Parents

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Parents' Guide to Tootsville V (the game)

Tootsville is a fun, safe place for your whole family to play together online. Here are some hints and information to help you make the most of it.

  • Note, we use “parent” here to mean, “parent, legal guardian, guardian ad litem, or other person responsible for a child,” in the general sense.

Signing In

We require sign-ins using a Google Account, which means each person signing in *must* be over the age of 13 years. (Visit http://MyAccount.Google.Com/ to sign up or check your settings. This is the same account you might use for Google-owned services like Gmail, YouTube, Google Docs/Drive, or Google+, among other things.)

Teen-agers can have their own accounts, that means — it's up to you.

Younger kids will need a parent to sign them in.

Child Accounts

You can create accounts for your children to use. Once created, you can give permanent or temporary “guardianship” to other adults.

For example: Jane and John have two children; Adam is 16, and Brenda is 9. Jane signs in with her Google Account and creates a Child account for Brenda. John and Adam each sign in to their own Google accounts.

Since Jane knows John and Adam's Google account names (which are usually Gmail e-mail addresses, like `johndoe@gmail.com`), she can add them both as family members and give John permanent permission to sign in for Brenda.

John and Jane go out, and leave Adam to babysit for Brenda. While they're away, Jane gets a request on her smartphone from Adam to let Brenda sign in. She gives Adam temporary permission to sign in Brenda.

Kids and Adult Content

Let's face it: we can't police everyone, all the time. Just like in the real world, some players may use language that we don't want our younger children to hear, or discuss adult topics like alcohol, sex, or smoking.

While it has never happened yet, there's also the remote possibility that some kind of online child predator might attempt to interact with a child through the game, possibly even masquerading as another child, themself. (Obviously, we would work strenuously with law enforcement if we ever were to suspect such activity.)

Ultimately, we have to say, it's *your* responsibility to monitor your child's online interactions. However, we do provide the tools to make it easier.

The Black Diamond ◆

To help remind adults to act appropriately around children, a black diamond symbol (◆) appears next to the names of children. This is to help other players to know that they should “mind their manners” around these players.

You can voluntarily place a White Diamond (◇) next to your own character's name. This lets others know that you would prefer that they avoid offensive speech around you. We refer to this as the “Sensitive Player” symbol.

Sidekick Mode

You can join up with your younger child as a “sidekick” pair. (You can decide if you're their sidekick, or they're yours.) In this mode, you'll be able to “hear” everything that your child can hear, and even “mute” other players.

“Be Nice!" Button

The “Be Nice!” button can be used to ask another player to watch their language. It appears in every speech bubble, when you tap on the speech balloon or move your mouse pointer over it, and looks like a “thumbs down” symbol. When you click it, the other player will get a warning reminding them to play nicely with others.

Reporting Inappropriate Conduct

There are two different rules at play, here:

  • Completely inappropriate conduct includes hate speech, bullying, and other extreme language.
  • Contextually inappropriate conduct includes using profanity, discussing sex, drugs, alcohol, or violence, or other similar content around children or when it makes other users uncomfortable.

Hate speech, bullying, and so forth should always be reported by clicking the “Be Nice!” button three times. The icon will turn into a Warning Sign (⚠) and you'll see a pop-up confirmation box.

Contextually inappropriate language cannot be reported unless there are children or sensitive players (marked by the black or white diamond by their name) nearby.

Adults-Only Areas

Some places in the game may be reserved for adults. These Adults Only areas will not allow children (or anyone with the “Sensitive Player” setting enabled) to enter.

Hate speech or bullying are *never* allowed, but these locations provide a safe haven in which adults can discuss topics not appropriate around children.

One such location in Toot Square Mall is Quiggen's Coffee. Also in Tootsville (city) is the Dawn Montgomery Cabaret, and at Taft Landing is Blossum's Scuttlebutt.

Movies

Theatre Downtown plays movies from the Creative Commons. We pre-select movies that are appropriate for general audiences (equivalent to a “G” or “PG” type rating in the US), but not all movies may be appropriate for younger children; eg, they may be scary or contain some violence. The marquee outside the Theatre tells what shows are scheduled.