What happens when you report a player in-game?

When we receive a report from any player or parent suggesting that unsafe behavior is taking place in Animal Jam, we investigate it thoroughly and take action immediately to protect our player community. Any players found to be breaking the Animal Jam Terms of Service will have their accounts actioned. We take great care to watch for any subsequent illicit or harmful activity on reported accounts, and we report any such activity to the police, the FBI, NCMEC and other authorities as necessary.

Why wasn’t action taken on my report / did you see my report? 

If you sent us a player report and haven’t seen any action being taken in the game, or if you’re aware that multiple reports have been made about a player and you’re wondering why it seems nothing is being done. There are several possible explanations:

1. We have reviewed the report, and we’ve determined that action isn’t warranted. Sometimes the community sees one side of a dispute between players and it seems obvious who the bad actor is. At AJHQ we see when conflicts between players emerge, and occasionally we see these conflicts escalate into kids accusing each other of terrible things and attempting to draw the Animal Jam community into their battle. We see the context for chat that, when presented out of context, appears to show unacceptable behavior in a game designed for children. Our moderators review all sides of in-game communications, including in-game chat, jags, player wall, and pack chat to help inform them of any needed actions. Player safety is our number one concern. Under no circumstances would we ever allow a player to remain in the game if we knew them to be a threat to other players.
2. The report was referred to law enforcement, and at their request we are continuing to gather evidence for their investigation.
3.  We can’t review and verify the report because the reported behavior didn’t take place in Animal Jam. We’ve seen disputes between players that escalate into faked screenshots from other social channels being sent to AJHQ in an effort to get someone banned from the game. With Animal Jam player communications, we can review the actual chat logs between players and determine what’s really happening. That’s how we know that some screenshots of in-game chat that have been sent to us recently were faked, even though they’ve circulated widely in other social channels and were sent to us by well-intentioned players who had no way of knowing they’re fake. We can’t always make that determination when we’re sent screenshots of SMS messages, Instagram DMs, private Discord chats, etc. So while we do review and consider everything sent to us in player reports, we have to give primacy to evidence we can verify.
4. We have reviewed the report, and we made the wrong decision. Yes, we know we don’t always get it right. Sometimes we make a decision that turns out to be wrong when the community sends us new information. We always try to correct our mistakes, so if you have additional information we should consider, please let us know! However, please don’t send us the same information repeatedly — this just slows down the process of reviewing everything you send.
   
   
   

   Sometimes players are wrongly accused as part of an online dispute, and the accuser will attempt to rally the AJ community to their side to lend credibility to their accusations. It can be incredibly traumatic and painful for the real victim, and the community itself suffers from the suspicion and fear this creates. Know that we always want to hear from you if you have concerns, and we investigate every single report you send. If you’ve sent AJHQ a report and haven’t seen action taken, it’s not because we’re ignoring you. It’s because something else is going on — usually one of the prior 4 points.