For the past few weeks, a bad actor has been actively creating free accounts with offensive pet names and then earning high scores in specific games so that those pet names are shown to all players. We have been removing these names as fast as we can find them. Unfortunately, this person refuses to stop and at this time we have been forced to take more drastic steps.
We have now reduced the number of letters shown in our high score lists and high score displays in the arcade for pet names down to three, matching the Usernames. This is not a long-term solution, as we know that players work hard to get onto these lists and enjoy seeing their pets displayed, but it will effectively stop the problem.
Our pet name system relies on a bad word filter, aka a blacklist. We block hundreds of bad words and words that we don’t want to see in pet names. And for over twenty years, this has worked. The vast majority of players give their pets fun names that expresses their creativity and love for their pet. Unfortunately, people can say very bad things with common words that are not bad words by themselves.
We are looking into longer term solutions that will maintain our players ability to use fun and creative names, while preventing the abuse we are seeing here. We hope to roll these out in the new year.
We do apologize to all players who have had to view these offensive names. We value all our incredible players and see Webkinz World as an inclusive, welcoming space for everyone.
The Webkinz Team
Thank you for stepping in and stopping this. What if free accounts were not allowed to have “high score of the day,” or if a newly-created account with a free pet were only allowed to choose names from a pull-down menu?
Those are both good thoughts!
Those are good ideas! I’ve been thinking for ages though, it seems like they should just be able to expand out the filters. If they’re manually moderating names when reports come in, shouldn’t they be able to just add more words to the list at that time? Someone’s already going over a name by hand just add 1 more little step to that process, you know? Over time the number of possible problem names would dwindle if they slowly added things like cuss words with alternate spellings (i or 1 instead of L, etc.) as they popped up anyway.
Seconding this, it’s unfortunate, but it may be the only way for now.
Thank you!
Thank you Webkinz, I love this game and have been playing for over 15 years and I have never had a problem, until I see those pets with those terrible names and it ruins my day. Thank you for taking care of us <3
Thank you for watching over us!
Thank you for all you do to protect this game. It is always fun to play and try to be entertaining.*
People can be cruel but we have a wonderful life within the Webkinz family thank you for protecting us and our feelings.
Thank You for all you do to protect us. Can’t their accounts be deleted?
Such a shame that one person can ruin it for others. I always enjoy seeing what others named their pets.
Thank you Webkinz team, for always doing your best to allow true fan players to express ourselves in good circumstances! I’m truly grateful to hear about your continued efforts to stop this unruly behavior. Love you Webkinz!! :)
Thank you SO MUCH for addressing this. I was going to report it yesterday, I’m happy others did so. I know many of us here are adults, but for this bad actor to do this in a children’s game is just horrible. Thank again for addressing this so quickly!