How to report abuse in Pico

Written by Catero

Dear Pico Perfect Readers,

Have you ever been bullied while playing Pico?

I want to share an important message with you for the New Year. It's about being safe and protecting yourself.

Did you know that you have rights while you are playing Pico? You definitely do! And with rights come responsibilities. When you create your account for Ameba Pico you agree to rules that you must live by to use the game. These rules are called Terms of Service.

If someone is bullying you, harassing you or saying mean things to you - this can be through chat, whispers, letters or posts to your room - you can report their bad behavior.

Reporting someone can be a little tricky. Not everyone knows how to do it. To keep you safe, Pico Perfect would like to show you what you should report someone for and how to report someone.

What can I report someone for?
The are a few important things you should know about how everyone is expected to behave in Pico. To get the full details, read the Terms of Service: Section #5 Online Conduct. If it's difficult for you to understand, ask a parent or someone you trust to read and explain it to you.

Let's highlight some of the important parts that talk about how you act when you are in Pico.

Picos must not:

• Bully others.
  This means anything that a person does that is meant to harass, threaten, abuse, or anything else that is meant to lower someone's dignity or self-esteem. Spreading harmful gossip and saying mean words - swearing, vulgar, sexually graphic, racially or ethnically offensive language - are considered to be bullying.
• Give out someone else's personal and private information without their permission.
  This means telling other people someone's full name, email address, street address, Pico login, etc. knowing that the person would not want you to.
• Spam or flood chat rooms with vulgar or abusive language or other unwanted information meant to disturb other Picos.
  This means posting the same text over and over again so that the screen goes by too fast to read. This includes typing in ALL CAPS/CAPS LOCK.
• Make a false complaint to Pico about someone else.
  This means contacting the Pico moderators to report something that is untrue/never happened.

How do I report someone?
There are two ways to report someone's bad behavior. Both ways will take you to the same contact form.

1. If you are a Facebook user, scroll to the bottom of the page you are playing Pico on and click on the link that says 'Report Abuse', just like in the image below (click image to enlarge).


2. If you are not a Facebook user ...

• visit the offical Pico blog (http://info.pico.ameba.net/)
• scroll to the bottom of the page
• click on the 'Contact' link.

You can use this form to report someone using the Inquiry Category of Abuse/Behaviour. Make sure you fill in all the details of the situation - including the person's Pico ID (name), what they have said (copy and paste the things the person has said) or anything else that would be useful.

Bookmarking the Contact page is a good way to help you pull it up quickly when you need it.

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If you didn't know how to report someone before reading this, hopefully you do now and this was easy-to understand.

No one has the right to be abusive to you when you are simply trying to enjoy your time in Pico. If you are being bullied, don't hesitate to make use of the Contact page. While you are waiting for Pico moderators to read and respond to your message, you can also mute the bully's chat and block them from your room if they are in there making trouble.

Have a safe Pico Life!