This is a fan-run subreddit for the virtual online game Club Penguin. Discussions, jokes, nostalgia, and other related topics are all welcome! Please be sure to read the FAQ.
The ultimate need-to-know guide - Is [insert CPPS here] safe?
ALL Club Penguin Private Servers, commonly abbreviated as "CPPS", have more of a risk than the official Club Penguin to have users data leak, be compromised, or misappropriated. Downloadable clients that allow users to play any CPPS have the potential to include trojans/malware.
There has been previous servers, like Club Penguin Online, whose teams and admins have utilized their power and influence to commit serious crimes. Where the private server may not infect or damage your computer, there could be dangerous individuals, so be very careful and keep a watch for unusual behavior.
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If you wish to play one of the available servers and create an account, use a VPN, use a throwaway/temporary email (link here) and ensure your username and password do not include intimate or otherwise personal information that can be used to identify you.
I do not recommend downloading, playing, providing personal information to, or participating in the development of any Club Penguin Private Server. Especially if safety is a concern, but I understand the nostalgia and desire to relive Club Penguin.
But here are a few suggestions to anyone participating in the discussion.
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"Is ____ safe?" is NOT asking "Should I play this?" I see a lot of comments on these types of post saying "Yes, and here's why it's the best server". You don't have to do free advertising.
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New Club Penguin is a downloadable web client. If you download the NewCP client from their website, as of now, it should NOT contain a virus and your computer will most likely be fine.
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Any versions of Club Penguin playable through Ruffle or HTML5 in web browser are also more or less technically safe. Club Penguin Journey and Club Penguin Legacy, for example.
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3. Do not join any intimate groups (Discord) or personally interact with staff on X, or any other social channel to an uncomfortable or frequent extent because navigating appropriate staff-audience interactions have historically been a minefield of misconduct.
Quick aside: Club Penguin is a game largely targeted towards a younger audience, and with that comes some professional boundaries that haven't always been acknowledged or respected in this community (especially in Club Penguin Private Servers) as much as they really should be. That lack of respect has been corrosive to our collective growth as a community, harmful to those within it, and damaging to Club Penguin's chances of returning in an official capacity in the future.
The health and well-being of the Club Penguin community wouldn't bring about an aura of uncertainty if these scandals hadn't have happened, if data breaches were uncommon among private servers, if those organizing servers on a wider scale were more tactful about how they collected and used information. These risks will always remain, so long as Disney does not bring back the original game officially, there will be those who seek potentially harmful alternatives. There's always a chance.
Thank you for reading. Waddle on.
Please, r/ClubPenguin moderators and staff, provide an easily accessible, objective and unbiased answer to these questions somewhere at the top of the thread.
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I think creating a FAQ in the side bar linking this post could help to reduce clutter and the same repeated questions in the subreddit.
? But aren't most of us adults who can talk to whoever we want to talk to? If a CPPS staff member commits misconduct, that's on them; not me for talking to them.
Yes, the original game was targeted towards ages 6-14. Times have changed though. I bet you nearly the entirety of the CPPS community are adults trying to re-live their childhood and experience nostalgia for the original game. With that in mind, why should we expect to treat these fan made re-creations as a children's experience? I don't think most kids these days have even heard of Club Penguin.
I'm all for in game moderation, and not allowing inappropriate language/conversations on CPPSes, especially to protect the legacy/reputation of the game. But I think it would be credulous to implement moderation out of the expectation that kids are actually playing these remakes.
Agree that likely most users are adults. However, there are younger audiences discovering Club Penguin for the first time through CPPS (interestingly enough). Allowing inappropriate discussions/conversations is up to each individual CPPS, some do allow it.
There must be good reason why the most popular CPPS uphold the original rules and values of Club Penguin.
Responding to both of your comments.
Club Penguin's target demographic has always been children, and inherently is a property that is fundamentally geared to be engaging and a social outlet to people in those age groups. In any space geared and intended for children, it is the responsibility of adults (especially those in power) to be respectful. Therefore, it doesn't matter that there are adults playing private servers; after all, there were adults playing the original Club Penguin too.
Even if you and I are adults and therefore the age of majority, Club Penguin is geared towards children. New Club Penguin, Legacy, and other servers have marketed themselves as a defacto replacement trying to replicate the mannerisms, styles, and traditions of late-stage 2013 Club Penguin (Ex. Penguin of the Week) when the primary demographic was at its youngest. It's a marketing style that, again, is made to be engaging to a younger group of people.
Likewise, Discord is a very popular social media site with a large child audience. Although yes, you have to be 13+ to use Discord, and I'm sure nobody has ever lied about their age on the internet, 13-17 year olds are still children and some of the alleged misconduct within the private server community has occurred through Discord. Which is why it is not unreasonable to see a private server having one as a potential warning. Advertising a Club Penguin Discord is designed to take the conversation outside the bounds of moderation. The idea is that this is still a potential danger.
One of the mission statements of Club Penguin is to give a safe space to communicate online. Club Penguin Private Server's inherent self-governance with moderation left to the discretion of the owner and a select team of potentially unqualified people does not adhere to the original mission.
There may be a majority of adults playing the Club Penguin private servers. I'm not really too sure. But it was designed, and still is designed, to be a safe space of communication for everyone, including children. This means keeping conversation appropriate within the game and be responsible with communication outside of it. To not really say anything within the confines of the game that your 8 year old nephew shouldn't hear.
There are more children playing Club Penguin than you might think. They might not be vocal, or on Reddit, but just because they're out of sight doesn't mean they shouldn't be considered.
I think we should always be respectful, regardless of who we're interacting with on the internet no matter the age.
If parents allow their children to roam free on the internet (whether that be on CPPSes or on Discord), that's the parent's responsibility to monitor their child's internet usage and to keep them safe. I believe everyone should have integrity, be loving, and not have inappropriate conversations online, and you're right that the internet won't be free of that for children who roam free on the internet. A good Discord community (whether it's related to Club Penguin, targeted towards children or not) should implement good moderation anyways. But I think it should be left up to parents to decide whether or not they want to allow their child to join anything on Discord at all. It's not our job to be internet police and tell people of all ages that they shouldn't join in on conversation on social media platforms. I highly agree that it's good to warn kids about the dangers of interacting with strangers on the internet though.
True, but that doesn't mean we should tell adults to "not join any intimate groups (Discord) or personally interact with staff on X".
What would it look like for CPPSes to do a better job of considering children?
its safer to use a flash browser to avoid the trojan in the downloadable clients but just a reminder that flash has been depricated for a reason
Yes this is true, most popular browser-based CPPS now use HTML5 which is safer than flash
html5 can be just as dangerous as flash
Just because its web based doesn't mean its safe.
What could be done? Are there any infected/malicious private servers as of now people should know about? On a technical level
All current big CPPSes (imagined, new, journey, legacy) are safe.
I'm just saying that just because it runs in your browser doesn't mean it's safer than a downloadable program.
before knowing this i just made a account with my email for club penguin chapter 2 . will my info be ok if don't have a vpn or don't log in the game
cuz i watched tamago2474 cpps aren't safe and i don't want to risk being doxxed .even all i did was share my email