Parent's Guide
What is Club Penguin?
Club Penguin is a snow-covered, virtual world where children play games and interact with friends in the guise of colourful penguin avatars.
How does it work?
Players create a penguin, then waddle around the island of Club Penguin, engaging in a variety of fun and imaginative activities. Players can chat, send greeting cards, use emotes (emotion icons) or choose from a set of pre-defined actions such as waving or dancing. Users can also play games to earn virtual coins which can be used to buy clothing and accessories or furniture for their igloo. New content, such as games and theme parties, is added every week.
Why did you create Club Penguin?
We wanted to build a fun, online playground guided by such a strong commitment to safety we'd feel comfortable letting our own children and grandchildren visit.
Is it safe?
As part of its commitment to creating a safe online environment for children and their families, Club Penguin offers two chat options:
Ultimate Safe Chat limits what users can say to a predefined menu of greetings, questions and statements, as well as emotes, actions and greeting cards. When it comes to chatting, these users can only see other Ultimate Safe Chat messages.
Standard Safe Chat allows players to type their own messages to other users. Every message is filtered to allow only pre-approved words and phrases, and block attempts to communicate a phone number or other personally identifiable information.
Although the filter is continuously updated, comments that could be offensive to some players may occasionally get through. In order to limit that and further protect participants, Club Penguin employs highly trained, on-site staff to monitor activity and chat, receive reports of misconduct and provide personalized player support. An "M” icon on the upper, right-hand portion of the screen reminds participants a moderator is available to help. Players who engage in inappropriate behavior can be silenced or banned.
How much does it cost to play?
Club Penguin is free to play, although additional features such as buying clothing or decorating an igloo, require a membership.
Why charge anything at all?
By financing our operations through paid subscription memberships Club Penguin is able to remain free of third party advertising.
What are the benefits of Club Penguin?
In addition to being a great place to play and have fun, Club Penguin is a great place to learn and grow. On Club Penguin, children practice reading, develop keyboarding skills and participate in creative role playing. By accumulating and spending virtual coins earned through game play kids practice math and learn about money management. The cooperative nature of the Club Penguin environment, along with initiatives such as our secret agent and tour guide programs, also help children develop important social skills while gaining a deeper understanding of their role as members of a community.
Can I set limits for the amount of time my child is in Club Penguin?
As a parent, it's your call as to how much time is spent on the computer and Club Penguin. To make it easier, we've created a Club Penguin Timer. You'll need a Parent Password to access it, so if you don't have a parent account yet, go to the Create a Parent Account page to create one. Using the Timer, with a few simple clicks, you can:
Set Play Hours - set times for your child to play between
Limit the Daily Total - limit the amount of total time your child plays
