Behavior and Safety Issues Island Guide Roles in Behavioral Issues Terms of Service (TOS) Guidelines Moderators Follow Underage Users Safety Issues Crisis Situations HotLine Numbers Island Guide Roles in Behavioral Issues Island Guides have as their primary function to be friendly, answer questions, pass on information about ways to have fun and integrate into life in There.  They are not moderators and, in fact, we suggest that you do NOT try to correct anyone's behavior.  Things will go much smoother for you if you keep the friendly face on and don't go into corrector mode.  Let moderators handle behavior situations. Here is what we expect from you in terms of behavior. Know the terms of service Follow it and model it Inform the new members of means they have to protect themselves. How to Handle Griefers  Contact moderators (Helpers or Greeters) when you feel the situation warrants it Know how to collect evidence to send it to abuse.  This could be screen shots, chat logs, or video clips.  Some of the guides use FRAPS, found at fraps.com as a program to capture video.  This is particularly useful when the abuse is in voice.  Send in evidence by clicking Get Help>>Help Central and clicking Ask a Question.  This will give you a form to fill out and it will allow you to attach documentation such as screen shots, video clips, and chat logs. (More on this below) Terms of Service Company documentation explaining TOS. Behavior Guidelines More on Behavior Points from Terms of Service 1. This is a PG-13 World Language that is too graphic, too vulgar, too abusive.  Content that is overtly violent, sexual, or promotes drug use is not allowed.  The PG13 promise is made to our young users who may feel more comfortable in a PG13 environment and to the parents who allow their young teens to come here. Your words are your actions. Avoid obscenities, profanity, verbal assault, disruption of conversational flow, sexual harassment, racial and religious slurs, pornographic language and/or images, defamation. The occasional bad word in a story among a group of friends is not something that will generate moderation.  However, a story peppered with vulgar language can offend new members or their parents and should not occur, particularly in spawn areas. Sexual activity: No cybering!  Members can discuss issues of sexuality (e.g. “I think I might be gay”, or “I’m worried about my friend, she’s having sex with her boyfriend and I don’t think she’s ready”). These discussions are normal conversations among friends and are more appropriately held in private settings.  It crosses the line when they are engaging in their own sexual activity (i.e. cybering). Violence: If in the context of game play and it’s all in good fun, that’s fine.  If it crosses the line into something that appears to be a real threat of physical violence, that’s when it’s a violation (e.g. “I know where you live and am going to come and hurt/harass you”). Drug use: Members are allowed to discuss issues related to drugs, talk about serious issues.  They should probably hold these conversations in private areas if the conversation might be offensive to those nearby.  Members are not allowed to promote drug use or use There in any way to sell drugs. 2.     Griefing and Harssment of Members is not allowed. When someone uses their language or other behavior for the purpose of or with the result of the fact that it is interfering with another member's experience of There, it is termed to be harassment. Some situations of this are very clear-cut, such as when one member is verbally abusive of another due to his religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, etc. This is not allowed and can be stopped by a moderator. Griefing can occur through language, proximity, vehicles, paintguns, by any means with which one member can interrupt the experience of another. Some issues are less clearly harassment.  For example if someone enters into a conversation group and spams the conversation with sound, music, or chat bubbles, the group may or may not be appreciative.  If they find the conversation disruptive to what they were doing before this person arrived, they should inform him that they consider the behavior harassment or griefing.  If he continues after being informed, this becomes a moderatable issue.   Example:  A person is trying to complete a foot race for There Games.  Another member keeps bumping him off the path with a buggy.  This is harassment. 3. Denial of Service Denial of Service is affecting a member in such a way that they cannot access the service or parts of the service that they wish to use.  This can be quite serious in the case of hacking accounts, blocking websites, fraud.  It can also be accomplished at a simpler level by blocking access or the use of funzones or other areas in There. Example:  A racing host wants to hold a tournament.  It's necessary to inform the racers in the zone box as to who is to race when, the racing order, when to lap, etc.  Someone enters the zone and spams the zone box, starts races at random times,  etc.  He is not allowing the members to use the zone in the way it was intended.  He's griefing and causing denial of service. 4.  Illegal Activity Anything illegal in the areas There serves is not allowed in There.  This would include prostitution, illegal gambling, identity theft, general theft, fraud, drug sales as examples. 5.  Employee Spoofing It is against TOS to pretend to be an employee through : --overt statements, "I'm a mod in this game," --making an account with an official looking name, i.e. Gr33ter_Jo 6.  Comply with the directions of Staff Situations arise when staff members need to direct members to alter their behavior or change location in the best interest of the experience of our members.  When such occasions arise, members should follow the directions of staff. About Moderators Greeters and Helpers are both moderator groups. There are some differences between those groups, and there are guidelines that they all must follow. Here is what you need to know. Greeters have duties other than moderation.  They have events to host and they must attend to the First Visit program of welcoming new members.  Helpers are on call for abuse issues a wider span of hours than the greeters are.   Greeters do not act on recorded evidence, but the Helper team does.  Greeters act on what they can see or hear. If you need to send in a chat log or screen shot, send that in to abuse via a Help Central  report.  To access Help Central, click the HELP button at the top of the There Central page.  Then select "Ask a question." You will have a form to fill out and a place to attach files such as chat logs. Greeters act on what they can see or hear.  If you are observing a 'swearing match' on Zona, you have to help the Greeter witness it.  It's not enough for you to tell us what was heard before. We cannot act on heresay, we have to see it or hear it ourselves.  Help that happen by IMing us and answering the questions we need to ask to observe the situation effectively. All moderators act on evidence, not hearsay.  All moderators will first try to privately educate the offender about his actions.  This will be done in IM if possible. Appropriate actions will be determined by the offense and previous moderation history. The moderation will not be discussed with others, including the one making the call to the moderator.  [This can seem quite dissatisfying to the person making the call.  Someone is swearing... a Greeter appears but never speaks.. the offender goes away.. the Greeter goes away.  That's what you may see, but perhaps what happened was this:  Someone is swearing.. the Greeter appears and observes the situation.. she IMS the person to warn him of his violation .. he swears back at the Greeter in IM.. she mutes him for a while.. he gets angry and logs out.. the Greeter goes away.  There are actually a number of scenarios that could have occurred that all look the same.  What you need to realize is that if the situation stopped, action was taken whether it be a warning that was heeded or an account ban.  It is in the concern of customer privacy that we do not discuss moderations with others. Our hope is always to have the best member experience for all our members.  These guidelines are intended to keep as many of our members as possible.  We feel that to do that we must maintain fair rules as stated in the TOS and do everything we can do to educate our customers about those and give them chances to learn to abide by the rules. REMINDER:  Island Guides are not charged with reporting anyone.  We DO NOT encourage you to become involved in behavior situations. However, we know that there will be times when you wish to report someone, and for that reason we include the notes below.  Please remember that Island Guides are meant to be friendly and help people have fun.  They do not have policing or reporting as a duty. When to Call for Live Help Live Help chat sessions should only be initiated for true 'emergency' situations.  An emergency is NOT something like "someone's bothering me and I'm really annoyed and I want a Helper to come get them out of here now"  or "I found a PortaZone that might be a violation of the placement policies - I want it removed now, now, now!!"    Those things should be reported through Get Help > Report Abuse  and they can rest assured that someone will review and take care of it soon.   A true emergency is more like "someone is saying or doing something that might be illegal" or "someone might actually be in immediate physical danger here."  In some cases event disruption would apply.  If you've tried everything possible - ignoring, removing from the event, etc. but you literally can't continue to run this event because of this griefer's disruptions, then calling for help might be appropriate. How to Call for Live Help Click Get Help> Report Abuse> and the appropriate category, often it will be Voice Chat Abuse Fill in the name of the offending avatar Describe the offense.  You should include your avatar name, a description of the offense, being sure to note if the offense occured in voice or text. State if the offense is occuring currently and the general location.  It's helpful to know if the problem is occuring in a private or public area. Submit the report Only if the matter is urgent, should you click to open a Live Chat How to Submit Evidence When you use the procedure outlined above, i.e. click Get Help> Report Abuse> and a category, a screenshot and chat log will automatically be attached.  It will be the chat log of conversations in general in chat bubbles around you. If you need to attach something else, including a different chat log, click Get Help>Help Central>Ask a Question. If you are not sure which categories to use, click View All to view the possible offenses.  When you click on the offense you want to report, the category blanks will be automaticaly filled in. In your report include Your avatar name The offenders avatar name A description of the offense If the offense is occuring at the moment The general location of the offense including whether the area was privately owned or public Attach appropriate documentation Screen shots You can use the There Cam to take screen shots, but remember that it does not show name tags.   You will need to capture a speech bubble to see the avatar's name You can also take screen shots by clicking PrtScn (Print Screen), opening a graphics program such as Paint, PaintShop Pro, or PhotoShop and clicking Edit>Paste.  Then save the photo. Chat Logs There saves your chat logs in a folder found at Documents>Makena>There>Userdata>chatlogs The files are given a name that refers to when they were last auto saved, so you can use the date and time to help you find the right one. At any given time, There may be saving files for zone windows, IMs, and general chat (open bubbles).  Be sure you find the right one to attach. You may be able to locate it by doing a search on your computer for the offenders name or some phrase you remember from the chat. Attach the entire file, not just some portion of it. Video Clips Unfortunately when abuse occurs in voice, the only ways to get evidence of that are by direct observation by a moderator or by submitting a video clip.  The There client does not have the ability built in the capture video clips with sound.  Some members use external programs such as FRAPS or CamStudio.  If you have the ability to capture video with sound and wish to submit evidence in that form, be sure the file size is fairly small or it may not work as an attachment at Help Central. Underage Users No one under the age of 13 is allowed to use There without written parental permission.  If someone tells you he is under 13, send the chat log or other evidence to abuse via Help Central.  Ask them to check to see if written parental permission is on file.  Please do not try to explain the rule or engage in an argument with the individual.  Just report it in ticket form if you run across this situation. Safety Issues The printed Safety Tips 1.  NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR PASSWORD.  Don't take anyone else's password.  Remind members to never give out their passwords. 2.  Proactively try to educate people about the importance of remaining anonymous.  The most important element of online safety, so that teens can protect themselves, is that they should never give personal info – real full names (first name only is fine), see PII list – this is info that could be used to locate someone offline.  If Greeters see someone giving out that info, they can say “Hey that’s probably not such a good idea” (make attempt to educate). Personally identifying information is anything that would allow someone to physically locate a user offline.  PII that should not be shared or posted online includes:   Real full names (first names only are fine) Real full names of friends and family Street addresses Zip codes and postal codes Home & mobile telephone numbers School names and addresses After-school activity information when tied to a specific school or location (ie. “Jefferson Tiger Football Team”, “EHS Class President”, “Girl Scout Troop #678”) Social security numbers Credit card numbers Photographs, video & webcam links that show a user’s real appearance Specific location of real world outings (concerts, malls, restaurants, etc.) 3.  Watch out for people who may be seeking to find a person in real life.  If someone's behavior alarms you, tell a greeter or send in a Help Central report.  Do NOT make any accusations, just send in your concerns to allow staff to follow up. Things to look out for –  ASL age is adult, in combination with that person engaging in inappropriate chat.  Someone who claims to be an authority figure like a staff member, celebrity, modeling agent, talent scout – and in combo with that appears to be trying to solicit personal info.  4.  Do not directly accuse anyone in world or in chat, etc. of being a stalker or predator. If you suspect that this behavior is happening, please report it to Help right away."  Crisis Situations Scripts for Online Community Crisis Situations In online community terminology, a “crisis situation” occurs when a community member indicates they may be in a life-threatening situation or some kind of physical danger. Crisis situations tend to happen more frequently in teen online communities, including suicide threats, abuse, rape, self-harm, and eating disorders.  When Island Guides encounter crisis situations it is very important that they do not offer any advice or counseling themselves. In fact, it’s best to stay away from anything that could be construed as counseling, even if they have been trained in counseling services.  In lieu of advising the member themselves, they should instead be prepared in advance with appropriate hotline numbers and internet resources and direct members to these resources instead, using a version of the following script: I’m sorry to hear you’re going through a hard time right now. If you’re in immediate danger please call 911 right away. For your particular situation it’s best to get help offline. You should talk to a trusted adult in your area. Also, here are some other resources where you can find help. [appropriate hotline #] Good luck and I hope things get better soon.   HotLine Numbers Hotline Numbers – US Suicide and Depression National Youth Crisis Hotline 800-442-HOPE (4673) Suicide Hotlines http://suicidehotlines.com/ 1-800-784-2433   NMHA Resource Center http://www.nmha.org/infoctr/ 1-800-969-NMHA (6642) (TTY: 1-800-433-5959) Abuse and Rape RAINN http://www.rainn.org/counseling.html 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233 | 1-800-787-3244 (TTY) National Runaway Switchboard http://www.nrscrisisline.org/ 1-800-621-4000 Self-Harm YouthNoise Self Injury Information http://www.youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1410 Eating Disorders National Eating Disorders Association http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/ 1-800-931-2237   United Kingdom:  Emergency services number is 999 Suicide and Depression Childline http://www.childline.org.uk/ 0800 11 11 | Hearing impaired: 0800 400 222 Samaritans http://www.samaritans.org.uk/ 08457 90 90 90 | Ireland: 1850 60 90 90 Abuse and Rape NSPCC http://www.nspcc.org.uk Rape Crisis Centre 020 7837 1600 Rape & Sexual Abuse Helpline: 0808 800 0123 Self-Harm SupportLine Self Injury Information http://www.supportline.org.uk/problems/selfinjury.php 020 8554 9004 Eating Disorders Eating Disorders Association Youthline 0845 634 7650 http://www.edauk.com/