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Welcome to GONG!

With any online community website or game, we encourage parents to stay involved with their children's online experience. Our GONG! Team understands the importance of online safety for children and many of us are also parents. Our Team wants to reassure you about the safe and fun qualities our game has to offer. This Parental Guide was created to provide you with plenty of background information about our gameplay, content and overall community management goals. One of the best ways to learn about our game is to actually test it out with your children. After some testing you might even end up creating your own character!

What's GONG!?

GONG! is a casual, free-to-play, on-line soccer game with an active and fun online community. You can play it by yourself or with friends over the Internet. The game is designed for casual play for all users above the age of 9.

What is the GONG! online community?

The GONG! online community is the collection of all registered players of GONG! Our main meeting place is the GONG! website. On the website, users can send messages, see their stats, and change their individual profiles. The community will make it easier for you to arrange matches and see the latest announcements.

Why did you create GONG!'s online community?

We believe that GONG! is even more fun when people have a chance to connect with each other to see stats, share ideas, and occasionally show off. The community is the place where we can post announcements, images, and videos. It's also the place where we can hear from you, which is an important part of making GONG! a great experience for everyone.

Is GONG! safe for younger players?

GONG! is a fun, easy to play soccer game. Our lobby system and community are designed to make it easy for young players to arrange matches without disclosing private information. However, we do not allow players under the age of 13 unless they have their parent's permission.

We want to do everything we can to prevent bullies or criminally irresponsible adults from interfering with your children's experiences. We can do that best when you help us.

On our side we:

• Only allow registered users to play on the GONG! site.
• Prohibit offensive language or unsavory topics.
• Make it impossible for anyone to use email to contact children within the site.
• Never allow private communications between two users within the site.
• Make it easy for children to report bullying or any inappropriate activity.

We ask your help to:

• Discuss GONG!s rules of conduct with your child and explain their importance.
• Log into your parent account and check periodically for any communication from us that your child has been bending the rules and then review the importance of good behavior in the site.
• Periodically review your child's friend list and ask who each person is.
• Periodically ask your child to demonstrate the game, give you a tour of the GONG! community, and enjoy sharing the fun your child has with GONG!.

Partnering for Safety

We want to do everything we can to prevent bullies or criminally irresponsible adults from interfering with children's experiences. We can do that best when you help us.

Our Responsibility

• Only registered users are allowed to play GONG! or to participate in the community website. That requirement applies to children who visit (and can enjoy many aspects of the site) without paying for a membership, as well as to paying members. Since an attempt to register triggers a notification to the parent's or guardian's email address, you will be informed before your child is allowed on the site. That email will contain much of this information about safety, about your rights to privacy, and the Terms of Use.
• We prohibit offensive language. GONG! employs technology (a text filter) that doesn't allow most offensive language on the screen. As children type in their messages, the filter catches the most common inappropriate words and their variations before they are displayed. In addition, any reports of abusive or offensive language may result in a direct response from us in the form of temporary or permanent removal from the GONG! community.
• We aggressively discourage the exchange of personal information and prohibit anyone from using email to contact children within the site. If we discover a child attempting to share information such as real names, addresses, email addresses or phone numbers, we remind him or her that this is a dangerous practice. We make it impossible for anyone to use any email system to contact children within the site.
• We do not allow totally private communications between two users within the site. All messages within GONG! are visible to the entire GONG! community at the time the message is written.
• We make it easy for children on the site to report bullying or inappropriate conversations.
• We store the parent or guardian email address that is entered by you at the time of registration. We will use this address ONLY to inform you about changes in our policies; new features in the GONG! site; and, most definitely, any infraction of a rule that leads to a warning to your child or to the dismissal of your child's site privileges. And this leads to how you can help us maintain GONG! as a safe and fun experience for children on the Web.

Parent or Guardian Responsibility

No matter how careful we are, the managers of the GONG! community cannot guarantee absolute safety for your child when he or she is on our site. Other children and criminals can be devious and find ways around our safeguards. As is the case in the real world, your child's safety continues to depend on your vigilance. We ask that you use this same vigilance for your child's activities when in the virtual world.

• You should review GONG!'s rules of use with your child at the time of registration. The rules are there to protect your child. Explain to him or her why these rules are so important especially about sharing any personal information with anyone on the site. Our very simple rules are:
1. A parent must sign you up and set your privileges.
2. You should discuss playing GONG! with your parents, and agree on the times when you will be playing.
3. Never reveal your personal information - The best way to stay safe online is to NEVER share your real name, photo, phone number, address, email or passwords.
4. Do not respond to messages that make you uncomfortable. It is not your fault if you receive a message like this. Instead, please alert your parents so that they can contact us.
• If you receive communication from the GONG! staff about a problem involving your child, you should discuss the note with your child and encourage proper behavior.
• You should supervise their play on the site. Ask who is on their friend list (a list of friends within the community with whom your child communicates). Ask interested, friendly questions about what your child does during gameplay, in our game lobbies, and on the community website. Become familiar with GONG! yourself.

With your help, we can minimize the chance that your child will experience anything negative within GONG! and maximize his or her fun. If you have suggestions for more that we can do, or more that parents and guardians can do, please let us know! You can always email us at   parents(at)gongonline(dot)com.

What age should my child be?

We have designed the site with children above the age of 9 years old in mind. Although GONG! is easy to play, the training exercises and single-player Quests involve detailed, written instructions. Younger children may need additional supervision and support.

Kids in the Community Limited Social Networking

Children love to play with other children who are about their age and with whom they share interests. GONG! provides an environment where kids can play soccer and share their exploits. In the GONG! lobbies and community, players can easily locate their real-world friends who are playing on the site and they can also meet new friends.

The GONG! community is decentralized. When players log into the community, all information of interest is routed to their personal area of the site. They can read forums and send messages to their friends, but they do not actively participate in a central page on the website. When players are arranging matches in GONG!, they first enter lobbies where they can send messages and see who else is available to play. Players can participate in single-user quests or multi-player matches that require cooperation with other players for success. Lobbies are provided for a wide variety of skill levels.

We understand the dangers of unrestricted social networking websites. Our GONG! website restricts access for any children under the age of 13. After a child under the age of 13 has registered, an automatic consent email will be sent to the parent. Only with a parent's permission will the child have access to our social networking community. Also, the overall content of the GONG! community will be consistently filtered and moderated by our Community Management Team members.

Our GONG! Team's MISSION

GONG! reflects the idea of having a fun and exciting outdoor soccer experience in the convenience of your own home. Fun, Safety and Community are just a few key concepts that will be emphasized during your children's gaming experience. Profanity, violence, and negativity will have no place in the game and online community. Players will have a chance to participate in friendly soccer matches with other players within a large online community. Positive feedback, good sportsmanship, and friendliness will always be the main goals for GONG!'s online community and overall gameplay.

Contact Us

If you have any further questions, feel free to send us an email at   parents(at)gongonline(dot)com
and we will answer your questions as soon as possible.

Thank you for visiting and supporting our website! We hope you and your child enjoy the GONG! experience.