October 22, 2008
Subject: Now Offers 'Safe Menu Chat' Only
Dear Interested Parents:
I am Maxine Clark, Founder and Chief Executive Bear of Build-A-Bear Workshop®. I founded this company in St. Louis in 1997 and built a business based on integrity, value, fun, and giving back to our community. Build-A-Bear Workshop has been successful because we have listened to our Guests -- children and parents, every step of the way. Child safety is paramount -- we stand with parents to make sure that Build-A-Bearville is a fun and safe place to play -- we put safety first in our stores, in our products, online, and in our virtual world.
I personally want to update you on an important step we have taken to limit the chat capability in buildabearville.com. Until recently, Build-A-Bearville provided parents with two chat options to choose from: 'safe menu chat', for Guests 12 years and younger, and 'safe open chat', for Guests over 13 years old.
Effective October 16, 2008, we disabled 'safe open chat' and now our virtual world Guests can ONLY communicate using 'safe menu chat'. 'Safe menu chat' allows communication using only pre-defined words and phrases; these words and phrases can not be changed. Until technology is available to prevent potential abuse we will continue to use 'safe menu chat'.
Through our ongoing monitoring of the site, we identified abuse of the 'safe open chat' feature. Although our 'safe open chat' option has always blocked inappropriate words, we found it was possible to use a combination of punctuation and otherwise appropriate words to form suggestive expressions that could be interpreted as not appropriate.
Since the vast majority of our Guests in Build-A-Bearville use 'safe menu chat', a small number of people were exposed to these unacceptable expressions. This absolutely violated our online safety rules and was not tolerated. The violators were immediately banned from our site and we quickly moved to limit the chat capability to 'safe menu chat' only. We have also taken steps to prevent violators from opening new character accounts on the site.
At Build-A-Bear Workshop safety is our first priority. If you would like to join our Parent's Advisory Panel -- a parent group that from time to time is asked to review and give input on products, services and online features -- please send an email to parentadvisors@buildabear.com. If you have any questions regarding Build-A-Bearville or this change, please contact me at Maxineclark@buildabear.com.
We appreciate your interest in Build-A-Bear Workshop and Build-A-Bearville; it is interested and engaged Guests like yourself that help us do a better job!
Beary truly,
Maxine Clark
Founder and Chief Executive Bear
A Note Fur Parents
Dear Parent or Guardian,
Since 1997, at Build-A-Bear Workshop® we have created a safe place where your child can play, express their creativity and use their imagination. Please be assured that we bring these same qualities you value and trust about Build-A-Bear Workshop in the real world into our new virtual world of buildabearville.com™. We have listened to feedback from Guests - both parents and children alike - in developing this new online world. There are no membership fees or hidden sign-up costs. New furry friends that you make at Build-A-Bear Workshop can be brought to life online to play together with your child at no additional fee. It's like our virtual gift to you with each new friend purchased. We want Build-A-Bearville to be a place where your child can grow their friendships with their furry friends as well as their real life friends too. We know that online chat can be a touchy subject so we have worked with parents and industry experts to develop a safe system for your child. And the site is monitored for safe socialization. In this new world, your child will be challenged with educational quests and adventures, learn lessons about being responsible citizens of the world and have good real world behaviors reinforced, all in a beary fun new way. We appreciate you taking the time to be involved in your child's online experience in Build-A-Bearville. I hope you enjoy discovering this new world brought to you by your friends at Build-A-Bear Workshop.
Beary truly yours,
Maxine Clark
Founder and Chief Executive Bear
Welcome to Build-A-Bearville
It's a new friendship adventure from your friends at Build-A-Bear Workshop!
In this new online world stuffed with fun you can:
- Bring your new furry friends to life online
- Create your own character
- Play games & quests
- Earn points & buy cool virtual stuff
- Play & chat together
Signing up is free & there are no membership fees. Just access the site using the animal ID & key code on the birth certificate of furry friends purchased after October 2007.
Register today to discover the fun or read on to learn more!
Beary Important Stuff to know
What does it cost?
Signing up is free and there are no membership fees. Just access the site using the animal ID & key code found on the birth certificate of furry friends purchased after October 2007.
You can even register and play in the world for free without an animal, however you will be limited in the activities that you can do.
Will there be identifiable information about my child?
When you register in Build-A-Bearville you will create your own online character. Citizens of Build-A-Bearville are identified online by their character's name only. When naming their character they complete a 3-step filtered process which ensures they cannot select their own name. They choose...
- From a safe list of first names and are discouraged from using their real name
- From a list of beary fun words to add to their name
Your furry friends will be brought into the world with the name you gave them on their birth certificate in the real Build-A-Bear Workshop store when they were made.
No personally identifiable information (names, email addresses, etc.) is ever shared on the site.
Chat:
Build-A-Bearville Guests communicate using Safe Menu Chat. Safe Menu Chat allows communication using only pre-defined words and phrases; these words and phrases can not be changed. We continually review our chat phrases and add or update them to keep the game exciting. Citizens cannot use their own words to communicate in the world.
At any time your child can instantly block a member from communicating with him/her. Build-A-Bearville also offers Silent Chat, which means that your child cannot use or see others using Safe Menu Chat functionality. This option can be activated by clicking the "Change Chat" option in the PDA.
What about other online safety issues?
Buildabearville.com is a beary fun and beary safe place and is backed by the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval! It's where friends gather to have fun in an interactive, safe and creative environment.
When you're in the online world, just like the real world, remembear:
- Always bee kind.
- Treat others the way you would like to be treated.
- Tell a grown up if you see bad behavior.
We need your help reporting any inappropriate behavior from other Build-A-Bearville citizens. To let us know, please click here to send a message to vwpatrol@buildabear.com Citizens who break the rules may have their account cancelled and be unable to play in Build-A-Bearville.
What about the technical stuff?
Password
Lost password? Simply click the "I furgot my password" link on the login page and we will email you a link to reset your password. Remembear to keep your user name and password in a safe place and do not share it with anyone.
Change password? Follow the same easy steps as above.
Sharing accounts
We encourage each citizen to have and use their own account. Signing up is free and there are no membership fees. Just access the site using the animal ID & key code found on the birth certificate of furry friends purchased after October 2007.
Please keep your account information in a safe, private place, just as you would with any other online account information.
Technical issues
We are beary happy to help! Please click on the "I need help" link and send your question to our buildabearville.com support team. Our service team will promptly email you back to help.
Click here for more frequently asked questions.
