Online safety is our number one priority when it comes to your wellbeing within Avakin Life. Because we want to make sure our content is safely appropriate for those experiencing it, you have to be at least 13 in order to play Avakin Life, (anyone that admits to being younger than this will get removed from the game permanently, this include age play).
Avakin Life unites people from all over the world, and chatting with people you don’t know could potentially expose you to danger. This is why we have comprehensive in-game moderation tools to assist in safeguarding our players. Here are some basic guidelines that you should follow when using Avakin Life:
Do not disclose personal information.
Avakin Life allows you to be yourself without exposing any personal information. While it’s fun to connect with lots of Avakins from all over the world, avoid providing any information that could be used to personally identify you, for example your home address or phone number. On the internet, people aren’t always who they say they are, so we advise caution when adding new acquaintances to your friends list. Please be wary of sharing social media details, once you start communicating outside of our app we can no longer help you stay safe.
Under no circumstances should you disclose your account email or password to anyone. Official LKWD staff will NEVER ask you for your password. Don’t fall for the popular phishing scam, where a user will promise coins or items in exchange for your account information. If someone wants to gift you, they can gift you in-game the normal way.
We also advise everyone to only play Avakin Life on their own password-protected device.
Reporting & Blocking.
If you are in any way uncomfortable with another player, you can ‘Block’ them. This means they will not be able to contact you in any way within Avakin Life. They will also not be able to join you in the same scene. You can block a player by going onto their profile and selecting ‘Block’. If you block someone that is a Friend, they will automatically be removed from your Friends list.
If anyone is being negative or mean towards you or another player, you can submit a ‘Grief Report’. This is sent directly to our team of moderators who will carefully read the recent chat logs between you and the other player, and then action will be taken against them accordingly. You will not receive a notification if any action has been taken against them, however be rest assured that each and every report will be manually read by a human moderator.
You can also report another player for breaking any of the game rules which can be found here: http://www.avakin.com/community-guidelines/
To learn more about how to stay safe online, please visit these other resources:
Netsmartz.org
KidsHealth.Com
SafeTeens.com
CyberTipLine.com
As a parent, please consider the following guidelines to help your teens make safe decisions about using Avakin Life and other online communities.
Avakin Life is an online virtual world that allows teens and adults alike to chat and make new friends. As with all things on the internet, we understand that being safe online is a shared responsibility between the service provider, teens and their parents. At Lockwood, we take teen safety seriously. We have full time support staff that deal with any in-game abuse or issues between players. Our reporting system is a useful tool for our players who can easily report a user if they are being offensive, or making them uncomfortable.
First and foremost, you will need to ensure that your teen is old enough to play Avakin Life. You need to be 13 to play. We will delete users whom we find to be younger than 13, or those misrepresenting their age.
We advise all parents to enable the available parental control tools on their devices and app store settings. This will prevent any apps from being downloaded without the parent’s permission. Here are some links that will help you set up parental controls and restrictions:
http://www.imore.com/restrictions
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/google-android/parental-control-on-android-image-3461359/
Enabling restrictions will also prevent your teens from making in-game purchases without permission. If your teen has made a purchase without permission, you can apply for a refund within your order history.
Know what your children are doing online and who they are talking to. Avakin Life allows users to express themselves in the way their Avakins look, the way their Avakins dress, where they chat, etc. Talk to your teens about how they represent themselves on Avakin Life.
Members shouldn’t post anything they wouldn’t want the world to know (e.g., your real name, your phone number, address, screens names from other IM clients, or specific whereabouts) in either chats or on their homepages. Tell your teens they should avoid posting or saying anything in a chat that would make it easy for a stranger to find them, such as their local hangouts, where they go to school, etc.
To learn more please visit these other resources:
– NEVER give out your account details to anybody, even official staff will never ask you for your password. If you ever get a message offering you coins in exhange for your password, please report them in-game using the report feature as they are attempting to steal your account.
– When creating your account, use a password that is hard to guess. A combination of letters, numbers and special characters would be preferable! Use an email address that is only being used by you, as someone you share an email with would be able to have a new password sent. It is best to always keep a note of your password in a safe place just in case you forget it.
– If you are playing Avakin Life on your PC, please make sure that you have industry recognized anti-virus protection software installed. Some recognized software includes Norton Anti-Virus, Kaspersky, and McAfee.
– Don’t share your Avakin Life, or app store account with anyone. Not only does this compromise security but this is also against the game rules.
– If you lose access to your account, please contact our support team and we will do our best to assist you: www.avakin.com/support