London, June 19 (ANI): An online game popular among teenagers, Habbo Hotel, which was hit by paedophile grooming allegations, will re-enable chat asking for recommendations how the service should change.
Paul Lafontaine, CEO of Habbo's parent company Sulake, said that the reason for unlocking the chat features was to enable Habbo's "global community of responsible and proud users" to debate how the site should be moderated in future.
The site's chat features have been muted since the airing of an investigation into 'pornographic chat' aired in the UK by Channel Four News, The Telegraph reports.
One journalist posing as a 13-year-old was asked to strip live on webcam 'within two minutes' of logging in to the site.
Habbo users held candle-lit vigils in public areas protesting against the silencing of conversation, displaying signs attacking Channel Four News.
Habbo fans also targeted Channel Four News programme editor Oliver King and anchor Jon Snow with abuse and death threats on Twitter.
Habbo has said that it is 'one of the safest online communities' and that it employs a set of safety procedures common to many social networks, including automated monitoring for a blacklist of dangerous sites that might be linked to or words that might be used in conversation.
While the company maintains that the problems discovered by journalists were 'a challenge for every social media community,' criticism has focused on the site because of its popularity with young children. (ANI)
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