Conduct and protection terms

Safety, chat and privacy terms explained

Online adventure games are social first and competitive second, which places chat, reporting and moderation at the centre of what a parent or a player needs to understand. The words in this section describe controls that exist on nearly every service in the category, and that are almost always switched on from a settings screen nobody visits.

The terms, defined

Chat filter

Automated screening of messages against a list of blocked words and patterns. Filters catch the obvious and miss the deliberate, which is why they sit alongside reporting rather than replacing it.

Whitelist chat

A restricted mode where only pre-approved words or fixed phrases can be sent. Commonly the default for accounts registered to younger players, and commonly the first thing a child asks to have turned off.

Free chat

Unrestricted typing, subject to filtering and moderation. The step from whitelist to free chat is the most consequential setting on a child’s game account.

Friend request

An invitation to add another account to a contact list, often enabling private messaging. Settings usually allow requests from anyone, from nobody, or from players met in game.

Block

Preventing another account from messaging or interacting with yours. It is immediate, local to your account, and does not notify the person blocked.

Report

Submitting an account or a message to the publisher’s moderation team. Reports are more useful with the context the form asks for, and screenshots kept before blocking are frequently what makes one actionable.

Moderation

The publisher’s review of conduct, ending in no action, a warning, a mute, a temporary suspension or a permanent closure. Outcomes are rarely disclosed to the reporter, which is not the same as nothing having happened.

Parental controls

Restrictions applied at device, app store or game level, covering spending, chat, contact and play time. The three levels are independent, and a control set in one does not apply in the others.

Grooming

The pattern of behaviour in which an adult builds trust with a child online with the intention of exploiting it. The eSafety Commissioner describes the warning signs and how to report, and games with in-game chat are among the environments it addresses directly.

Account sharing

Giving sign-in details to another person. It breaches most terms of service and removes the publisher’s ability to distinguish you from whoever else used the account, including for recovery.

Phishing

A message or page imitating a publisher or a friend in order to capture sign-in details. In games it usually arrives as an offer of currency, an item or early access. Scamwatch, operated by the National Anti-Scam Centre, collects reports.

Personal information

Under Australian law, information about an identified individual or one who is reasonably identifiable. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner regulates how organisations covered by the Privacy Act 1988 handle it.

The three layers, and what each one can actually do

Because the three are independent, a household that has set screen time on a tablet may still have free chat switched on in a game, and a game with purchases disabled in its own settings may still allow a store purchase. Checking all three takes about ten minutes once.

What to do about specific problems

1. Unwanted contact from another player. Block first, then report through the game’s own tool with whatever the form asks for. Keep a screenshot before blocking if the conduct was serious.
2. Serious online abuse, threats or image-based abuse. These can be reported to the eSafety Commissioner, which has statutory functions in this area and explains on its site what it can act on and what it needs.
3. Suspected grooming or conduct involving a child. The eSafety Commissioner’s site sets out reporting routes, and serious matters belong with police. A publisher’s in-game report is not a substitute for either.
4. A scam or an account-theft attempt. Report to Scamwatch, and change the password on the email account before the game account.
5. A concern about how a company handled personal information. Contact the organisation first, then the OAIC, which explains how privacy complaints work and when it can consider one.

A settings review worth doing once

• Confirm the chat mode on the account, and whether it matches the age of the person using it.
• Set who may send friend requests.
• Check whether purchases are possible, at device level as well as in the game.
• Confirm two-factor authentication is on where it is offered.
• Find the in-game report tool before it is needed, so nobody is hunting for it during an incident.
• Agree, in a household with children, what gets reported to an adult and what happens next — the eSafety Commissioner publishes conversation guides for exactly this.

Privacy inside a game account

Game accounts hold less personal information than most services, and what they hold is specific: an email address, a display name, purchase records, and the record of play itself. The risk is rarely the quantity and usually the linkage — a display name reused across services connects accounts that were otherwise separate, and a profile that mentions a school or suburb turns a game contact into a physical one.

Organisations covered by the Privacy Act 1988 must handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles, and the OAIC publishes what those principles require, including the obligation to notify eligible data breaches. Whether a particular overseas game publisher falls within that scheme depends on its own circumstances, which is a question for the publisher’s privacy policy rather than for a glossary.