eModeration interviewed by Amy Jussel on 'Shaping Youth' Part One

In a splendid 'social-media-will-eat-itself' kind of way, the extract below is a Q&A with eModeration from online youth marketing expert Amy Jussel's excellent blog 'Shaping Youth'. We're rather proud (OK, very proud) that Amy came to do a lengthy interview with us, and here's what she's published as part 1:


In an effort to create outreach, understanding and turn a ‘rose in the fisted glove’ media management approach into a useful, productive shared energy that benefits all in terms of online behavior management, I’m going to launch into a multi-part series ‘behind the scenes’ with industry safety pros and online moderators.

Hopefully, it will give parents a feel for ‘who’s watching the kids,’ how the digital world works from the inside out, and why it matters to be savvy as a digizen regardless of how little or how often either kids or adults are hanging out online.

There are several moderation firms for hire that reveal the underbelly of the gaming industry and virtual world communities…from Metaverse ModSquad (great media literacy peek for parents here on their WeboSaurs “meet the people behind the magic” event to educate parents about what goes on in their community) to online tween community specialists like Izzy Neis currently working for Gazillion Entertainment…We’d like to hear from many and all…

For now, I’m starting with Tamara Littleton’s crew at eModeration as they’re massively experienced in this realm as one of the world’s most respected outsourced moderation and community management agencies, with offices in London, New York and Los Angeles.
Their tagline? “Protecting your users and brand 24/7″…They graciously agreed to wade through my lengthy, verbose Q & A to tackle some of our ‘crowd-sourced’ questions from the parent posse who are very eager for answers on ‘what to know’ BEFORE kids are ‘of age’ to engage.

We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface, so feel free to add your voice to this discussion to help parents and kids become savvy ‘digizens.’


Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth: Tell us what parents should know BEFORE allowing kids to enter multiplayer chats either in-game or on-console. (etiquette, data privacy, role-playing etc.)


eModeration: For younger children, turn off chat channels completely – particularly zone-wide public channels. Kids of six, say, can still have a great time in low-level games without chat. As they grow in confidence, skills, and as you get a feel for the lie of the land, you can consider removing safety features gradually. It’s always a good idea to keep a very close eye on the amount kids can interact with others….

You could think about letting your ‘tween’ whisper and trade with other players, depending on their maturity. You could also gradually remove blocks on guild and group membership invitations – but it’s a good plan to disable voice chat features, like Ventrilo and TeamSpeak, perhaps even for teens.

Some argue that it’s these kinds of interactions which ‘make’ the MMO experience, and that children who aren’t yet ready to use them might be best playing with a parent to guide them.
Alternatively, you could encourage your kid towards a single-player RPG (role playing game) and save the massive multiplayer online gaming experience (MMORPG) till they are older. Whether they know it or not, kids who are gamers are constructing a virtual reputation that might well come back to haunt them.

Other players take screen shots and post them on social networks; gaming companies keep chat-logs and records of your child’s game actions – but kids have real difficulty understanding that what they do in-game will stick around forever, let alone why that might cause them problems down the line.

If you can get this message across, you’ll be doing a great job.


Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth: Along those lines of things ‘sticking’… Studies show most kids are chatting among their known peers, not strangers, and are media literate about protecting their profiles, but LESS sophisticated about ‘real time’ gaffes ...How can we best instill media literacy to prevent items that can’t be ‘taken back’ either inside a ‘chat’ context online or a real time ’status update’? (For teens using social media parents are VERY concerned about mobile-social GPS safety, profile posting that’s regretted later; whereabouts, photos with too much information, etc. )


eModeration: This HAS to be all about education, and it’s not just down to moderators to teach young people. It should be a shared responsibility: teachers, publishers, children’s channels, moderators, government/private bodies, peers, family and careproviders… anyone working with children and anyone trying to make their money out of children’s access to the web or communication devices.

We all have role to play in teaching young people about the consequences of their actions. Izzy Neis has a great phrase to describe this… What you do on the web/across mobile devices is ‘invisible cement’… To quote from her blog:

“Whatever you do – it’s there… crusty and solid, just not necessarily obvious or visible to you or those around you. But TRUST… it’s there … everyone should start these conversation about “You and Your Rep in the Online World.” Sounds so dry and so suckish… but VERY necessary. …If YOU don’t start talking about it, who will? Go home. Teach your family how to protect themselves like Clark Kent & Superman. Explain the web’s notorious invisible cement, [...] the lack of giant invisible erasers.
Speak about Megan Meier (google her if you don’t know who that is), or about this kid labeled a PERV. Talk about the girls from Florida in that HORRIBLE Youtube fight. Speak about Vanessa Hutchinson and her forwarded pictures and the horrible fall out, and the embarrassment it caused her and her family.
…But more than anything…. TALK. I don’t care if you have a family of your own or not. Talk to your friends over drinks. Get discussion rolling. Everyone will benefit. Trust.…

Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth: How can we encourage and even incentivize kids to self-police their own online communities in addition to formal moderation methods?


eModeration: With, I think, a combination of education and direct incentives. A lot of social networks reward good behavior by giving the users something extra, a status symbol within the site of some kind (Habbo Hotel use badges).

First – via schools, parents and caregivers, cyber-mentorship and the site itself – we have to get the message out about privacy and what is/isn’t acceptable online behavior. Then the site should reassure users that they won’t be ’sneaking’ if they report another’s behavior. It can then reward users who have *correctly* flagged another user, or stepped in to guide someone else in the right way.

Educate, model good behavior and reward it appropriately. There’s a lot of good work being done in the whole area of positive moderation and reputations by the good people at Reputation Share…(editors’ note: Reputation Share is a partner org of eModeration)


Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth: If you had to name THREE core resources for virtual world/online communities, what/who would they be (assuming you were sending our readers there for ‘what to know before you go’ tips, etc.)


eModeration: Actually there are too many – so best to follow our blog … There are a lot of really good sites out there, providing a lot of educational resources, but what’s good for parents might not be suitable for teenagers or help professional workers…then there are cultural and regional differences too! Aside from Shaping Youth of course invaluable resources are CEOP (good for professional working in this sector, great schools resources, and training: they run the ThinkUKnow portal), VirtualWorldsNews – the place to go for industry news on this sector and Kzero a great research resource again for the industry. For sites with a safety angle I would say Beatbullying (peer-to-peer mentoring program, advice and online help), Get Safe Online, a public/private initiative, giving clear simple advice…In Europe - Insafe and in the US- FOSI, Connect Safely (guidance and help forums),The Safer Internet Alliance (public/private organization aimed at protecting vulnerable users from crime and abuse) And…well…I’m past three already, so again, best to just follow our eModeration blog…


More from the eModeration crew tomorrow on Amy's Shaping Youth blog. Thanks to Amy for the opportunity to pontificate!