#Habboon hotel game full#

The ease with which this happened was shocking. She found alongside the balloons and teddies, chats and interactions of an explicit sexual nature. Independent producer Rachel Seifert spent two months playing this seemingly innocent game posing as a young girl. In response, we have taken this product off sale, pending further investigation.” WH Smith did the same, saying: “”We were concerned to learn of the allegations about Habbo Hotel made in the Channel 4 News report. The cards can be used to buy furniture for the users online “rooms” in the hotel. Tesco has revealed that following our investigation it will no longer stock gift cards for the site in its stores. We know from our own research that youngsters of nine play on Habbo Hotel.

#Habboon hotel game full#

However, Channel 4 News found the site to be full of pornographic sexual chat, despite the fact it is aimed at children as young as 13 years old. The game is set in a virtual hotel, where kids create avatars with which they can move around rooms, chat to other users in public or privately and even buy credits in the real world to furnish their virtual hotel room. And with 10 million unique visitors a month, it is “the world’s largest social game and online community for teenagers”. It remains to be seen if Habbo's renewed popularity will last only as long as the virus.Īs welcome a diversion as Habbo may be, Pitkaranta and her fellow students are looking forward to when they can enjoy some real-life partying, she said.Seemingly innocent, Habbo Hotel, with its bright colours, pink teddy bears, flashing lights, and roaming ponies, is one of a growing number of virtual worlds created for kids. The game's Finnish maker is jointly owned by private Dutch advertising group Azerion and Finnish telecoms operator Elisa. 'As the world has shut down, the more users have come along,' he added. Habbo Hotel has versions in nine languages, attracting most users in the Americas and Europe, Sulake's Karu said. 'Some people are finding it very distressing that they have to be home alone and are finding it hard to get things done when stuck indoors.' 'I thought it was a fun idea to organize a party there, also out of nostalgia,' Pitkaranta said. About 30 of her fellow students joined the party at the end of March. With all student events canceled because of the coronavirus, Pitkaranta decided to organize a virtual party at Habbo Hotel. One returning user is Pilvi Pitkaranta, a 23-year-old University of Tampere student who was an active player with her classmates about 10 years ago. They can also join virtual parties in search of new acquaintances. With a layout reminiscent of classic video games, Habbo Hotel consists of rooms that players can decorate and where they can meet other players to chat or play games. Launched 20 years ago, Habbo Hotel gained a strong following among children and teenagers before it was eclipsed by social media sites such as Facebook by 2010. The exact user number growth figure is 213% since February 25,' game maker Sulake's Chief Executive Valtteri Karu told Reuters, adding that this included hundreds of thousands of new and returning users. 'Our traffic has tripled over the past month. Habbo Hotel, a hit online networking game more than a decade ago, is drawing back hundreds of thousand of players as locked-down millennials look to rediscover a childhood favorite, its Finnish maker said.