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  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 7, age appropriate for kids over 8; suggested age 8.

  • Is it any good?

    4.0
  • Common Sense says

    Hugely popular site fun and safe but a time-eater.

On this site kids can:   connect with friends, create an avatar, play games, play in a virtual world
updated 08.31.09

Why We Rated This on for Ages 8 and Up

The good stuff

  • Educational value:

    Not an issue.
  • Messages:

    Club Penguin's overall message is that there's a safe, positive, fun place to hangout online with your friends afterschool. Through its puffle and igloo design tools and missions, the site promotes friendly competition and fosters an upbeat atmosphere. Kids can ask other penguins to "meet them" at a certain game, which encourages positive interactions, although younger kids could get their feelings hurt if their friendship request is ignored or rebuffed.

    But there's also another message flying under the radar of most parents and it's not positive: Club Penguin cheats. Club Penguin itself doesn't promote cheats, but they are common knowledge among Club Penguin members. The Internet is brimming with cheat codes and Club Penguin secrets that let kids complete missions by, essentially, cheating. No, it's not good to cheat, either off-line or on, so have a talk with your kid if they are looking for cheat codes.

  • User-created content:

    Kids really enjoy dressing up their penguin and outfitting their igloos.

What to watch out for

  • Violence:

    Penguins can throw snowballs at each other.
  • Sex:

    Not an issue.
  • Language:

    Users get banned for 24 hours if they use a swear word.
  • Consumerism:

    Like many other games, kids earn virtual money to buy things for their igloo and puffle (Club Penguin's name for your penguin avatar). There's also a Club Penguin Shop that sells non-virtual goods like Club Penguin toys, shirts, hats, and keychains, but there's no pressure to buy. Kids are definitely motivated to upgrade to a paid membership to have access to additional clothes and furnishings.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Not an issue.

How safe is it?

  • Personal privacy:

    The site's rules tell kids not to ask for or give away personal information -- including whether you're a girl or a boy. The moderators usually catch it if kids don't comply.
  • Online interaction:

    The online interactions are generally positive and well-moderated, but kids do find ways around the moderators. You can choose either prescripted chat or filtered open chat. Kids can click on an "M" icon to report a "bad" penguin. In general, the site seems to be used as it was intended: a place for kids to meet up with their friends online and play games with each other. Still, there is iffy behavior, including trading Club Penguin cheat codes and secrets, that flies under the radar.
  • Parental controls:

    The thorough parents section helps adults navigate the site's features, and parents can view their kid's account and change settings.

What Parents Need to Know

This review of Club Penguin was written by Jean Armour Polly

Parents need to know that Club Penguin is an enjoyable and safe introduction to the world of avatars and social networking. But kids might get carried away so it's important to set screen-time limits. We recommend parents sit down with younger kids to a) help them communicate kindly and b) explain how to deal with the not-so-friendly behavior that can also occur and which could be upsetting to kids who don't know how to deal with rejection and/or bullying just yet. While kids can play for free, if you are a paying member you can buy additional things like clothing for your puffle, and furniture for your igloo. Club Penguin cheat codes and secrets are also becoming big in Club Penguin, and there is no shortage of sites offering cheat codes for Club Penguin.

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More on Club Penguin

What’s the Story?

Have you ever wondered what penguins do for fun? Hanging around the South Pole is a thrill, but when a penguin really wants to chill out and kick back, he waddles over to the club. CLUBPENGUIN.COM, that is. Create a free account, pick a name and a penguin color, and you're on your way. But first, parents need to choose what kind of chat their kids can use. There's "Ultimate Safe-Chat," which allows users to converse using a substantial list of standardized, controlled common greetings, questions, and answers. Parents can choose to put in their own password in order to change the chat settings later. There's also the more conventional chat mode ("Standard Safe-Chat") for older kids that lets users type freely. It's filtered to screen out profanity (a swear word will get your penguin banned for 24 hours) and bullying, although the site warns it's not infallible. Once you've gotten him or her set up, your little penguin lands in the center of town and can explore many rooms and environments -- from a café to a pet store to a disco where users can try some fancy dance moves. For kids who don't enjoy tackling the virtual avatar world (or are too young to know how to), ClubPenguin.com also has fun games to play in almost every place on the site.

Is It Any Good?

Kids under 12 probably won't come to Club Penguin to have meaningful conversations and make longlasting friends, but they'll enjoy dressing up their puffle, waddling around checking out different scenes, and playing the games. Also, games win you virtual coins, which paid members can use to "buy" virtual clothes and outfit their igloos with the latest gear; unfortunately, there's very little you can spend the coins on if you're not a paid member.

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Our Members Say

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Most Recent Reviews

  1. Kid Reviewer Age 11
    I rate this title iffy for age 8 and give it 3.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Excessive consumerism

    money money money

    there is waaaaaaay to much products. also if you dojnt pay be a member theres nothing you can do.

  2. I rate this title off for age 2 and give it 5.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Excessive violence
    • Inappropriate sexual content
    • Excessive consumerism
    • Drinking, smoking, or drug use
    • Negative message
    • Safety is an issue
    • User content isn't age appropriate
    • My highlights are:
    • Educational
    • Positive messages
    • Safety isn't an issue
    • User content is age appropriate

    Happy F*ck Day To H* S*ck, D@mn is Coming Now Rated: TV-PGHappy F*** Day To ** S***, D@mn is Coming Now Rated: TV-PG

  3. Kid Reviewer Age 11
    I rate this title on for age 10 and give it 3.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Inappropriate sexual content

    Unsafe Chat System

    I like Club Penguin! However, I HATE the chatting rules. If you break a rule, you will get banned. People can say ''You're a beach!'' (As if to say b**ch) and not get banned. You're even allowed to spell out numbers. Unless someone reports you, you can do it.

  4. Teen Reviewer Age 14
    Lives in New York
    I rate this title on for age 10 and give it 1.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Excessive consumerism

    I love penguins and even I think this is one of the most unenjoyable virtual pet sites out there.

    This website used to be big when I was in the fifth grade. It was like the 'in' thing to play this game-- and other than that, that was just about the only reason anyone ever played it in my class. Many features are inaccessible unless you upgrade to a premium account. For kids (or their parents) who don't desire to pay the money for this, the website can be quite drab. Things may have changed, but as I recall, there is very little customisation you can do with your penguin without a premium account.

  5. Parent Reviewer
    I rate this title on for age 5 and give it 5.0
    • My highlights are:
    • Educational
    • Positive messages
    • Safety isn't an issue
    • User content is age appropriate

    A perfect website for almost all kids!

    I think Club Penguin is a safe fun world for kids to exsplore the friendly nice world to waddle around add buddies and have puffles and change your clothes and go on secret missions.I would reccomend this website to almost everyone!My childern seem to adore this site and buy codes be an EPF agent and much much more!

  6. I rate this title on for age 8 and give it 5.0

    I Love it!

    Spectacular!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  7. Kid Reviewer Age 9
    I rate this title off for age 2 and give it 2.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Inappropriate sexual content
    • Inappropriate language
    • Excessive consumerism
    • Drinking, smoking, or drug use
    • Negative message
    • Safety is an issue
    • User content isn't age appropriate

    Horrible!

    I've been playing since 2008 and it is absolutely terrible! The community are just horrible, they ask around dating pretend to have families and generally just be idiots, I think it is full of three year old's who can't do anything much but beg their parents for advantages on not even use it.

  8. Kid Reviewer Age 12
    I rate this title iffy for age 6 and give it 4.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Inappropriate language

    Club penguin...

    I've been a club penguin user since 2 years. The problem with club penguin is online dating and hacking. I went into a server and i was alone and i was blue. I was on the spot and doing this weird dance. I saw a video that someone hacked and used alot of penguin which spelled the "F" word. Is club penguin good? Well yes and no.

  9. Kid Reviewer Age 10
    I rate this title on for age 10 and give it 5.0
    • My highlights are:
    • Educational
    • Safety isn't an issue

    For 8+

    It's a fun, popular kid's site. There's no more to say. Safety is not a problem, you can't type symbols other than ? and !, and you can't type numbers. Very strict word filter. If you use a bad word you get instantly banned; If you say a word that is offensive or could be offensive, it won't show on the chat. Two chat modes: Supersafe menu chat and Safe freechat. On the freechat, many penguins "date" and some give ? emoticons to eachother. There will be the odd while when you need to tell your parents about something. One word oftenly used is "day", which is code for gay. It's very educational for younger kids, and the user content and game content is completely kid-friendly. Safety is not an issue. I got a penguin of my own! (I'm Vortex Max ?) You can play for free, but memberships cost money. But not too much, I am paying for one myself. It's a fun and safe site for all ages

  10. Kid Reviewer Age 10
    I rate this title on for age 8 and give it 4.0
    • My highlights are:
    • Positive messages
    • Safety isn't an issue
    • User content is age appropriate

    kids

    this is a fun gaming website if you want a safe website for your kids its a great page..........its a very good game i love it!!!

  11. Kid Reviewer Age 11
    I rate this title on for age 7 and give it 3.0

  12. Kid Reviewer Age 10
    I rate this title on for age 8 and give it 5.0
    • My highlights are:
    • Educational
    • Positive messages
    • Safety isn't an issue
    • User content is age appropriate

    club penguin as in the best game ever!!!

    i love it!!! like most games there is too much violent but there isn't a problem for this! this game has safety. even though it has viruses this didn't happen with my computer/laptop.

  13. Kid Reviewer Age 8
    I rate this title on for age 11 and give it 5.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Negative message
    • Safety is an issue
    • User content isn't age appropriate
    • My highlights are:
    • Educational

    Club Penguin: An oline game

    These things are apporaite and some of them are inapporaite. Penguins get banned for 24 hours and that is not good

  14. Teen Reviewer Age 13
    I rate this title on for age 10 and give it 4.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Excessive consumerism
    • My highlights are:
    • Positive messages
    • Safety isn't an issue
    • User content is age appropriate

    Club Penguin: A pretty good online game.

    In my review, I'm going to talk about the good and bad stuff about Club Penguin. The Good: Club Penguin is an awesome website. You can chat with other penguins, play really fun games, have pets (called puffles), and go on spy missions if you are a penguin agent (you don't have to be a member to be an agent). There is parties in Club Penguin from time to time, where they give out free clothing items for your penguin. If you are a member you can buy clothes to dress up your penguin, decorate your igloo, adopt all the puffles (non members can only adopt two), and you can enter special areas at parties. Club Penguin is also very safe. You can choose to have Ultimate Safe Chat which you choose messages from a list, or you can have Standard Safe Chat which you can type you own messages. Not everything goes though on Standard Safe Chat because Club Penguin blocks messages that contain bad words or things kids should not be talking about. There are also special servers with only Ultimate Safe Chat and there are Moderators on all servers. You can report other players if you see anything bad going on. The Bad: If you are a member and your membership expires, and can not use your member clothes or your igloo items. They are all put into storage until you renew your membership. The only items you can keep are your member puffles. The Club Penguin website can also become pretty addicting, so be sure you watch you kids so they don't spend to much time on the site. Conclusion: If I were to grade this website, I would give it an A. Club Penguin is a very nice virtual world for kids and you should definitely check it out if you haven't already.

  15. Kid Reviewer Age 8
    I rate this title on for age 6 and give it 4.0
    • My highlights are:
    • User content is age appropriate

    fine game

    Its pretty good except some penguins are rude and offensive and go on dates with each other

  16. Kid Reviewer Age 11
    I rate this title iffy for age 9 and give it 3.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Inappropriate sexual content

    ehh

    Club Penguin is ok.. its just boring these days... and I see umm penguins making out so yeah gross!!

  17. Teen Reviewer Age 13
    Lives in Massachusetts
    I rate this title iffy for age 5 and give it 2.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Excessive consumerism
    • Safety is an issue
    • User content isn't age appropriate
    • My highlights are:
    • Educational

    Meh...

    'A place for kids to hang out' Not if you don't have any cash to spend. Look, I tried this out 2 years ago, and the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of this game is when it required me to purchase something but needed real life money. Something that all kids can do is something called Runescape, it's fun, time consuming and has plenty of free content. Also, WOW at all the spelling mistakes kids make these days.

  18. I rate this title on for age 5 and give it 5.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Inappropriate sexual content
    • Inappropriate language
    • My highlights are:
    • Positive messages
    • Safety isn't an issue

    great for 5-12 year-olds!

    I personally love this site. I have been a member since October 2006 and it's brilliant. However you can't say what time it is where you are but it's ok to say your gender. My friends at school would probably torment me for going on a babyish website but i don't care. Not appropriate for over 12s as you hear often in the town, "who's good?" Also they tend to swear and also face eachother whilst say seriously disturbing things. U are not allowed to say the word for intercourse but most penguins just say make then a love heart. However it can get boring if you're just talking. Plenty to do such as outfits and parties. I think it's unfair that you can hardly do anything if you're not a member.

  19. Teen Reviewer Age 17
    I rate this title on for age 11 and give it 5.0
    • My highlights are:
    • Safety isn't an issue

    THE BEST THING EVER

    SAFETY IS NOT A PROBLEM!

  20. I rate this title on for age 6 and give it 5.0
    • My concerns are:
    • Excessive consumerism
    • My highlights are:
    • Positive messages
    • Safety isn't an issue
    • User content is age appropriate

    Perfect for 6+!

    Club Penguin is a great website for almost all ages! No bad language and safety issues are not a problem. But Club Penguin does cost money but is optional for $6.95 a month you can do everything! But when it's a free account you can't buy clothes, furniture for your igloo. It kind of stinks but like I told you, it;'s great!

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