For parents and carers

Grown-ups: safety and controls

Everything a grown-up needs in one place: a safety message to share with your child, how to report a nickname or a pet's name and hide a player, the controls that are yours, and how to reach us.

Staying safe online: a message for children

Please read this with your child. The game shows the short version too, on the nickname page and beside the friend code, and Settings, under Grown-ups, has a note on safety for you.

• Keep your real name, where you live, your school, your phone number and your passwords to yourself. Your nickname should never be your real name.
• Only add friends you know in real life, and only give your friend code to them.
• Nobody in Maatjie Arena can send you messages. If anyone, anywhere online, asks you for photos, asks you to keep a secret or asks to meet you, say no, stop, and tell a grown-up you trust straight away.
• If you ever see pictures or words online that make you feel scared, uncomfortable or confused, close them and tell a grown-up. It is never your fault.
• If you see a rude or unkind nickname or pet name, report it. You can block anyone on your Friends list, and hide any other player.
• Take breaks, and have fun.

If you are worried that a child is being harmed or put at risk online, call the South African Police Service on 10111, or Childline South Africa on 116, free from any phone. Child sexual abuse material can be reported to the Film and Publication Board at fpb.org.za. Outside South Africa, contact your local police. Please tell us too: we act at once and report it to the police.

Reporting a nickname or a pet's name, and hiding a player

A nickname can be reported on a friend's card, on a friend request and on each row of the season's top 100, with the Report nickname button. Each player's report counts once, and it counts once the reporting account is two days old and has hatched a pet, so a few brand-new accounts cannot hide someone's nickname. When three different players report the same nickname, the game hides it straight away, gives that player a new nickname from our list and asks them to pick another; they cannot pick the same word again. A word hidden on two different players is blocked for everyone. We look at every report ourselves each week, and can change any nickname or block any word. A player is never told who reported them.

Only friends see a pet's name, so a friend can report it, with Report pet name on the friend's card. Reports of a pet's name count in the same way. When three different players report the same pet name, friends see the kind of pet instead (such as "Tide") until the player gives it a new name, and the game tells the player kindly. That name stays hidden from friends for that pet. We look at these reports each week too.

Your child can also hide a player: Hide player on a row of the top 100 or on a friend request. The game then shows them as "Hidden player" on your child's screens, turns down their friend request and never shows another one. The hidden player is not told, and nothing changes for anyone else. To show a player again, use the row's Show player, or the list of hidden players under Friends and leaderboards in Settings, under Grown-ups. To stop a friend, use Block on their card. For anything else that worries you, write to us (below).

Your controls

In the game, open Me, then Settings. The grown-up settings open only after a grown-up check: hold a button for 3 seconds, then answer a sum.

• Our rules, first. Before your child picks a nickname, the game shows a page for grown-ups, behind the same check, with our Terms of Use and privacy policy. A parent or guardian agrees to them for the child, and the game keeps a record that they did.
• Purchases. Nothing can be bought in the browser game. In the Android app, every purchase starts with the grown-up check and a summary of exactly what is being bought, then Google Play takes the payment. If your child's Google account is supervised with Family Link, Google may also ask you to approve it.
• Friends and leaderboards. On unless you switch it off: on the page where you agree to our rules, or later in Settings, under Grown-ups. While it is off, your child cannot add or accept friends, have friendly battles or swap; their friend code works like a wrong one; their friends see nothing of them; and they are not shown on the top 100 or the friends board. Their own rating still counts, and they can see it. Their friendships are kept, so switching it on again brings everything back. Arena matches carry on, since they never show names. The same place lists the players your child hid, with "Show again".
• Online status. Off unless you switch it on in Settings, behind the grown-up check. When it is on, friends see a "Playing now" dot while your child plays. When it is off, friends see nothing at all.
• Holiday mode. Going away? Switch on holiday mode in Settings, under Grown-ups, and the pet waits safely: its needs do not go down, it does not grow older, it cannot get sick or lose hearts, and no pet alerts are sent. It can start once any battle is over. Care and battles close until you switch it off, and then everything carries on from that moment, with nothing owed. Another device on the same account stops its pet alerts the next time it opens the game.
• Saving to Google. In Settings, under Grown-ups, "Save to Google" shows a short code. Open our Save to Google page on any device, choose "Save my child's maatjie", sign in with Google and type the code. On a new or reset phone, "Already have a maatjie?" on the welcome screen shows a code to bring the pet back: choose "Bring a saved maatjie to a device I am holding" on the page. Only type a code shown on a device you are holding yourself. A pet can come back only to a device with no maatjie of its own: if your child has started a new pet there, delete that account first (Settings, then Delete my account). We keep only Google's number for the account, never its email address or name.
• Devices on this account. Bringing a pet back adds the new device to the account, and the old one keeps working. The account's other devices show a note the next time the game opens there. In Settings, under Grown-ups, "Devices on this account" shows how many devices open the pet and when the newest was added, and "Sign out other devices" signs out every one but the device you are holding (the pet must be saved to Google, so a device signed out by mistake can bring it back). Use it for a lost or sold phone, or if you see a device you do not know.
• Nickname. Your child's nickname can be changed in Me, up to 3 times a day.
• Swap safety code. Swaps stay off until a grown-up sets up a safety code with an authenticator app.
• Pet alerts. Reminders stay off until someone says yes, and a grown-up sets the quiet hours.
• Start fresh. A grown-up can say goodbye to a pet and start again with a new egg. The old pet is kept in the Pet Album.
• Deleting the account. Settings, then Delete my account, after the grown-up check, or our account deletion page if the game is no longer installed.

How to reach us

Write to info@tinytwigsstudio.com about anything: a worry about another player, a nickname, your child's account or a privacy request. Maatjie Arena is made by Tiny Twigs Studio, South Africa.