How to: Understand ChessKid's Safety Features
ChessKid.com takes the safety of children online very seriously. As ChessKid.com grows, we continue to develop new features and take new measures (whatever is necessary) to keep your kids safe on our website!
Along with providing a fun and educational environment for kids to learn chess, safety is our highest priority. Here's what parents, coaches and school administrators need to know about our comprehensive and original safety tools.
If you need more information about the site's safety, please contact our support team ([email protected]).
Adults Talking to Kids:
- Adult accounts cannot talk to kids. Ever. ChessKid does not allow adult accounts to "friend" kid accounts, or vice-versa.
- An adult who has Guardianship of a kid can send a kid a message, since he/she, by definition, should be the coach or parent in real life.
- If a parent also wants to have Guardianship of their child (in addition to the coach), he/she can do so by adding Guardianship.
- The only exception is staff accounts. Kids can be friends with FunMasterMike, PoppaBear and the other staff members.
Kids Talking to Kids:
- Kids cannot message nor chat with each other on the site, regardless of if they are "friends" or are in the same Club.
What are "Friends"?
- ChessKid is not a social networking site in any way. However, we encourage kids to play chess with friends & family they know in real life!
- Kids may become "friends" with each other if they both send each other a friend request. Our system is "double-blind," meaning when one kid sends a request, the other will not see it (kids do not see pending friend requests). This is so that kids who do not know each other in real life won't be friends on the site.
- The best reason to have friends on the site is to see when they are playing in Fast (live) chess. In "Fast Chess," kids can click on the "Friends & Clubmates" tab on the right and make a direct challenge to other kids they know who are also online & in "Fast Chess." See how to play fast chess.
What Ways Do Guardians Have to Oversee Their Kids?
- If you would prefer your kids not to be able to make friends with anyone, check "Disable Social Access" from the kid's "Edit Kid" page.
- Kids are only able to message their Guardians, but you can always check to see what messages your kids are sending by selecting "impersonate account" and reading their messages.
FunMasterMike's Advice:
Kids can post in Club forums and respond to Club news items, but since guardians control what clubs they are in, you can monitor them easily.
Kids should not actively recruit friends that they don't know. We don't want to see kids posting messages like "everyone friend me."
There's always a small chance that something will slip through our elaborate cracks! If something improper is happening on the site, please contact our support team ([email protected]).