SpeedChat allows players to communicate using a controlled, limited vocabulary: pre-written phrases they choose from an onscreen menu. These phrases range from friendly, ("Hi everybody!") to strategy and teamwork ("I need a Toon-Up.") to phrases that change based on the ToonTask you are working on ("I need to defeat 10 Legal Eagles.")
Disney's Toontown Online is all about
teamwork.
Accounts with players under 13 years of age are required to have a Parent Password. The Parent Password controls access to chat settings, mail options, and all of the Toontown account settings that include private, personal information.
Toontown also offers the option for players to chat with each other freely, without being limited to a menu of pre-chosen phrases, via Secret Friends Access. To make a secret friend, you have to know the other Toon outside of Toontown: a family member or friend. However, there are plenty of safeguards to make sure that chat doesn't create problems.
"To allow kids to chat openly with other players they know in real life, we require parents to enable Secret Friends Access," explains Ellen. "This allows players to generate a 'secret' - a unique, one-time-use six-digit code that expires in 24 hours - and pass it to their real-life friends. Once that code has been entered in the game, the two 'Secret Friends' can chat openly (though all messages are sent through a bad word and other safety filters) but other players will not be able to see what they say. To other Toons these communications appear onscreen as 'Woof woof woof' or 'Meow meow meow,' depending on what species of Toon is doing the talking."
To further protect kids' safety, Secret Friends Access offers parents three levels of control:
No Secret Friends - The ability to make Secret Friends is disabled. This offers the highest level of control. Players can still communicate with SpeedChat phrases.
Restricted Secret Friends - Requires the Parent Password to make each new Secret Friend.
Unrestricted Secret Friends - Once enabled with the Parent Password, it is not required to supply the Parent Password to make each new Secret Friend. This option is not recommended for children under 13.
"Speed Chat and Secret Friends are technical innovations that are completely unique to Toontown," Ellen tells us proudly. "No other online multiplayer game offers features like these to protect members."
That innovation has not gone unrecognized. Disney's Toontown Online has won a number of awards from the gaming press, but perhaps the most treasured is the 2005 Safe Gaming Award from WiredKids, an online safety organization for kids and teens. "It's really special to us that this award comes directly from kids themselves, and that it recognizes our commitment to protecting them online," says Toontown's Director of Marketing, Petrina McPhee.
At the end of the day, what the thousands who play in Toontown love the most is that it's just plain fun - for everyone. "The most special thing about Toontown is that families can play together - moms, dads, boys, girls - everyone who tries the game loves it," says Petrina. "The adults love the humor, the kids love personalizing their own Toon characters and using the gags on the Cogs." And getting families playing together has got to be a good thing for kids and grown-ups alike
