Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Well, some of the faerie drawings could be looked at as almost "inappropriate" if you really want to pick things apart. I don't see anything wrong with the Aly & Aj picture. Neo is for children, yes, but it's for all ages. Disney, I don't think, would allow any of their singers/actors to be portrayed in a "trashy" style. As to the clothing? I've seen much more and much worse seeing the kids around here going to school.

To that pop-up ad ... yes it is inappropriate, especially for a COPPA site. When it was reported, did you do a right click, c&p the properties so whoever's in charge of removing these things knows exactly what to look for?

Unfortunately, most of the time when a site contracts with ad companies, they don't have total control over what ads are put in rotation. That doesn't mean I don't hold Neo (or any site with ads) responsible ultimately for the content on the site. If they're told there's something bad, it should be taken care of and the ad company dealt with ASAP.

The ad bothers me more for the fact that it's yet another pop-up - which Adam himself said we'd never have - than the content. Many of these ads, especially the pop-up, pop-under (those are even worse cause they "hide" under the page you're on) can contain drive-by spyware, etc. I have Spybot, Ad-Aware, CWShredder, spywareblaster, McAfee a/v and Zone Alarm firewall with pop-up blocker and have had a few sneak by. There's no reason, especially on a child-friendly site, to have to be worrying about junk being seen and/or d/l onto our computers.

I sent them a screenie of the ad, the props, the error message's url (which followed) showing them exactly what page it came from, and a letter of concern.

That was months ago. I received NO letter back except for the "we got your letter blah blah blah." And the ad has come up over and over. It's also not the only pop-up.

Oh, and I have scanned for spyware etc, and nothing. So this is a neopets popup.

I am not saying that this is porn. What I am saying is that something of this content should not be on a children's site.

Oh, and did I mention that I sent a copy of that first email to the Better Business Bureau? Because advertising dating sites with the content of sex to minors is illegal in CA. And that's where they are HQ'ed.

What I can see here that disturbs me is not necessarily content, but the incessant problem of Neopets outright ignoring the voice of its users.

Part of the problem is the advertising company that Neopets is using. That company doesn't screen their ads well enough. Neopets may be asking them for G and PG ads, but the ad company keeps letting others slip through. It's a problem with most ad companies, but some are worse than others.

If you keep complaining, perhaps they'll change ad companies.

Btw, I saw an ad asking if marijuana should be legalized and showing a big pot leaf. >.< (Yes, I wrote in about it.)

Sisters, eh? Twin sisters? I think that makes it WORSE.

. . .

Down with Disney!

. . .

And go Anime!

Aren't the adverts tailored to the age on the account? Meaning an account used by someone under 18 won't see those sort of adverts, but over 18, you're shown them as you're legally allowed to visit them anyway

I dont know if they set it up that way, but Butterfly50241 did mention on the first page that she was on her 8 year old child's junior account when she had problems with the same popup. If Neopets does set ads according to account groups, it isnt doing anything to help.

But, I personally havent had any ads since the start of summer when I got premium, and afterwards, when I blocked them by using Norton and changing my browser's settings. So, I dont know what ads a normal 18+ account sees these days :/

Yeah, I just do the Firefox/Adblock combo myself. I don't see ads unless there's a new hostname. The moment I see it, I block the new hostname and no more ads again. Every now and then, I need to turn off Adblock, and I see ads that I just wouldn't expect on Neopets. *shrugs* Ah well.

Actually, they sold Neopets to someone else awhile ago, before it was sold to Viacom. But anyways, I'd imagine Viacom just bought the rights and all, but they make most of the profit and a portion goes to paying the employees. What is odd, is that Viacom, as much money as they have, I'd expect them to put money into their investment so they can take the ads off the site. It seems, rather, that Viacom just decided to buy the company and reap the benefits and profit and not much of anything else. Just as long as Neopets keeps profiting and of course keeping the creators on board will ensure that Neopets is profitable. Its what big companies do to small companies. The owners want to profit big on their creation that was very small and rightfully deserve to.

But Neopets is now a big entertainment business and will get even bigger. Probably the biggest online gaming site on the 'net. Selling to Viacom has its benefits for the company though. And to us players. At least we know that a big company will also ensure their investment continues to make money which means more exciting things for us players, but.......

..... you'd still expect them to put enough money into the company so that the ads could be taken off. But thats probably a good thing for them as I'm sure it generates alot of income for them.




Actually, Neopets was originally created for the college student crowd but eventually grew into a site for everyone because they aren't going to restrict it.... the more users the better, right?



I also heard and read that elsewhere. Neopets has alot of tweaking to do with it. And the thing is, some advertisers will lie about the content of their advert or pop up. Or even say that their ad doesn't give a pop up. Neopets has to be careful.

All I can say about this is... shame on TNT. First, they put paid ads and popups on the site, against their initial promise of 'No popups or banner ads EVER!', and now... now they're advertising sex to underage children. Do they want to give their younger users to pedophiles...?

At least this ad isn't that horrible Jamster one. Have you seen the full image of the frog-thing? I know Jamster has ads on the site, and they do contain that frog, but I'm not sure if any of the ads have the full image on it. But it actually has a smurf, and it waves it around. When the company was told about that issue, they only changed it on sites that actually complained, and they did a very bad job of doing so.

They just put a leaf on it. And the aforementioned leaf was too small to hide the thing when it wiggled and jiggled. *shudder*

Lythiaren - I've seen the full size crazy frog, both versions. Here in the US we don't get to see anything, not even the leaf. There's nothing there at all. When I first heard about the controversy? about the frog, I was totally confused. Then I found some British sites that talked about the cartoon and the awful slight of hand one of the cell ringtone companies was doing when people d/l the crazy frog ringtone (btw, I've never heard it here on a phone).

The ads ... well, the first banner ad did cause an uproar. Then most of us just kind of accepted that they were needed. When they went to the huge bannerzilla (industry standard? - though I have seen smaller ones) we really complained and with good reason. They do slow down the computer. Then the bottom ads - really, enough IS enough. And the pop-ups that seem to be getting through more and more. Started with a weather one (that did d/l some kind of toolbar/spyware thing to some people) - that was removed really fast. It does seem to be taking longer to get the bad ads/pop-up ads off the site.

Whether this is lack of staff or problems communicating with the ad company responsible for these ads, I don't know. I also had heard that the ads were supposed to be age appropriately generated. But to be honest, I've seen more Spongebob and parent/family oriented ads on my non-premium adult account than it seems most of the under 13 are seeing. I've never seen a marijuana ad or this adult "matchmaking" ad. I have seen a couple that disturbed me - pharmaceutical and an army ad - I don't think either have any business on a game site. Not even if it was an adults only site.

When Viacom bought Neo, I believe I read that they were leaving the CEO and top people in place and weren't planning to making any changes to the site itself (maybe more promo games, things like that - which you'd expect). I don't know that they're going to do anything about the ads. They bring in revenue, no company's going to do away with bringing in a profit. If they'd release merchandise to all countries, make the prices a little lower (the toys are expensive) and bring premium live and bring the price down a little or set it up as an "ala carte" - choose what you want and pay for that, maybe, just maybe we could see the end of at least one of the ads (the bottom one if nothing else).

Neopets has been a business, not a game for quite a while now.

I have seen one or two banner ads that I deemed were inappropriate (i believe one was about contraception?,) but AFAIK they were taken down right away. I have never seen any pop-up ads anywhere on the site, and Donna has repeatedly stated in the editorial column that any pop-up ads are NOT from the neopets site.
If you keep getting pop-ups, it is most likely due to adware/spyware on your computer, and not due to neo.

I just got the adult site pop-up ad, too.

This is not a problem of what's tasteful or not (OT: even though I don't get why slutty is fasionable). The ad is clearly an ad for porn, and should not be shown. It goes way beyond what TNT freezes people for, therefore I assume it beyond what TNT thinks is acceptable for it's site.

The only sites I had open at the time were 2 neopet windows, but I had been visiting here earlier. Perhaps it's a delayed ad from PPT?

I have ie pop-up blocker on; and I run adaware, but it hasn't found any problem programs, just cookies.

I log on to neo, and what ad is on Pet Central? One asking what animal I am while I'm in bed!



Tsk tsk. Whatever happened to the days when offensive ads were nothing more than a myth on neo?