True Friends -- Kid safe???

[Prince Lancelot Electroglop]

I just read the new Toon-town newsletter and I'm a bit concerned with the new True Friends. In particular:
It's a D-lightful month for Toontown Members as your Friends List will soon be receiving a Toon-up! To start, all Secret Friends are becoming True Friends! True Friends are able to chat with each other no matter which Toon they're logged into on their account.

As I share the same account with my kids, this means that all the adults I'm SFs with will now be able to talk to my kids.

Does this bother anyone else or am I just over reacting???

I'm very surprised Disney would do this.

[mamasparkleface]

I too was concerned upon reading this. It just doesn't make sense to me.

I have several accounts but we spread our toons across them so we can play together which means all of my children have toons on all of our accounts.

This simply does not work for me. I don't like it at all.

Of all the things that have happened to us in toontown, this is causing me to seriously consider dropping accounts and looking for something else to do together online.

Again, I don't like it and I don't understand why they would do this. Maybe there will be options or controls on these friends lists. They are out on test aren't they? Maybe a tester or two can share with us in more detail how they work.

Mama's Toons

[LotsaDots]

I actually don't think its that bad of an idea. I have a lot of friends with multiple toons I can't usually talk to because I'm not secret friends with their "others." I think parents need to watch over their kids' secret friends no matter what. I know that if I had an adult friend who I think would act inappropriately towards children, that person would not be my friend for very long.

[Princess Kait]

I Don't like it one bit, this means my mom can talk to my sfs, and even worst, my little brother. My little sister is not allowed to have SF's because she is 6, she knows how to read, and type, well kind of, she knows how to type her phone number, address, and full name, this is scary.
I hope my mom doesn't turn off the Secret Friend option.

[Black Widow Kitty]

I think it's a terrible idea. I don't want my kids talking to the adults on my account. I also want to be able to play a toon that has no friends on it when I want some quiet time on TT. This removes both of those options.
I have submitted this information thru the test site and it looks like AGAIN they have not listened to their testers, I was not the only person that presented this information to them.
I would seriously recommend that you bombard Disney with your concerns. They claim to be child-friendly, they give us the parent password and the option of not allowing secret friends, but they just enabled it across the board. Friends on, Friends off.
On test there are still many issues with the "True Friends" option that they are working on, but according to the newsletter the final result will be just what we do NOT want.

[Fennec]

Eeurgh.

Thats a awful idea.

Not only is it not kid safe for small children, but you can also get people's annoying little sisters/brothers talking to you 24/7 >_>;

Ew.

[Miss_taffy]

Originally Posted by Green Eyed Fennec

Eeurgh.

Thats a awful idea.

Not only is it not kid safe for small children, but you can also get people's annoying little sisters/brothers talking to you 24/7 >_>;

Ew.

I agree. =P That, or my mom would probably talk to all my SFs. e_e She would probably bug them all to death.


But the name 'True Friends' almost makes it sound like you get to pick what SFs have access to you on all toons, like an option in your friends panel..

[Black Widow Kitty]

Originally Posted by Green Eyed Fennec

Eeurgh.

Thats a awful idea.

Not only is it not kid safe for small children, but you can also get people's annoying little sisters/brothers talking to you 24/7 >_>;

Ew.

This is very true. LOL!!

[mamasparkleface]

Originally Posted by Black Widow Kitty

I think it's a terrible idea. I don't want my kids talking to the adults on my account. I also want to be able to play a toon that has no friends on it when I want some quiet time on TT. This removes both of those options.

That was actually my first (selfish) thought before thinking of the impact it would have on my childrens privacy and safety. I like to play two or more toons at the same time and I like to have toons all to myself for when I wan't to be all alone, or when I'm growing toons. This leaves one with absolutely no privacy.....That Stinks!!

[Rainbow]

Gah
I wouldn't have too many problems with that, since I'm the only one on my account, but if they do make it an accross-the-board thing then that means on my little sisters account they'd be secret friends with my older sister secret friends O.o and honestly, my parents don't pay attention to this stuff.
And like it was mentioned above, sometimes I don't want all my secret friends on my other toons, and just wanna play alone for a bit or something. There are a few friends who I'd love to have on all my toons (though the majority of then are nonsf =P) Thats why I hope there's some kind of options that go alone with this
meh, we'll see =\

[LadyZippyBoingenpretzel]

I don't like it either. There are only a couple of people I would consider using this feature with. I don't want people talking to my kids, I don't want people's kids talking to me, and I have toons I don't have friends on for a reason!

Remember, though - at least the way it looks now, you do not have to use this new feature. Looks like the regular old way of sf-ing a single toon will remain the same. This feature is only beneficial if you want access to a person's entire account of toons or vice versa. Something we have all wished for...but without a way to exclude the kids' toons I'll keep doing things the old-fashioned way!

Since we have several accounts, it will be great in that I can now remove all of my own family toons from my list - freeing up quite a bit of space!

Edit: to answer how it works on test so far -- this is separate from your regular friends list. You still have your list of 50 friends you meet on TT and are either regular or secret friends. To use the expanded list you need to join XD and trade a separate code. Hopefully they leave it this way so you can pick and choose who to give the full access to...as I said, my own family and VERY few others!

[ToonTownRam]

now this may seem starnge but if they are your sf to me. that means there is a trust factor there

do you trust your secret friends?

all my secret friends I trust not to say anything that is wrong to kids. I have a few that let there kids play and the first thing they tell me is who they are so I change my chat so as not to offend them in any way

just a tought

[Princess Domino]

Originally Posted by LadyZippyBoingenpretzel

I don't like it either. There are only a couple of people I would consider using this feature with. I don't want people talking to my kids, I don't want people's kids talking to me, and I have toons I don't have friends on for a reason!

Remember, though - at least the way it looks now, you do not have to use this new feature. Looks like the regular old way of sf-ing a single toon will remain the same. This feature is only beneficial if you want access to a person's entire account of toons or vice versa. Something we have all wished for...but without a way to exclude the kids' toons I'll keep doing things the old-fashioned way!

Since we have several accounts, it will be great in that I can now remove all of my own family toons from my list - freeing up quite a bit of space!

Edit: to answer how it works on test so far -- this is separate from your regular friends list. You still have your list of 50 friends you meet on TT and are either regular or secret friends. To use the expanded list you need to join XD and trade a separate code. Hopefully they leave it this way so you can pick and choose who to give the full access to...as I said, my own family and VERY few others!

Ok, cool... so we can pick and choose, among them, who we want to keep as regular SF's and who we want to be true friends?

My daughter and I don't have toons on each other's accounts, but I do have some SF's on some toons that I still wouldn't necessarily want on all of my toons (or on my daughters toons, if we shared an account). That's good to know. Thanks.

[Biscuit]

Guys, don't panic about this just yet, notice how all of these features are still in test... They will probably find a way to keep it kid-safe. They'll probably make an option so that certain toons cannot use this feature or something like that in the future. But for now, it's still in the early stages, they're probably thinking of how to make it kid-safe as we speak. (or post)

[LittleRainbows]

I was thinking this too... but I am sure you will have to log in to use the facility first or something, and if you don't want to use it... don't log into it I guess? I'm not sure, but that must be how it would work don't you think?

We have SF's on, say my son's toon, who I don't want to know when I am online (they bug me too much !!!!).... I am sure you must have to switch it on when you want it, and not when you don't - that makes sense I guess?