A politician has shared an interest in discussing the possibility of bringing back Club Penguin in the United Kingdom’s parliament, citing reasons related to online safety and social media bans. Club Penguin went down in history as one of the most beloved online social experiments, with many using it as a successful example of a safe online environment for kids before it officially sunset in 2017.
The United Kingdom seems poised to impose a ban on social media for kids under 16, which has sparked discussions about potential replacements. Some believe children still need to learn how to use the internet and socialize online with friends properly after the ban. And one particular UK politician thinks the lost-to-time Club Penguin game could be the answer.
UK Parliament Might Hear a Case to Bring Back Club Penguin
On July 24, Labour Member of Parliament for Glasgow South, Gordon McKee, shared a video on TikTok explaining why an online experiment like Club Penguin could be beneficial for UK kids. “As we move towards a ban for under-16s on social media,” he said, “we’ve got to make sure kids know how to use the internet safely.” According to the MP, Club Penguin could provide that safe space, and he said that if his TikTok video gets 200,000 likes, he will raise the possibility of “bringing back Club Penguin” in the UK Parliament.
Scratch & Peek
Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as
possible.
To be completely fair, the part about raising the matter in parliament in McKee’s video seems like a whimsical suggestion. However, McKee has raised some serious points about Club Penguin‘s safety measures that are also worth discussing. The MP said, “There were human moderators [in Club Penguin] 24/7, you couldn’t use bad language in chat… and you couldn’t send pictures.” McKee believes there are no longer similarly safe environments for kids.
Club Penguin was indeed designed with online safety in mind. Before Disney acquired the IP, the original development team famously tried to reply to every email customers sent, reportedly answering thousands of emails per day to ensure players were properly attended to. In recent years, many have used Club Penguin‘s strict approach to maintaining a safe environment to criticize games like Roblox, claiming that modern games need to take a page or two out of the sunset game’s book.
However, over on Twitter, an interesting post from a user who claims to be a former system admin for Club Penguin shares a different perspective. And their statements don’t exactly match MP McKee’s idealistic views about the discontinued game. User Will and Word Productions wrote, “I was a system admin for Club Penguin. Trust me, this was one of the worst places for kids to be.” They explained that while the moderation team tried to ensure predators were “removed quietly,” that doesn’t mean there were no threats to kids.
GameRant was not able to confirm whether X user Will and Word Productions was indeed involved with Club Penguin in the past, so their claims should be considered unverified.
Whether MP Gordon McKee actually talks about Club Penguin in the UK parliament remains to be seen. As of this writing, his video only has about 17,000 likes, meaning there’s still a long way to go before reaching the requested 200K. It is also unclear what the UK parliament could theoretically do to bring back a copyrighted IP. Disney has famously shut down most community-owned Club Penguin servers, and it seems unlikely that British regulators could convince the company to revive its shelved game.
- Released
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October 24, 2005
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
