Code of conduct - POGO! The best place for kids!

Home »
Code of conduct

Pogo.tv - Code of Conduct

This Pogo.tv ("Site") is actively promoted to minors, so while you are posting photos, videos or comments on the Site, please respect others. We do not allow any content that includes nudity, or that is of a sexual or violent nature, or that infringes or could infringe any intellectual property rights, or that contains any illegal elements or foul elements. This Code of Conduct (the "Code") sets out the rules for use of the Site, and your behaviour as a member of the community using the Site. The overriding rules are simple:

Stay Safe - Do not reveal your personal information to other Site members or anyone else online; do not share your real name, phone number, address, e-mail, passwords or social security number or photographs of you, your family or friends.
Keep it Clean - Do not use inappropriate language or attempt to post inappropriate content on the Site; references to violence, drugs and alcohol, sexual activity, nudity, profanity, obscenity, or any form of religious, racial, sexual or other discrimination is not permitted and will not be tolerated.
Keep it Fun - Respect other Site users and do not use the Site to cheat, bully, harass, intimidate, terrorise or be mean to other Site users.

The detailed way in which these simple rules apply is set out in the Code. Please read the Code carefully before using any community features on the Site, including any chat, instant messaging, message boards, neighbourhoods, guilds, fan sites or forums. By accessing and using these features on the Site, you signify your agreement with the Code. If you do not agree with any aspect of the Code, do not access or use the Site. Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, Inc. ("Turner" or "We") reserves the right, in our sole discretion, to modify, alter or otherwise update the Code when we deem it appropriate and in the best interest of the smooth operation and enjoyment of the community of the Site.

Your use of the Site is also subject to our Terms of Use, which can be found at http://www.pogo.tv/terms-of-use. In the event there is a conflict between the Code and the Terms of Use, the Code will prevail. We retain the final say over what constitutes a violation of the Terms of Use or the Code. REPEATED VIOLATIONS OF THE CODE MAY RESULT IN YOU BEING BARRED FROM THE SITE COMMUNITY.

1. Community Conduct.

The Site is designed to be a fun, safe community and is to be used strictly for individual entertainment purposes. You must respect the rights of others and their rights to use and access the Site. These are basic guidelines that everyone must follow and will be enforced by us. We are committed to fair and equal treatment of all Site users. We reserve the right, but not the obligation, to investigate and take appropriate action in our sole discretion against anyone who we believe has violated the Code, including suspending or terminating the membership or accounts of such violators and/or suspending or terminating their right to access the Site. Certain violations of the Code may, at our sole discretion, result in the immediate termination of your account, with no advance notice required, as well as other actions which we may determine are necessary.

You agree not to use the Site in any way that violates the rights of others (including copyrights and other intellectual property rights, and rights of privacy and publicity), that is inconsistent with community standards or that in any way may give rise to liability for us, our affiliates, or our or their directors, officers, employees, agents, providers, suppliers or licensors, including by creating, displaying or transmitting on or through the Site any content that may violate such rights of others or that may give rise to such liability.

(a) Examples of prohibited conduct: The following types of content or use are prohibited under the Code:

Any content or use that is patently offensive to the online community, such as sexually explicit content, or content that promotes obscenity, paedophilia, racism, bigotry, religious intolerance, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;

Any content or use that harasses or advocates harassment of another person, including continuing to message a Site user ("griefing") after being asked to stop, or continued negative "tagging" of another Site user;

Any use that involves the transmission of "junk mail," "chain letters," or unsolicited mass e-mails or "spamming";

Any use that intends or has the effect of disrupting the normal use or operation of the Site, or otherwise uses a disproportionate amount of bandwidth or places disproportionate demands on the CPUs of our servers;

Any content that promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous;

Any content that infringes upon or violates any third party's rights, including intellectual property rights, (including unauthorised disclosure of that third party's name, e-mail address, physical address or phone number), and/or rights of publicity;

Any content that promotes or enables an illegal or unauthorised copy of another person's copyrighted work, such as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent manufacturer-installed copy-protection devices, or providing pirated music, movies, videos, or video games, or links, or other access to such pirated material;

Any content that contains restricted or password-only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page);

Any content that provides material that exploits people in a sexual, violent or otherwise inappropriate manner or solicits personal information from anyone;

Any content that provides instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons, buying or selling illegal drugs, violating someone's privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses;

Any content that contains personal videos, photographs, or images of any person, including you;

Any content that contains video, photographs, or images of a minor (regardless of whether you have consent from the minor or their legal guardian);

Any content or use that tries to gain unauthorised access or exceeds the scope of your authorised access to the Site, including profiles, blogs, chat rooms, communities, account information, bulletins, friend requests or other areas of the Site or solicits passwords or personally identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other Site users;

Any content or use that engages in or solicits commercial activities or sales without our prior written consent such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, sales advertising, investments and/or pyramid schemes;

Any content or use that solicits gambling or engages in any gambling activity which we, in our sole discretion, believe is or would be construed as being illegal;

Any content that contains viruses, time bombs, trojan horses, cancelbots, worms or other harmful, deleterious or disruptive creations, components or devices;

Any content or use that interferes with another individual's use and enjoyment of the Site or any other individual's use and enjoyment of the similar services; or

Any content that refers to any website or URL that, in our sole discretion, contains material that is inappropriate for the Site, contains content that would be prohibited on the Site, or violates the letter or spirit of the Code or the Terms of Use.

(b) Any access to, or use of, the Site or the computer systems used to host or serve the Site that is not in accordance with the express provisions of the Code is expressly unauthorised and prohibited. You must use the Site in a manner consistent with any and all applicable laws and regulations.

(c) You may not engage in advertising to, or solicitation of, other Site users through the Site to buy or sell any unauthorised products or services. It is also a violation of the Code to use any information obtained from the Site in order to harass, abuse or harm another person, or in order to contact, advertise to, solicit or sell to another person outside of the Site without their prior explicit consent. In order to protect Site users from unwarranted advertising or solicitation, we reserve the right to restrict the number of messages which a Site user may send to other Site users in a given time period to a number which we deem appropriate in our sole discretion.

(d) You may not impersonate our employees or agents, customer service personnel, group leaders or administrators, any on-Site characters or other Site users and you may not give false information or intentionally hide any information when registering on the Site.

(e) You may not attempt to interfere with, hack into or decipher any transmissions to or from the clients and servers running the Site nor may you use any website hacking, altering or cheating software tools. You may not use any automated scripting or "macroing" tools or software without our prior consent. You expressly understand that you may not reverse engineer, disassemble or decompile or attempt to reverse engineer or derive code from any information accessible through the Site (including data packets transmitted to and from the Site over the Internet), or analyse, decipher, "sniff", derive code from, or attempt to analyse, decipher, "sniff", or derive code from any packet stream transmitted to or from the Site, whether encrypted or not, or permit any third party to do any of the same, and you expressly waive any legal rights you may have to do so, including any claim that such activities constitute "fair use" or are for "interoperability purposes" under any applicable laws.

(f) Your correspondence or business dealings with, or participation in promotions of, advertisers found on or through the Site, including payment and delivery of related goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such advertiser. You agree that we shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such advertisers on or in connection with the Site.

(g) You understand and accept that it is possible that other Site users (including unauthorised users or "hackers") may post or transmit offensive or obscene materials on the Site and that you may be involuntarily exposed to such offensive and obscene materials. It may also be possible for others to obtain personal information about you due to your use of the Site, and that the recipient may use such information to harass or injure you. We do not approve of such unauthorised uses but by using the Site you acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for the use of any personal information that you publicly disclose or share with others in connection with the Site. Please carefully select the type of information that you publicly disclose or share with others on, through or in connection with the Site.

(h) We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to monitor communications and any disputes between you and other Site users, to remove or edit any material that in our sole opinion violates, or is alleged to violate, any applicable law or either the letter or spirit of the Code, or to terminate community privileges in appropriate circumstances. Notwithstanding this right, you remain solely responsible for the content of the materials you transmit on or through the Site and in your private messages to other Site users.

(i) If you would like to report conduct you believe is in violation of the Code, go to our online feedback section at http://www.pogo.tv/index/contact. Keep in mind that reporting conduct as a violation does not mean it constitutes a violation, or that we must or will take any action against such conduct or the user engaging in such conduct. In the event we do or do not take action against any reported conduct, we will inform you or other persons reporting such conduct. It is also a violation of the Code to knowingly make a false report against another Site user, or to use the reporting process to harass or intimidate a Site user, or to encourage others to do so.

2. Proprietary Rights in Content in the Site.

The Site and all Site elements, including characters, logos, graphics, illustrations, text, images, audio, video and software, are protected by U.S. and international copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws and are owned and controlled by us or other parties that have licensed their material to us. No material, including the characters, logos, graphics, illustrations, text, images, audio and video, and no software, including images or files incorporated in or generated by the software or data accompanying such software (individually and collectively the "Materials"), may be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way or decompiled, reverse engineered or disassembled, unless the Materials are in the public domain or you have obtained our prior written permission and maintain all legal notices intact or as provided by us. Modification of the Materials or use of the Materials in whole or in part for any non-approved purpose is a violation of our or such other sources' copyright, trademark and other proprietary rights.

3. User Content.

You are responsible for any content, notes, messages, e-mails, opinions, ideas, photos, images, videos, profiles, audio files or other materials or information that you create, transmit or display on or through the Site, or that is created, transmitted or displayed via your account or sub-accounts (collectively, "User Content"). By transmitting or displaying User Content on or through the Site, you grant us an unlimited, irrevocable, worldwide perpetual licence to use such User Content for our commercial purposes in our sole discretion, without payment to you. You agree that we may review, edit and delete any User Content which, in our sole judgment, violates this Code. We shall be entitled to use the User Content or any of part of it for any type of use forever, including promotional and advertising purposes, and in any media whether now known or later devised, including the creation of derivative works that may include User Content, provided such use by us is consistent with our Privacy Policy. You agree that any User Content you post may be used by us in accordance with our Privacy Policy and you are not entitled to any payment or other compensation for such use.

4. Unsolicited Creative Submissions/Communications.

We do not accept or consider creative ideas, suggestions or materials other than those we have specifically requested. This is to avoid the possibility of future misunderstandings when projects independently developed by us or our agents might seem to others to be similar to their own creative ideas, suggestions or materials. If you do send us or post any creative materials, suggestions, ideas, notes, drawings, concepts, including ideas or descriptions of how the Site or our characters could be enhanced or further developed, (collectively, the "Information"), the Information shall be deemed "User Content," will be subject to Paragraph 3 above and shall remain our property. None of the Information shall be subject to any obligation of confidence on our part and we shall not be liable for any use or disclosure of any Information. We shall exclusively own any now known or later existing rights to the Information of every kind and nature throughout the universe and shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the Information for any purpose without compensation to the provider of the Information.

5. Naming Policy.

When selecting a character or object name for use on or in connection with the Site, you must abide by our Naming Policy and use your best judgment to avoid grey areas:

(a) Names may not be offensive, sexually explicit, vulgar, racist, hateful, obscene or defamatory or include any language that is offensive in nature (including common swear words, names concerned with anatomical references and intentional misspellings, anagrams, combinations, and homonyms of these words);

(b) Names may not be used that harass or damage the reputation of another Site user, group of Site users or our employees or agents;

(d) Names may not be used to pose as an authority figure on the Site (for example, names can not include words like operator, official, director, etc.);

(e) Names may not include the names of any Cartoon Network programs, characters or elements;

(f) Names may not include any reference to copyrighted or trademarked names, materials or products;

(g) Names may not derive from popular culture or media references;

(h) Names may not be religiously or historically sensitive;

(i) Names may not be proper names of an area;

(j) Names may not contain a phrase, sentence, or any fragment of a sentence;

(k) Names may not include any telephone numbers, credit card numbers, social security numbers, street addresses, or email/instant message addresses;

(l) Names may not include any real full names (for example, John Smith) or real last names (for example, Smith); and

(m) Names may not use misspellings or alternative spellings of names that violate any of the rules above.

If you violate any part of the above Naming Policy, you may be given a new name by one of our staff and you may be issued a warning on your account. Repeated violations may lead to suspension or termination of your right to access and use the Site and/or your account. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to reject or edit any name you choose if we feel that it is inappropriate or violates our Naming Policy.

6. Privacy

Use of the Site is governed by our Privacy Policy which can be viewed at http://www.pogo.tv/privacy-policy. Messages sent between you and other Site users that are not readily accessible to the general public may not be considered confidential and will be treated as private by us only to the extent required by applicable law (if at all). Subject to our Privacy Policy, you understand and agree that we have the right at all times to disclose the identity of the persons providing information or materials on the Site. This may include disclosure of information in connection with investigation of alleged illegal activity or solicitation of illegal activity or in response to a lawful court order or subpoena. In addition, we can (and you authorise us to) disclose any information about you to law enforcement or other government officials, as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate in connection with the investigation and/or resolution of possible crimes, especially those that may involve personal injury.

7. Sponsors and Advertisers.

Some areas on or activities within the Site may be sponsored by third parties ("our Sponsors"), and some items to be used in-Site may be acquired by participating in promotions of our Sponsors. Unless otherwise specified, our Sponsors are not affiliated with us, and we neither endorse any products sold by our Sponsors or guarantee the performance or suitability of those products. We are not responsible for any promotion or contest being conducted by any of our Sponsors. You agree not to interfere with or attempt to circumvent any requirement of a Sponsor promotion, such as the purchase of a product in order to obtain promotional codes which may be exchanged in-Site for items. You further agree to not take any action that attempts to avoid, hide, modify, or delete any advertising within the Site.

8. Point System Within The Site

There are many ways to accumulate points that may be redeemed for items or other privileges within the Site. These points are nontransferable and have no value outside of the Site. You have no ownership interest in these points, and when your account is terminated, you lose all of those points. You agree that you will not buy or sell or attempt to buy or sell points to other players or to other accounts you control.

9. Premium Offerings.

We reserve the right in the future to offer premium items for sale on the Site. If you choose to purchase such items, you (or your parent if you are a minor) will be required to enter into a separate agreement with us and to supply us with additional information (including valid credit card information) in order to process the transaction.

10. Account Security Policy

All account security is your responsibility. This includes hacking protection, password protection, virus protection and anything else that has to do with computer or account security. If you believe that your account security has been compromised, please go to our online feedback section at http://www.pogo.tv/index/contact. If an account has been stolen, hacked or in any other way compromised, we may suspend the account while we investigate. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause and confirm that we will complete the investigation in as timely a manner as possible. Once our investigation is complete, we will determine the appropriate course of action. If we find someone who is involved with hacking or theft of accounts, we will ban all of their accounts or take such other action as we consider necessary and appropriate in our sole discretion.

11. What to Expect from Customer Support.

The following is a non-exhaustive, general list of what you can expect from customer support for the Site:

(a) You will get a timely response to your questions or concerns, based upon customer service workload.

(b) You will receive unobtrusive and professional support.

(c) We will make every attempt not to interfere with you or the operation of the Site, unless absolutely necessary in the performance of our duties.

(d) You will be treated fairly and equitably.

(e) Any incident that could be construed as a violation of our policies will be investigated, with the benefit of the doubt being given to the customer, prior to action being taken.

(f) All disciplinary action will be resolved as quickly as possible and will be based on the severity of the violation, the situation in which the violation occurred, and your account history.

12. Disciplinary Policy

It is our intent to provide a Site that everyone can enjoy free from intrusion. However, there may be times when issues arise that involve violations of the Code. When this happens, our customer service staff will investigate each incident, ensuring that we are fair and equitable in our dealings with everyone involved. Depending on the severity of the violation and the player's past history, we may take the following actions after our investigation.

(a) We may do nothing at all.

(b) We may give the relevant Site user a warning about their actions. If this happens we may mark their account with the warning and any details about the incident.

(c) We may suspend the relevant Site user's account. This is intended to be a "time-out" period that allows that person to think about their actions and cool down. If this happens we may mark their account with a suspension and any details about the incident.

(d) We may terminate the relevant Site user's account permanently. If this happens we will mark the account as terminated with all details about the incident.

If you have any questions or concerns about any disciplinary action that is taken against you, please go to our online feedback section at http://www.pogo.tv/index/contact and include any pertinent information.

13. Parental Controls.

The Site will be actively promoted to minors. In order to comply with the law and our best practices, and to protect Site users from harsh language, violence, pornography and strangers, a set of rules will be implemented on the Site. These rules include both active and passive measures to create a clean environment for children on the Site, to avoid discouraging children from using the Site and to let parents feel comfortable to allow their children to play within it.

13.1 Registration Age Control.

At the time of registration, you will be asked to specify your place of residence and date of birth. If you are under the age of 14 at the time of registration, you will require parental consent before your account can be established. Until such account is established, you will not be permitted to submit any Material or other user-generated content ("UGC") to the Site, although you will be able to view Material or content on the Site created by other Site users, until we are satisfied that we have received a valid parental consent in accordance with our procedures. However, you may be granted access to the video-on-demand, flash games and multiplayer games accessible on and through the Site only, until such time as we receive valid parental consent. If you are aged 14 or over at the time of registration, and on receipt of valid parental consent if you are under the age of 14 at the time of registration, you may be granted full access to the Site after visiting the confirmation URL sent to you by us in a welcome email. We intend to obtain all parental consents by means of fax or telephone, however we are entitled to accept parental consent in such form as we deem appropriate, including by fax, telephone or email confirmation. If you are under the age of 14 at the time of registration, your parent or guardian may disallow your use of the Site at any time either by calling us or by sending us a fax or email.

13.2 Site Access Rights

You may only use and access the Site following creation of your user account. If you are under the age of 14 at the time of registration, you will only be permitted to view those areas of the Site permitting blogs, forums and video creation, and will not be enabled to update your personal information, subscribe to our newsletter or participate in any competitions, until we receive valid consent from your parent or guardian.

13.3 Content Moderation

All UGC submitted to the Site will be subject to real time word filtering, so that inappropriate words or language contained in our database will be filtered and replaced with symbols. Our content moderators ("Moderators") will also actively monitor and review all UGC submitted to the Site. You acknowledge that any UGC you submit to the Site may be reviewed by our Moderators for compliance with our internal guidelines, the guidelines set out in the Terms of Use, this Code and our Privacy Policy, and that our Moderators may remove any content from the Site which they deem, in their sole discretion, to be inappropriate for inclusion on the Site. In addition, you may report any content which you believe to be inappropriate (including content in connection with any prohibited conduct) ("Inappropriate Content") to us. On receipt of your report, our Moderators will check the reported content and if they determine, in their sole discretion, that such Inappropriate Content is in violation of the Terms of Use, this Code, our Privacy Policy or any other applicable laws or guidelines, they will remove that Inappropriate Content from the Site. Moderators will also check the usage history and record of users who have been found to have submitted UGC which is Inappropriate Content. If you:

(a) have not previously submitted Inappropriate Content to the Site and the relevant violation of the Terms of Use, this Code, our Privacy Policy or other guidelines is minor; or

(b) have previously submitted Inappropriate Content to the Site a reasonable number of times (but no more than 3)) with all relevant violations being minor in nature, and

the present violation is of a minor nature, the Moderator will issue an official warning email to your email address. You acknowledge that in such circumstances we may also suspend your account at our sole discretion for a period determined by us. If you have previously submitted more than 3 items of Inappropriate Content to the Site, or the current violation is serious in nature, we will immediately delete or suspend your account, in our sole discretion.

13.4 Forum Moderation.

If you post Inappropriate Content (including flooding, spamming, flaming or posting offensive materials) to any forum on the Site, you will be banned by reference to your User ID, email address and User Name, and your account will be suspended or terminated (at our discretion). You will be informed by email why your account has been so suspended or terminated.

13.5 Blog Moderation.

If you post any Inappropriate Content (including offensive pictures, nudity or offensive words) in a blog on the Site, that Inappropriate Content shall be deleted from your post. In such an event, you will either be emailed a warning email and asked to respond, and until such response is received your account will be suspended, or your account will be deleted. You acknowledge that you are not permitted to create any blogs on the Site for the purpose of selling items of any kind, and any such blogs of any kind will be suspended and deleted. Marketing of other external sites owned or controlled by companies other than us is also not permitted.

13.6 Video Creation Moderation.

If you post a video to the Site containing any Inappropriate Content (including offensive words or content) in any video, your video will be removed from the Site. In such an event, you will either be emailed a warning email and asked to respond, and until such response is received your account will be suspended, or your account will be deleted.

13.7 Chat Moderation

If you post any Inappropriate Content (including flooding, spamming, flaming or posing offensive materials) while chatting in the main lobby room of any multi-player game on the Site, you will be immediately kicked out of the game and banned by User ID, email address and User Name. In such event, you will be emailed a warning email and asked to respond and until such response is received, you account will be suspended. Additionally, if you attempt to use the comments area on the Site as a chat room, you will be emailed a warning email.

14. Posting Date

This Code was last updated and posted on 1 Feb, 2008.