is at risk of significant harm, we have protocols in place that allows us to refer these cases directly to CEOP2.

For information visit:

http://www.crispthinking.com/
http://ceop.police.uk/