Moshi Monsters ™

We're thrilled that you are interested in Moshimonsters.com, where you can adopt your very own pet monster! In this document we'll explain what kinds of questions we'll ask you on our website, and what we do with the information you give us.

On our site we give you the ability to have controlled interaction with your friends. We have tried to make this a fun and friendly environment, but the environment on Moshimonsters.com also depends on you. Whenever using this site, or any social networking website, you should be careful about the interactions you have with others. Want to learn more about how to protect yourself online? Check out http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/kidzprivacy/kidz.htm and http://www.onguardonline.gov/socialnetworking_youth.html.

A big Moshi Monsters welcome to parents, teachers and other concerned adults. Our website, Moshimonsters.com, is hosted by Mind Candy Ltd., a UK company with offices at Battersea Studios, 80 Silverthorne Road, Battersea, London, SW8 3HE, United Kingdom. On this site, with parental permission, kids can participate in a virtual online environment, giving them the opportunity to adopt a virtual pet monster from one of several species, customize it, and bring it to "life." The monster then generates several puzzles each day, and kids who play the games have a chance to earn virtual currency (we call our currency "Rox"). With Rox, kids can "buy" virtual food for their pets and accessories for their pets' rooms. At moshimonsters.com we also provide kids with the ability to have controlled communications, using predetermined text, with their friends. Site users can also use the "tell a friend" feature to send invitations to others they know telling them about moshimonsters.com.

In this policy we describe what information we collect, how we collect it, and what we do with it (the policy covers only information collected and used on Moshimonsters.com; it may not describe how Mind Candy handles information that is submitted to us in other forums, such as offline, over the telephone, or on another website we may host). Mind Candy strives to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, (COPPA) a U.S. law that governs the use and collection of information online from kids under 13. To learn more about this law, and about how to protect your kids on interactive online websites, visit http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/kidzprivacy/adults.htm for information from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, as well as http://www.onguardonline.gov/socialnetworking_youth.html.

What Information We Collect and How We Collect It

When kids under 13 register and create a monster on Moshimonsters.com, Mind Candy asks them to select a name for their monster, a screen name (also referred to as a monster owner name), and a password; and to provide his or her parent or guardian's email address, the kid's birth date, gender, and country of residence. In the interactive community features, no additional personal information is collected. Kids can provide their friend's email address as part of our "tell a friend" feature. The "tell a friend" feature temporarily collects the email address of the friend, the name of the sender and a free-form message. This information is not kept for longer than is needed for Moshimonsters.com to send the message.

We limit the information we collect, both actively (i.e., what we ask kids) and passively (what we collect through use of web tracking mechanisms like "cookies,") to that which is necessary for kids to take part in a particular Moshi monsters game activity. When a Moshi member is using the Moshi Monsters site, Mind Candy collects certain non-personal information by placing and accessing Moshimonsters.com cookies on the user's computer. Cookies do not contain any personal information, so we do not use cookies (or other covert or non-consensual methods) to acquire contact information about the user or other users of the computer. To learn more about cookies, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookies.

How Mind Candy Uses the Information it Collects

Mind Candy uses the parent or guardian's email address provided at registration to notify parents that their kids have created a monster and an account on Moshimonsters.com. In that initial notice, parents are provided a link to this privacy policy, and details about how their kids can use Moshimonsters.com. Parents are required to provide their consent before their kid's accounts can be activated. Parent email addresses are used to communicate with parents about their kids in relation to their activity at Moshimonsters.com such as a forgotten password. Parents will also be given the opportunity to sign up for moshimonsters.com marketing information and newsletters. Parents can opt out of receiving those messages by following the instructions that are sent within the body of the email messages. If a parent opts out of receiving marketing email messages, we will still send email messages that relate to a kid's account. For example, if we change a feature on the account and need additional consent before kids can participate in that feature.

Upon activation of an account, the information submitted will be used by Mind Candy to create a personalized monster and will allow the registered user to participate on the Moshimonsters.com website, which contains a variety of interactive community features. Within those features, users are identified in the community by their screen name, age, gender and country of origin. This limited (and non-personal) identifying information, accompanied by a picture of their pet monster, will be displayed to the user or kid's friends and others who have obtained the user or kid's screen name. Monster Owners can make friends only if they know the other Monster Owner's screen name, which they can find in a variety of ways. They might know the screen name through personal contact offsite, they might see the screen name if the other Monster Owner is mentioned in the Community section of the site (such as if they are the winner of the 'Monstar of the Week' competition, 'Home of the Week' competition or they may have achieved something newsworthy in-game), or registered Monster Owners can see screen names that are included in their friend's "friend list." It is also possible that the Monster Owner could guess a screen name. A Monster Owner can then enter a screen name into the "invite a friend" feature to request a friends link. The recipient must accept the invitation before the two can communicate.

Once an invitation is accepted, the two become online "friends," and can see each other's friends lists, and can use the site to leave moderated messages (for example by posting a message on the friend's "pin board.") We only allow free-form text in the pin board feature (a brief public, moderated message) and the "tell a friend" feature, where users or kids can draft a message to send to someone whose email address they know. This feature is intended to allow our users (kids) to invite their friends to sign up to become a member of Moshimonsters.com. If a user or kid elects to use this feature, their name, friend's email address, and message for their friend that they submit to us will be used on a one-time-basis to turn into an "ecard" and will be sent by email to the friend.

If you want to read more about how our site operates, we encourage you to read our Parent's Page.

Parental Rights

Parents and legal guardians of kids under 13 who are members of Moshimonsters.com have certain rights under COPPA, and Mind Candy recognizes those rights. Parents/guardians can consent to collection and use of a kid's personally identifiable information (PII) without consenting to the disclosure of information to third parties. Currently the only identifiable information we collect from kids is the parent email address and, if a kid elects to use the 'tell-a-friend' feature, the email address of the kid's friend(s). We will not knowingly register kids under 13 years old on Moshimonsters.com without parental consent. Without consent, a kid under 13 cannot use any of the community features. Any visitor to our site, however, can use the "tell a friend" feature, whether they have registered or not. If a parent does not provide consent, we will delete the information provided during the registration process within a reasonable time period.

Parents/guardians can review information their kids have contributed to Moshimonsters.com, request that Mind Candy delete that information, and refuse to allow Mind Candy to collect further information from their kids by contacting our Customer Services department by email at parents@mindcandy.com. Parents should include their kid's Monster Owner name and the registered (parent's) email address in the email so we can better assist them with their inquiry or request. Mind Candy may ask additional questions or take other steps to verify the identity of parents/guardians before responding to a request to review or delete their kid's information, or a request to refuse further collection from kids.

Links to Third Party Websites

We provide links to third party websites, including from our "Buy Stuff" feature. Through that feature, we let our Monster Owners know where they can purchase Moshi Monster merchandise, such as Moshi Monster MoPods. Before a Monster Owner can exit our website, we explain that the Monster Owner is leaving our website, and going to the website of a third party. Once they leave our site, he or she may submit information to a third party, over whom we have no authority or control, and who may have different information collection and use practices. Users and Parents/guardians should always read a company's privacy policy carefully, including those companies to whom we provide links, before submitting information to them.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

Mind Candy does not share personal information about kids under 13 with non-affiliated third parties (i.e., companies who are not one of our corporate affiliates or who are not providing support to the internal operations of our company). Mind Candy makes every reasonable effort to disallow and discourage users and kids from sharing personally identifying information with each other via the community features via a filter system and live moderators. The only information that can be openly shared in the Moshimonsters.com community features are screen names (and kids are cautioned not to select their real names), country of residence, age, gender and moderated messages. Users and kids who use the "tell a friend" and pin board features do have the opportunity to draft their own messages to their friends, but we do not prompt any site users to provide any identifying information about themselves.

Mind Candy may share other information submitted on its site - information about adults or non-personal information - to provide requested products or services, if permission is granted, or under the following circumstances:

• We share information in certain cases in order to prevent, take action against or investigate situations regarding illegal activities, fraud or suspected fraud, events in which threats or potential threats to the physical safety of any person or persons is evident, when violations of Mind Candy's terms of use occur, or in other situations required by law.
• We respond to subpoenas, court orders and other legal processes, or make use of information in exercising our legal rights or establishing defense against legal claims.
• We transfer information about users if Mind Candy is acquired by or merged with another company. In this event, Mind Candy notifies the user in advance of any information transfer and before it may become subject to any other privacy policy.

Confidentiality and Security

Information a user or kid submits to Moshimonsters.com that relates to his or her account is password-protected. No employee of Mind Candy nor any automated system will contact a user or parent by email or using the MonsterMail or messaging systems asking for a user or kid's login details, password or any other personal information related or unrelated to a Mind Candy service or product. If any message claiming or appearing to come from Mind Candy or any of its related websites is sent to you asking for such information, please report it immediately to helpme@moshimonsters.com.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Caring for a monster is a challenging process, and in order to ensure the monsters are looked after properly and their owners kept stimulated, the practices of Moshimonsters.com may alter from time to time. If we update this policy in a way that impacts how we treat information you have already provided, we will notify you as required by law to do so. We will always have the most recent version of our privacy policy posted on our site, so check here if you are ever in doubt about our most current privacy practices.

Questions and Suggestions

If you have questions or suggestions, please email us at hello@moshimonsters.com or mail us at Mind Candy, Battersea Studios, 80 Silverthorne Road, Battersea, London, SW8 3HE, United Kingdom.

Effective Date: 05/03/08