Club Penguin clones ordered to shut down by Disney due to rise in hate speech and sexual content

A clone of the popular online game saw a surge in traffic during the coronavirus lockdown
cponline.pw

An unofficial copy of Disney's Club Penguin online game has been ordered to shut down after a report discovered it was rife with hate speech, sexual content and more.

The fan-run Club Penguin Online, which was not affiliated to Disney in any way, was launched in 2005 and once again became popular in light of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown.

Disney's official Club Penguin closed in 2017 and it was a safe space tended to by moderators, who blocked out and filtered inappropriate content for children and younger players who were on the game.

The BBC launched an investigation into the unofficial website version of Disney's game and it found that homophobic, anti-Semitic and sexual comments were rife among the player base.

Since this version of the game was fan-made, there were no moderators to stop any of the inappropriate conduct, allowing slurs and personal information to be freely shared.

The BBC reported that moderators also stopped removing racist content and there were some instances of players being involved in 'penguin e-sex' by sending and receiving sexual messages on the game.

One 14-year-old spoke to the BBC about this and said “I've seen people advertise strip club igloos, I've seen people ask for pimps. There's a lot of swearing on there and I've been asked a lot of crazy things. It's really put me off going on these mature servers".

In response to these revelations, Disney said it was 'appalled' by these allegations and has sent copyright notices to all private servers running the fan-made version of the game.

Disney's statement read: "Child safety is a top priority for the Walt Disney Company and we are appalled by the allegations of criminal activity and abhorrent behaviour on this unauthorised website that is illegally using the Club Penguin brand and characters for its own purposes.

”We continue to enforce our rights against this, and other, unauthorised uses of the Club Penguin game".

Club Penguin Online will now be shutting down at the end of May, as revealed in a statement on its Discord group.

“Due to recent events, we have decided that Club Penguin Online will be officially closing on 31 May, 2020. From the Club Penguin Online staff team, we want to thank each and every one of you for the memories over the past two years. It has been a pleasure to contribute to the success of Club Penguin Online and we wish you all the best in the future".

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