VMK Moderators Do Their Job

Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom has definitely been a hit with the 8-12, afterall they have created 1.4 million avatars and there are somewhere between 3 and 4 million "rooms". The VMK staff has done a great job of keeping this area of cyberspace reasonably safe by limiting the hours that the game is open, setting specific guidelines of use, blocking the use of many words that kids could use to give out personal information, and moderating the site.

Now, most saavy kids will get around most of the word blocking - according to my kids, there is a whole VMK language. Am I surprised? No. But the moderators do their job! We know this first hand.

About three weeks ago my daughter was on VMK and her best friend that we see weekly was on too. Let's just say she had a blonde moment! She asked her friend to call her and her friend attempted to ask for my daughter's phone number. Why, we don't know. It's on her speed dial for crying out loud. Anyhow, let's just say that the Disney moderators banned my daughter, her friend and both of their brothers (because they siblings are tied to each other based on my email) for one month.

The tears began to roll, we explained why what they did was wrong, and my friend and I applauded the VMK staff for doing their job. We didn't try to explain what went wrong or that it was an innocent mistake. The kids have all learned a valuable life lesson - whether they wanted to or not.

So, just a few more days and VMK will let them back in and I hope they will not make the same mistake again.

Thank you Disney moderators!