This is really so true and so fact-full on so many levels. In my 9 years of AJPW, I’ve run into so many groomers, predators, and just generally disgusting people. And even to this day I still do run into or come across these nasty people, I have tried to expose these people at times when all means necessary and to keep others, especially children safe. Thank you so much for bringing light onto this tough subject Kijji. You make the community a truly better and safer place 🌸
Thank you so much. I genuinely do my best to try and make the community better and this was a subject I’ve wanted to cover for a long time but have struggled to find the words. Even now I am so anxious as to how it will be perceived. It is such a delicate topic…
The amount of attention I received online when I was a young girl was insane. Really makes me lose faith in humanity. To any young person reading this right now, please stay safe. Don’t even for a second entertain the idea of interacting romantically with ANYONE online, no matter how old they claim to be, as they could easily fake their age. Adults like this will never love or care about you. They are only out to manipulate and use you. Be careful out there everyone.
I was a victim to this on animal jam and Pokémon planet, I was dealing with a really bad home life and it felt like the only positive attention I was getting. I still get anxious thinking about that stuff to this day. Especially cause they convinced me to face reveal when I was young. I wish I could’ve protected my younger self.
When I was 13, a 17 year old on Animal Jam was trying to groom me and even got my number to try to communicate with me further. My parents found out and had a bad feeling so they made me block him even when he was begging that he just wanted to be friends. He was very flirty and I believe he had romantic intentions....it felt weird and I know now at 20 years old that it very much WAS. I'm glad my parents got me out of that before it got worse.
I was actually SHIPPED with my best friend, and also my cousin in Aj. I am utterly disgusted by these things. Why can’t we just have guy friends or girl friends without being shipped? I have also been groomed by a 49 year old man on Aj when I was younger. I am now hardly a minor, but I still AM one. I am tired of this BS.
People are disgusting first of all, and second, they thought because I hang out with guys that they could just “ship” us when all me and the guy wanted was to be JUST friends/bsf. Nothing more.@@nishanpeiris9748
I remember when that news report came out. People, including jambassadors did not care what was going on in animal jam, instead they were more interested in the fact that the news reporters used a popular animal jam TH-camr’s footage (lilac petal). Looking back on it today it was sad and they could have used their influence for awareness. Thank you for making this video ❤
Of course! I’ve always felt really conflicted on how the community handles these kind of things. They simultaneously can jump on innocent individuals or any perceived misstep in judgement while also greeting serious topics like child endangerment with a laugh and a trendy tiktok. I think that a lot of the things from the news report could be perceived as over reacting parents screeching at the internet for being the Internet, but as I’ve grown I’ve understood more about where those parents are coming from. I don’t think the idea should be pushed that animal jam is inherently unsafe and kids shouldn’t play it, but WildWorks should stay on top of their game and kids should stay (appropriately) educated and be taught Internet safety.
Hey, just a slight correction about the Jambassadors. Its not that they didn't care, its that they couldn't really do anything. They're usually in a contract with AJ and aren't allowed to talk about stuff like that.
@@Gigiy2k6 Oh for sure I agree, but they can get in some trouble and I'm not sure how bad it would be ;( a lot of ex jambassadors have talked about how they were "stuck"
I used to play animal jam in 2014, words can’t describe how much I miss how it was back then, learning about animals, national geographic everywhere, role playing with friends, trading was big back then, but it wasn’t how it is now. Animal jam falsely deleted my account a few months ago, and since then I haven’t touched the game, it wasn’t just items that was deleted, but memories. Jags I had saved up from old friends.
Why did they delete your account if you don’t mind me asking? My friend said that they delete your accounts if you haven’t played for a long time but idk if that is true
@@AvatarlifeplaysThat’s true, old accounts can get deleted (I think it’s a really long time though) but sometimes they’ll just up and ban you for no reason, or for something vague like “bad behavior” or whatever. They falsely deleted Leamonpuppy’s account but she was able to get it back
The things I lost to get my hands on some items... Back then backpacks and strawhats were VERY valuable, especially the exclusive ones. Some time after I'd finally got these items, Animal Jam put them up in the store. Completely destroyed my sense of superiority but I guess they taught me not to be a classist mf
@@Avatarlifeplays one of my very old old accounts from when i was about ten was banned, there was literally nothing i did, i was a very nice ten year old and i cried for hours
I used to date someone in aj. I didn't even know that LGBT+ existed at the time, so I still identified as a female, though I pretended to be a boy. I dated someone who appeared female, and it was 100% a role play (at least for me, I can't talk for the other person). Then my "girlfriend" just stopped logging on and I never dated anyone again. More recently, when I was about 12 (probably) I was playing as a fox that I made to look like Mangle from FNaF. I went to someone's den as Mangle and the jammer who's den I was in said "you know that I like white foxes" and started chasing me around doing the heart eye emote. I didn't date this person because, as I said before, I was about 12 at the time, I was more responsible.
The wolf cave has some of the creepiest people in the game. Idk about now but I remember strangers asking for potential minors to go to their den for a "fun time" 🤢
i came back to aj after a long time a little while ago because i was feeling down and wanted to experience the nostalgia again. i leant on my keyboard, and got suspended. ah yes, brings back nostalgia of being banned for no good reason.
I was an AJ classic player, the amount of people making dens with disgusting words with pillows, making beds, and making tables with poles on top for you... a player to dance on, it was something that actually frightened me when I was younger. People would go so far as to make their animals a brown or apricot color to replicate human skin which... is disgusting, and the jumping animation with the sleep animation had to be addressed, it is good they fixed that due to groomers and such, and it is not AJHQ's fault that some people in the world aren't in the right headspace and prey on innocent children, but I do feel like the system in AJ both Classic and PW is outdated and they need to find newer ways of restricting bad behavior with players while also keeping the game open and fun to play with friends. A good balance is achievable, I just don't think AJHQ is handling it as well as I know they could.
Sadly I think shipping in general has just become so normalized that ppl aren't even considering that, to quote King fom The Owl House, "theres more to life than shipping", and that other relationships legit exist too, whether IRL, or fictitional. I am so sorry this happened to you. My own *DAD* used to ship my sister and her best friend she's had ever since 2nd grade (yesh their still friends after 9 years) and she's Aroace! (Not actually come out the closet, *BUT STILL* )
i used to have a guy friend but whenever i walked with him people would go "aw are you together?" NO, JESUS. natural assumption to make but holy god i am so sick of romance like friendships aren't illegal yall 💀
One of the things about animal jam I don't miss. I used to play the original animal jam for 8 years. I used to only dress up my arctic wolves and other animals as boys even though I am a girl irl. I only did it because I liked the look of being a guy in the game but I've found so many people trying to hook up with me in the game. And yes I was a minor back then lying about my gender to people. Now I'm an adult, and eventually, I got tired of playing animal jam because in the roleplays, I realized it's mostly kids, which I didn't find I enjoyed anymore. I missed the old days, but gosh, you are so right. e-dating should never be allowed in a kids' game like Animal Jam. Not to mention the scamming/hacking, too many scammers in the game also turned me away. It feels like the company drops all kinds of items in the game for money and don't really bring justice for the people who actually do pay for their in-game items. I also felt highly betrayed about the feral game when I paid for items there. I quit animal jam for so many reasons. I wish there was an animal jam game or similar for the older adults. Because heck, I love role-playing with friends around my age group, and I love animal games. Well, anyways, this is all just my outlook on all of it. I sometimes get curious about what people say about aj sometimes.
i agree so much on the second to last paragraph (not that i disagree with the rest), I just started playing over a month ago and I love this game but as an older player, I'm trying to go out of my way to make sure that the only people I buddy are also adults. I think even it's just a seperate AJ server with a more relaxed chat filter for older (like ages 16+) players, it would make EVERYONE, kids, parents, adults and possibly even WW alot more comfortable. Of course, they should still keep some moderation in place so people aren't throwing around slurs and stuff but they could allow some more mature language, topics and possibly even animal facts I don't know how they'd ensure that kids don't enter that seperate server (math questions aren't going to work, especially since kids can use a calculator on the same device they're playing on and not all adults are going to be good at math) I feel like giving us older players a seperate spot would also be good for the game financially, adults don't need to ask their parents' permission to spend money and will probably also have more disposable income while needing to spend less resources on moderating those servers. Parents could of course still switch back and forth when they want to play with/watch their kids. I do wish I knew about fer al when it existed but maybe it's for the better that I didn't go on that roller coaster.
I’m 18 and started playing animal jam in like, 2012? so at age 6. the amount of times I was groomed through this game was absolutely insane. the amount of adults that would convince me to give them my skype and then exploit me was insane. this game is still not safe for kids to this day because ajhq doesn’t want to actually *fix* the issue and many people in the community don’t care enough to speak about it. edit: I’d like to further explain that the amount of people who started their grooming of me through animal jam is probably in the 20s. I’m not even joking. from ages 6-12, over 20 men groomed me through this game. there IS a problem.
Had a terrifying situation happen on classic a couple years ago now, basically witnessed a literal crime happen and had to remove the victim from the situation. If you ever witness a crime on Animal Jam, take as many screenshots as you can, or even record what's happening, block and report the person committing said crime, and get all of your evidence to the proper authorities. Whether it be AJHQ, an adult you know or a police officer. If none of those are a viable option for you, get that information to someone you trust that can get the evidence to the proper authorities. DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THE PERSON COMMITTING THE CRIME. In my case, the individual was not stable and tried to compromise the the victim's safety, as well as my own and everyone else who witnessed the event. (he was threatening to doxx everyone and hurt their family members)
As a kid I loved animal jam and played it often! I remember seeing the whole relationship thing ( animal jam girlfriends / boyfriends ) as more as just someone to play house with. I used to play house a lot. Adopt from the pillow room, play school, etc etc. I assumed most people viewed it that way? Didn’t know people were seriously dating.
Yeah, I often roleplayed short romance stories for fun. Usually I would do it one time with a person and then never run into them again. At one point though, I did run into someone who friended me and kept it up for a while. Eventually I unfriended them because I had a bad gut feeling and I felt guilty about pretending to be a boy. I optimistically hope that they were just another kid on the internet and not a creep.
Some people have mistaken me and my boyfriend to be e-dating through AJ, especially when I share the fact that he loves to spoil me with items and Sapphires. We are both consensual Adults who met years ago before we both started to play though I don't blame people for thinking we may be children who are roleplaying, I mean we ARE playing a game aimed towards kids. I 100% agree with people on AJ openly telling off others who try to be "Romantic".
i really appreciate this video. when i was 8 years old, i found a youtuber who often had edaters in their den, except the extremely hardcore kind that would do nsfw roleplays. this lead me to go down a gross rabbithole and pick up some concerning habits (which was mainly just watching gross youtube videos and rearranging my toys in weird ways, but i digress), and has effected me longterm, even still to this day, 10 years later. i still find it difficult to talk about, and the fact my mom punished me when she originally found out what i was watching just hammered into my head that it was all my fault, and anything nsfw is inherently bad, no matter how old i am. im so glad weird behavior is finally being called out, i dont want anymore kids to suffer like i did 10 years ago.
I want to thank you sm for handling grooming in such a respectful manner I've noticed that in a lot of spaces (especially the warriors fandom) grooming victims are either treated like completely innocent babies or future offenders rather than grooming victims. It's really reassuring to know that's not universal
I was once friends with someone who was knowingly buddies with a groomer. Unfortunately i have forgotten the usernames but i remember seeing a very inappropriate roleplay, and decided to unbuddy everyone on my list. I was 9 years old, so i wasn’t really that educated in online grooming safety.
Your video is sensitive and well put together. I rarely find youtubers that are like, actually caring towards the victims, and actively protecting them by not showing/ featuring the things that would harm them. How lovely. Great work!
@@kijjikonI got scammed oneced a few weeks later my mom got me to delete it until I was 10 and I'm 7 and I will never see that scammer again ngl because ik it took guest jammer items yay no scammer party yay🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
I remember soooooo many years ago when I was like 7 or 8, I had an animal jam “boyfriend”. I don’t remember much from back then, but I do remember that he persuaded me to do inappropriate actions together in our dens. One day, he just stopped logging on - until recently, when he managed to get into his account and log on when I was playing. We talked a little about the past, and he apologised for what he did. It turns out he’s also 2 years older than me, so he was 9 or 10 when we “dated”. Although the age gap isnt huge, it’s pretty uncomfy when you realise that 10 is a pre-teen and 8 is still fully a child. He added me on discord, but we haven’t talked since and I don’t plan to.. I’ve also seen a lot of weird stuff going on in the Wolf Cave for some reason - dunno why, but the majority of people that are “looking for a fun time” are in there - my guess is it’s because it’s one of the more unpopular and unknown areas, always having at least a few people there but not really anybody that would call you out for it, as most people that go there are just kids playing the game for what it is, as it’s not a trading place or anything.
That age gap is pretty normal between people online and kids brains are still developing. He seems genuinely sorry and likely adults did warp his mind towards inappropriate stuff. I think the adults have no excuse for this and AJ is one of the worst sites next to Club Penguin for predators online.
Thank you so much for handling this video so well. I remember the hyenine1 situation, it really was a dreadful time period in animal jam history, and it did leave a dastardly impact on the community. It is so important that this is brought up, thank you for being so honest about this.
I feel gross cause a while ago I bought some art from the hyena dude without realize who he was or what he’s done, and now it’s just sitting on my old classic account because I’m never able to get on and play anymore 😭 and when I do get on, I’m very rare occasions, I always forget to delete it cause I’m too focused on any new updates and it’s so far buried in my inventory and I only remember it when a video like this brings him up 💀
I was a victim of ZeroArro. (Aka iions, aroxi, lisora.. and so many other Alliases.) They're a scammer, hacker and a Predator. I have a list of hacked accounts they sent me called Hits. They're still online today. They constantly make excuses about mental health. I hope someday they finally stop
I very rarely comment on TH-cam, let alone anything Animal Jam related due to the nostalgia it invokes within me. However by chance I’ve found your comment! I do give you my deepest condolences for everything you experienced from that “person”. Most importantly I hope you know you are not alone in this battle! In 2020 through connections with a friend I was introduced to Arro and their various aliases. My friend told me about the horrific messages they were sent (my friend was a minor too) and I too had access to a list of 1000 accounts. (Another friend and I went through quite a few accounts and got a shit ton of stuff). I attempted to call out Arro’s behavior in their den but was immediately bombarded by fans and was then sent a threatening trade from Arro. After that I left it alone and would promptly later quit Aj. However, that scumbag has not left my mind and I hope you know they will get the karma they deserve! Hope this message wasn’t too long haha. I sincerely do wish you an easy journey of recovery
I honestly think jambassadors should have the right to talk about this messed up behavior on the game, if not in public then in private with ajhq. As someone who was almost manipulated by one of these freaks I appreciate you being very brave to talk about this
I’m glad you are talking about this. I have been playing animal jam for 10+ years now and as a animal jam vet I definitely am very disappointed with how the game is now and has been for years. I personally don’t think animal jam is safe anymore and never has been unless they are under a lot of fire by the public eyes when it comes to behavior like this. It took them a long long time to fix their chat and when they made news headlines that one time, it even took them a long time to correct that issue and that was the only time they actually did anything in general. They literally don’t keep their community safe snd honestly feels like they don’t care about the monsters that still lurk on their game to this day, and I feel like that’s why I quit so many times just due to the constant scammers hackers and groomers that still get away scot free and you are felt there with nothing. It’s very sad seeing a childhood game become like this truly.
I want to point this out... Theres a TH-camr out there named "Poprubyrocks" who ever since 2020, she was framed for being a predator. This was when she was 17, someone said. But a lot of jammers stand up to her. She's not on any watch page still deeming her innocent to many. But a lot of times, someone stirs drama of "her" anyway. "Inappropriate Den" is a VERY hot topic because when she's online, alot of people know (and I saw her channels) that she makes these "franchises" stories and series on her characters. Sure, she can be "rude" and "mean" SOMETIMES. There are times where she lets out her soft side. I do not blame the people for even having NO IDEA at most times WHAT is going on with "her den" as they dont KNOW her or her content that she makes, but once someone says something, it stirs the pot. I believe you should make a video on this... And if anyone knows this TH-camr or even actually know the person (I saw conversations on AJ so idk) feel free to like and even reply to this comment. Heard she was "autistic" and should be banned? Thank you for bringing this topic up. And if you want to know who started framing her in 2020, it was the breach guys. Hope this helps....
23:50 Another reason I had thought of was the risks that come with being close to anyone You and the harmful individual could have been close enough to have shared addresses to send gifts for Christmas or birthdays, for instance, something harmless when thinking of good people you may have known for years and felt safe with, but. You'd never know in time that they weren't a safe person to do so with. Manipulation always seems to be overlooked in my exp, so I'm so glad you mentioned it Sometimes it can even be as simple as 'I was scared to lose all of my friends at once, so I kept quiet about knowing' or 'they said they'd lie and tell everyone I helped them do those bad things, so I stayed quiet' Thank you for pointing that bit out, it's a very valid point when referring to kids especially, as this is their whole world in a lot of these cases, and things adults might shrug off would be much more heavily weighted for kids.
The problem with IP bans is that they can be easily fixed; you just have to unplug your router, wait a few seconds and your IP is back up again as a result of it changing. So even if AJ does IP ban that person, it won't really do much.
Thanks for this. I was hurt a long time ago on animal jam and have hardly played since, It's so so incredibly sad that these kinds of things even happen in the first place.
Extremely heavy but also extremely, critically important video to watch. Important to the point that this video could one day save someones' life. Like I said in comments of previous videos, I'm very new to this game and even as an adult, parts of this community, between the hacking as well as other more serious topics you've brought up in this video and others before it, scare me alot, like, more than many communities which primarily have adults in them. I do realise and acknowledge however, that the vast, vast majority of the playerbase are good, awesome and innocent people that just want to play the game with their friends. I was looking at my recommended videos on the side of this page and another potential "problem topic" I realised after seeing an example in my recommended, are YTers, who are usually from outside the community, making "funny" (these quotation marks are doing alot of heavy lifting) videos in AJ with inappropriate thumbnails. I don't know what happens in the videos themselves (nor do I want to find out) and while I'm sure most of them don't have any super ill intentions behind it besides trying to be "edgy", I can't imagine they're doing a whole lot of good for the game or the community either. Other similar games like Roblox and Club Penguin (the latter of which I grew up playing) have this issue as well. Thank you for talking about it in a way that highlights the fact that stuff like this happens yet being careful to not show anything bad. If anything, hopefully this video can serve as a reminder (including to myself) to pay more attention to and report potentially inappropriate conversations, even if you're a third party. I know I probably got abit rambly in this comment and I did edit parts of it after writing later parts so I hope it all makes sense! On a much, much lighter note, thank you so, so much for your extremely generous gift in the Vday box! It was already one of my favourite wearable items in the game but to get a fancier version of it is super cool! (I'm being abit vague on purpose unless you specifically ask what it was just to avoid any awkwardness or anything that could come out of saying what I got)
Hey man! Thank you for commenting! I read through the whole thing and, dang I could not have said it better myself. This community is absolutely petrifying for what it is, and if I can do so much as help one person keep safe than the effort has all be damn well worth it.
I used to play animal jam back in the day, I occasionally came back every once in a while to see the new animals and maybe join some rp that dies in like 30 minutes, eventually quit after I found out Parasaurolophus (one of my favorites) was like 5k sapphires now. However, this vid reminds me of something a few friends and I did on a seperate roleplaying game called Feather Family, pretty much AJ but exclusively with birds (from common farm birds to exotic ones to extinct to mythical), and one time walked in on an rp about the Kauai ‘O’o and found countless ships. Got someone who knew how to email the creator and get the rp shut down and the host banned, but we all got kicked from the rp the second the host realized what was happening. Thank god we got pictures before we got kicked
I remember going to someone’s den as a kid with nude colored pandas and it was a stage recording set up and the person asked me if I knew what “horn” was 😭😭😭
despite not playing AJ as much and not encountering any of this myself I agree with all of these points, especially the shipping real people one, I was in a friend group where joke shipping each other was so normalized that it became a meme and was joked about constantly and one person drew inappropriate art (censored but it was still really gross). Thank you so much for making this video and helping me realize that my old friend group was screwed up beyond belief! it really helped open my eyes.
As somebody who fell victim to grooming on this game nearly a decade ago, it is such a relief that present community members are able acknowledge the problem- I’m assuming the reason it wasn’t discussed much back in the 2010’s was due to the fact that most players were very young children. As the original demographic gets older, it’s wonderful that many people can acknowledge long-standing toxic issues that have always been prominent. I’m not in the community anymore, but I wish everybody luck, and hope everyone can keep themselves safe and make wise choices.
i personally have been through SO many things on this game. mostly before 2021 i didnt speak to people often and im glad. but now? i see people asking for partners, which is crazy. they treat it like an edating app. when i played on my old account, i had two predators approach me. im just glad i was over the age of 11 when that happened, and i knew what was happening. thats not even all of it. theres so much toxicity. ive been told to rot, by a popular person, which is crazy. im still in shock to this day, but it doesnt bother me as much as it did back then. what bothers me is that that could happen to someone so much younger, too. not to mention the manipulation. i watched someone get doxxed less than a year ago in a discord server i created, and the adult who did it, my friend, convinced me it was fine. not to mention the hate post on one of my other friends, and forcing me to post others publicly. it was deemed okay and i didnt understand it was bad at the time. i looked up to the adult. later, i was told it was ''grooming'' but it wasnt. all in all, because my comment is very long rn 😭it isnt just predators. the toxicity and harmful things going around in the animal jam community is so scary. stay safe out there everyone and thank you for bringing light to this, kijji.
As a parent with a child who plays this, I'm happy to see someone like you out there who is sharing your knowledge and experience. Although now I'm stressing if she should be playing it at all. We have talked with her openly about being aware of people being gross and saying inappropriate things to her and what to do about it.
@@LissaToleneif your child gets hacked! I have pegesus gauntlets and galaxy wings! (I've been editing for 3 years aswell) If she becomes a TH-camr it's free commissions!
I hate how I’ve encountered these people before. In my opinion, I feel like Animal Jam is an unsafe community. Kijjikon, we Jammers are grateful that you’re aware of this. Thanks for talking about this! You’re slowly making Animal Jam a safer place. Keep going :)
this brings me back to my childhood unfortunately. the eerie music that i recognise from fluttershy’s lovely home, the grooming, the membership coercion (in exchange for stuff i should have never had to do as a child.)
So true. When I was younger I got groomed so many times by adults in the game and never realised until it was wayyy too late. Looking back now, I can remember so many innapropriate innuendos people used trying to get around the chat filters that I didn't understand at the time. Now I know what they meant and those people were disgusting. And recently one of my very close friends who I'll keep anonymous was being groomed by someone through wildcraft, aj, and discord. Luckily I was able to get her to block him, but the damage was already done by then. Animal Jam needs to add a way to report someone specifically for serious things like grooming. Like have a section for serious reports that they look into thoughtfully. I've reported people for grooming many times and contacted AJ through Instagram to let them know how seriously harmful these people are, and they never did anything about it, and these people are still playing without any consequences. While I'm over here getting suspended for weeks for keyboard smashing like 'hsdhhjdhhjshhj' lol
@@DawstheYTboss Last year I've found someone with similar name (idk if they're the same person tho) who asked me to go to their den (their nm is emorano, but without the 13) They sent me many jags and told me in their den weird stuff like ''can I compliment your beautiful apperance?'', ''can we be an item? As in together?'' and ''you're the prettiest girl I've ever seen''. When I heard those stuff, I right left the game and reported them (I was afraid of them possibly grooming me or asking me to ''do it'') I thank God still today to see them being offline for over 30 days, but afraid of them be still on the game in another acc and doing similar stuff with other ppl
28:22 this is so fr, i hate how people ship catnap and dogday they are canon as friends (possibly) ((pls dont kill me dogday and catnap shippers, this is my opinion))
So let me explain what happen at 27:55. I saw the TH-cam short and commented "if they get shipped I'ma slap them". I DIDN'T MEAN OF SHIPPING THEM IM SORRY!!! In other words, I meant to say " if someone ships them I'm going to be mad" because I would be! Now that Ive watched this, I realized that he was talking about what I said and I started bursting tears. Please forgive me I didn't mean to ship, I've deleted the comment and have been crying about this. PLEASE FORGIVE ME IM SORRY. Please dont report me i really dont want to be banned on animal jam. Ill never do this ever again. And please dont hate me about this because IM SORRY!
I was once shipped by my friends with one of my online friends. It made both of us very uncomfortable until the point they said my REAL NAME to him. I was so angry I didn’t talk to those people for a week or two, then I spoke to one of them but stopped speaking to the other one, their annoying cheeky little nags ruined my day that day, and I do still have problems with shipping ANYONE real to this day. Especially now that they ship me with a fictional character I never had any interest in. They said some FOUL things and it took me a lot to get them to stop.
When I was about 12 years old playing animal jam I too had fallen victim to online E dating I really didn’t understand what I was getting into because I was so young and it was a sort of escape for me at the time. Now that I’m older I realize how dangerous that was… and in hindsight I see how much it unhealthy impacted my mental development in relationships, because often times online e dating can be incredibly toxic and codependent. Me and my sister recently rejoined animal jam classic few months back now as adults because it’s a nostalgic game of our childhood and I’ve been sick to my stomach at how the weird animal jam E dating community is still active. It’s sick.
I used to be friends with hyenine1 (not buddies but we spoke occasionally) when I was 9 and somehow he thought I was an adult so I guess my grammar saved me
I’m so glad to see someone cover this topic I grew up on animal jam and definitely went through some things I shouldn’t have as a young girl due to predators on the site
Fantastic video as always Sam! You always articulate your words perfectly and get your points across in an easy but serious way. I said to you before but I am glad you arent afraid to speak on these topics as they need to be talked about. Spreading this kind of awareness can hopefully help many people identify when something is wrong. Also on how to go about reporting and speaking out about it. Stay safe out there everyone, and remember if something does occur theres always sources to help and people to reach out too.
I love how respectful you were during this. And what you said about topics of a sensitive subject being talked about in front of underage audiences, is something more people need to understand.
I used to play this game as a kid when double tail was really cool and blackout spike was like the thing to have. This video unlocked some memories both bad and good. I remember the E daters, scammers, etc...
I'm personally 'okay' with these types of videos, and I'm still glad people make them these days! It's important to know about, and keep up the good work! :)
Honestly I play AJ as an adult because I just like the trading aspect of it and I've been playing for a long time on aj classic. I'm genuinely concerned for the health of this community. Especially considering most if the population of the game is children. I have a lot of issues with animal jam but especially with the community.
dude, thank you for uploading this video. i was one of the kids who fell in love with someone online and was scolded when my parents found out. it really impacted me as a child and sparked my journey down a path of intense shame. i’ve been working through a lot of my childhood trauma recently and this video kind of appeared at the perfect time. i don’t usually leave comments on youtube videos, but i felt it necessary to tell you that your bravery to even talk about this subject will do good for the world that you may never see. you’ve got my respect and my subscription.
I think this was a good high light of a major danger for kids on the internet in general. I don't think kids should be on any public access or chat enabled games. There is too high a likelihood of encountering genuine creepers on them. And the sad thing is the more a game is marketed towards being child friendly the higher the likelihood a creep will get on there to target them. Club penguin and roblox are two other infamous examples of this.
I remember as a kid I was dressed up as a male wolf and this wolf dressed as a girl was like "you're cute come to my den" so I was like "okay" and went then she got onto a sofa and told me to sit on the same seat as her I was like "oookay" and then she told me to use the wolf howling animation I was too innocent at the time and then she started saying "ooh ahh mmm" I was like this is weird (like I just knew in my gut this was wrong) so I left I told my mom and she reported them I hope they got banned permanently. Its gross and also happens on roblox too. My little sister plays roblox and I have to make sure she doesn't get asked to do anything weird or gross like that cause she's 8 and will not know what's happening.
@KittenSprite yea I am now I don't play aj anymore but my little sister does but if she thinks something seems wrong she asks me and I sort it for her it's scary how many creeps are on the Internet
everything in this video is basically the reason why I feel uneasy on animal jam, everytime I log on to the game I just feel weird, I can never stay on for too long
I actually was also groomed by someone from Google+ back before it was shut down. I actually connected with some people from Animal Jam through it and the groomer in question was a 18 year old woman, while I was 14 at the time, she was not only into Animal Jam but also plenty of my own interests involving of course, anime, etc. It really sucks that people who groom kids even exist and I wish people weren't so twisted.
I am disgusted. Animal jam heat?! Heat?! Why in God's name is this a thing. Why are children or creepy adults bringing this disgusting topic into the AJ community. I have seen Warrior Cats heat and Gacha Heat and that's there. Kids will be kids, for the best or the worst. The fact that 'Heat' is in AJ and the AJ community is sickening, especially considering the main AJ player base are 6-10 year olds. Vulnerable minors, in other words. This really made me audibly gasp. We need to end this 'heat' in all communities, and I just can't believe AJ isn't an exception.
100%. The amount of abhorrent behavior in the game is despicable. I didn’t mention heat by name but it was vaguely referred at one point in the video (mainly because I don’t want curious kids looking it up! ) it’s gross.
The H**t side of things basically a thing in the past now! Animal Jam recently had an update with the chat filter FINALLY AFTER 7 YEARS! (I think… as it’s really easy to get suspende for doing any sort of H**t) Almost all of the H**t content was made over 1-7 years ago! I’ve fallen victim of Animal Jam H**t when I was 12 years old about 4 years ago! (I’m He/him by the way big trans) but it was vary minor H**t but still disgusting😭 I’ve moved away from all that and now emorano13 (The person that kinda-ish did it with me) is all just a good laugh now! Finally a happy ending!🤣
@@TheArtzyAnimal no, no I’m fine! I was just saying the way they “did it” was funny! That’s why I said “kinda-ish” they seemed like a 15 year old of some sorts as they acted kinda childish as the “Heat” Side of things was vary minor…
The “heat” in kids’ fandoms is actually so messed up. I know it’s primarily produced by children but tbh that’s even more concerning, it makes me wonder who exposed them to those types of things and what happened to that child. If you’re an adult and must make NSFW content for a children’s fandom, please at least put proper warnings on it and keep it in adult spaces. The way my innocence was ruined was through Warrior Cats lemon fanfiction, and I know tons of people whose innocence was ruined in similar ways, in fandoms for children’s media that were supposed to be trustworthy. It’s just so gross, why can’t adults keep these things in adult spaces?
I've had people try to e- date me/ force me to be in a relationship where I couldn't say no and I've also had it happen to others on AJ I've also had people groom me on AJ, I've also witnessed "maps" come online and harass smaller jammers
I believe that e-daters should be spoken about more, especially since one of the most (kinda) known creator is a e-dater. I won’t name them but they are a jambassadors (and adult) although I don’t know if the 2 people know each other in real life. I don’t think a JAMBASSADOR who has a huge amount of fans and followers should show off the romance and relationship they have online, this jammer is OPENLY shows love to their partner relationship to their fans and talk about things like HAVING CHILDREN and other topics with minor fans around them. In game as well. As you said minors are easily influenced and don’t see problems with possibly dating someone online that could be 10 or more years older than them because their favorite aj creator is doing the same. ( I’m not entirely sure, but one of my buddies told me that when they saw this jambassador and their partner, the jambassador was talking about how one of they had a key aka their partner and the jambassador having keyhole or lock…) I am also SO SO SORRY for anyone who has experienced anything like kijjikon mentioned in his video. And thank you Kijji for creating this video.
ive had this happen before, kinda, i talked to this one person, yknow how you would use to adopt people in like, the clinic thing, i remember adopting someone, and it continued, i got uncomfortable because the "owner and my silly lil pet" sumth like that started to seem more partners, and i just was like "i dislike this, i dont want you following me around like im more than just a roleplay owner, and i wish it didnt continue this long" this was many many years ago but i still think abt it
As a older play wild player. I am disgusted that people do this. I could never treat someone like that. I am so so so sorry to anyone who went through something like this. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to go through something like that
It's mindboggling to me that I, as an adult survivor of online grooming (+ much more), am still hearing about the same issues re: AJ's predator problem that I did when I was a pre-groomed kid. It really makes you wonder if AJ fits the bill when people say that a game's community issues are more often than not because the rot started at the roots of the devteam. You see this with multiplayer games like The Isle, and how its devteam actively feeds into the same community drama that keeps their ship afloat and profitable. I really, truly believe that the cracks in AJ's innocence showed during the HN1 situation, and their 'drama llama' response is typical rug-sweeping behaviour that is extremely common with enablers and abusers alike. It's not unusual for those who are given great power- especially over the vulnerable, like children- to use and abuse said abilities, especially to protect their own. This isn't me accusing AJ's devteam/company of verifiable sussiness (no sue pls), as this is mere speculation. However, it really is beyond unreal to see a monstrously harmful danger be met with barely lukewarm protections for over a literal decade. Stay safe everyone, and OP, much love and best wishes to you in your trauma recovery, from one survivor to another. 💜
jesus what in the world happen to animal jam this past years?? i don't play jam anymore but seeing what happening here is both disheartening and gross ,sadly you can't really predict nor prevent this type of creeps from lurking in online social games or any game with emphasize on social stuff
I had a friend on AJ that wanted to host a party and dindnt have a room music so a gave it to her and said "youll give it back right?" And she said yea. Abt 2 days later, i letterd her and asked for her to give it back. AND SHE UNFRIENDED ME! Someone traded me the same music to me and i was happy. But i was soooo sad. When she did that
In my 8 years of playing ive come across soo many disgusting people i cant describe what they were saying or what art work they did but it was horrible someone even made gross mps of the alpha greely and i was horrified... the wolf cave is the main target for gross and incredibly inappropriate people please be safe out there kids ❤
Thank your for making this video kijjikon. this is a topic most animal jam content creators avoid which i dont blame them, its disgusting. Luckily i haven't run into any groomers on animal jam tho i have had disgusting experiences irl. You did a really good job on this video, stay strong sam.
Animaljam is the first place I ever got scammed in my life. I also believe that I was groomed on it but I can’t remember since I was also being groomed by a family friend that traumatized me for life! I hope anyone that is reading this know that even if an adult has ever hurt you as a kid it wasn’t your fault, you shouldn’t feel guilty or embarrassed the only person that should is the adult in the situation.
I've played this game since 2012, i've never encountered anything like that because of how crazy restricted chat is, but I have seen cases of people manipulating others for items and scamming.
Hm. I dunno why I'm surprised to hear this. When I played AJ as a kid, I definitely knew there were scammers and other sketchy folks but I didn't realize it was that bad. It probably got worse in recent years. I used to like role playing on the game but now I kinda worry that the people I played with thought I was _actually_ being serious with the things we did and said. Lol.
it’s great to see this stuff spoken about, one of my most haunting memories was back when I was 8-11? i was “e-dating” (wasn’t sure what it was back then) with some person.. it got really creepy as she wanted to see pictures of me irl and wanted to know where my location was… and ofc… had me do the “play” action with the arctic wolves :/ glad it’s all over though, and it really hurts knowing it’s happened to other people too.. stay safe everyone!
Thank you so much for addressing this. I’ve been sexually harassed groomed manipulated and hacked online before and it was horrible. It wasn’t on animal jam though It was on Roblox but it was still really horrible and this is why I don’t play online games such as animal jam or others because of situations that happen so much and way too often
I remember playing animal jam so much as a kid. However, I ended up being friends with this one guy who wanted to do "activities" with me. I didn't think much of it but I said "yes" not knowing he was a predator and ended up doing sexual acts on my wolf character. I ended up realizing what he's done and left, and unfriended him.
Not only is live people shipping creepy and disgusting. It's the roleplays that make it worse. Another game I play. Someone was looking for a rp buddie for a jack x mark rp. Luckily nobody took this lighly and the rp never happened. But it's the thought people would go as far as to rp as real people dating is uncomfortable.
Oh Ew, I didn’t even know people roleplayed as real people??? That is such strange behavior. I felt weird when I found out someone made an ai of me on C.ai- that’s even worse!
this is the first video i’ve ever watched of yours (it randomly popped up on my recommended) and id like to say i really like the way you put this video together and the issues you addressed!! it’s also refreshing to see videos like this that have more simplistic visuals and audio, as i’m very used to heavily edited overstimulating content (i’m not saying that’s bad but sometimes it kind of stresses me out lol) anyways tldr, very good video! :D
i remember back in 2019 someone said if i roleplayed with them then id get galaxy wings. galaxy wings were my DREAM item. we ended up doing a roleplay involving making "toys"... yeah. funny part? *I* got banned for 3 days. NOT THE GR00MER. it still makes me mad to this day but ive healed from the gr00ming
one time i was just logging on and happened to spawn in the same room as a buddy of mine, i saw immediately that someone was harassing them and being very inappropriate to my friend so i immediately stepped in to stop it. i fear how things could have escalated had i not been there at that time. even if the person being affected is not your buddy, DO NOT hesitate to step in to help the person in danger, you never know how much impact you could have on that person or if you could have legitimately saved them from being scarred for life. dont just look the other way, you have the power to make a difference.
i was actually personally involved in the hyienine situation, my personal best friend at the time was the victim where a large amount of screenshots came from and i’m surprised both of us being so young managed to figure out a way to get her out of that situation. we’re still friends to this day! even if it’s been years. i remember quite a lot about that situation and the conversations we had etc, i won’t say any publically because it’s her pain, not mine. i just helped her out of it.
Hey, late again to this vid (I've been into aj and talking about this stuff to also spread awareness lately) but i completely agree with your statement. It's honestly disgusting and makes me sick to see all these people grooming young, innocent children. I've been a victim myself wjen i was younger, unfortunately falling into a manipulation trap to make inappropriate choices in the game. I never truly wanted to do that stuff. I was pressured by a player to "heat" with them, and i thought it was normal. I truly did. I was too young to know better and i regret agreeing to it. Now im trying to spread awareness and lookinto this topic to help get some of these groomers banned.
Everyone in my school played it as a kid, we were required to since there was learning stuff. I never really liked it and didn’t play it much, I’m glad I chose not too. TJIS is horrible to see predators on a game that's full of children…
Oh I remember when I was 12 I just witnessed so much pedos.. also ppl wanting me to come in their den and than they wanted me to rp disgusting stuff with them.
I was groomed by 3 people on Animal Jam, and all of them were youtubers who had connections with each other. At the time I was 11 and didn't understand what was happening to me and that nobody around me told me what was happening to me, it was all just so normalized in the community. One of them was Straycat2, who is quite infamous in the aj community, funny enough the second groomer who came into contact with me 'saved' me from him because of his toxic actions only for her to groom me. She was 18, and introduced me to the third groomer I was in a poly with. The things I witnessed with those two on google hangouts and discord was traumatizing. Its unfortunate by the time I realized what had happened to me when I was older that unfortunately I cannot expose them since I no longer had the proof it happened. Now I am 18, I havent touched Animal Jam in years but it hurts that even after all these years, AJHQ still hasnt done much to keep the predators away.
This makes me fear for the younger generations… I’m an older jammer and I love AJ! I still play daily to this day! (Tho only for an hour or two when I find time too. It’s my dream to play this game with my kids one day) It sickens me to know there are these kinds of people! I’ve meet groomers and inappropriate people in this game over the years and it’s awful they exist!
I'm starting to remember that when i played classic animal jam, i was a child (from hell appearently), like i didn't know at the time that my "friends" were groomers (i'm connecting the dots, a bit late but i'm trying), but yet still i made them to give me items and then block them...and i was probably 7 to 8 years old...god i escaped a bullet by being an a**hole how did this happened?
I love how you made this video despite all the back lash you may get. I have seen to many of these situations in the game, whereas a whole server was protecting the groomer aaying they did nothing wrong when they clearly we're trying to groom a 12 year old kid
ive had ajpw since 2017, left the game after almost everything was about membership, including clothes, now i found out predators, hackers and worse are in game. this is so f sad.
A year ago on animal jam some nonmember wolf was being inappropriate and i found it hilarious so i got his discord and when i did he sent me his genitalia and he was 20s or 30s but definitely an adult i was 14 (i told him) so it's still full creeps on the game even if most of the people playing are adults or old teens now i can't find his discord anymore probably got deleted or deactivated
I quit AJ somewhere around 2016-17 after entering high school, and remember roleplay and dating being prominent, being somewhat aware of the issues with it as a child. Its a shame that nothing changed.
![[ ออกกอง ] วัยหนุ่ม 2544 โลกหลังลูกกรง..ทัวร์กองถ่ายหนังใน "คุกของจริง" | JUSTดูIT.](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vB--aOkZCpw/mqdefault.jpg)
This is really so true and so fact-full on so many levels. In my 9 years of AJPW, I’ve run into so many groomers, predators, and just generally disgusting people. And even to this day I still do run into or come across these nasty people, I have tried to expose these people at times when all means necessary and to keep others, especially children safe. Thank you so much for bringing light onto this tough subject Kijji. You make the community a truly better and safer place 🌸
Thank you so much. I genuinely do my best to try and make the community better and this was a subject I’ve wanted to cover for a long time but have struggled to find the words. Even now I am so anxious as to how it will be perceived. It is such a delicate topic…
@@kijjikon you covered it very well, were all here to fight the haters!
@@sapphiremoonaj I don't even think there could be haters about this
@@BelltailWC I didn't mean about this topic specifically. Ik this content creater gets a lot of hate so I'm just trying to help him stay positive
Dude how tf u find these ppl I need someone to give me attention bro I can’t find ONE even normal non spammer being
The amount of attention I received online when I was a young girl was insane. Really makes me lose faith in humanity. To any young person reading this right now, please stay safe. Don’t even for a second entertain the idea of interacting romantically with ANYONE online, no matter how old they claim to be, as they could easily fake their age. Adults like this will never love or care about you. They are only out to manipulate and use you. Be careful out there everyone.
100%! Amen! 💜
I was a victim to this on animal jam and Pokémon planet, I was dealing with a really bad home life and it felt like the only positive attention I was getting. I still get anxious thinking about that stuff to this day. Especially cause they convinced me to face reveal when I was young. I wish I could’ve protected my younger self.
I’m sorry you had to go through that. Hope you are doing well now.
When I was 13, a 17 year old on Animal Jam was trying to groom me and even got my number to try to communicate with me further. My parents found out and had a bad feeling so they made me block him even when he was begging that he just wanted to be friends. He was very flirty and I believe he had romantic intentions....it felt weird and I know now at 20 years old that it very much WAS. I'm glad my parents got me out of that before it got worse.
I was actually SHIPPED with my best friend, and also my cousin in Aj. I am utterly disgusted by these things. Why can’t we just have guy friends or girl friends without being shipped? I have also been groomed by a 49 year old man on Aj when I was younger. I am now hardly a minor, but I still AM one. I am tired of this BS.
People are disgusting first of all, and second, they thought because I hang out with guys that they could just “ship” us when all me and the guy wanted was to be JUST friends/bsf. Nothing more.@@nishanpeiris9748
@@nishanpeiris9748 and I was 13. It was a stupid and reckless age for me. I’m 18 now, and regret everything I did in animal jam.
YOU'RE COUSIN !?
I remember when that news report came out. People, including jambassadors did not care what was going on in animal jam, instead they were more interested in the fact that the news reporters used a popular animal jam TH-camr’s footage (lilac petal). Looking back on it today it was sad and they could have used their influence for awareness. Thank you for making this video ❤
Of course!
I’ve always felt really conflicted on how the community handles these kind of things. They simultaneously can jump on innocent individuals or any perceived misstep in judgement while also greeting serious topics like child endangerment with a laugh and a trendy tiktok. I think that a lot of the things from the news report could be perceived as over reacting parents screeching at the internet for being the Internet, but as I’ve grown I’ve understood more about where those parents are coming from.
I don’t think the idea should be pushed that animal jam is inherently unsafe and kids shouldn’t play it, but WildWorks should stay on top of their game and kids should stay (appropriately) educated and be taught Internet safety.
Hey, just a slight correction about the Jambassadors.
Its not that they didn't care, its that they couldn't really do anything. They're usually in a contract with AJ and aren't allowed to talk about stuff like that.
@@captainngoosethat’s the issue. Doesn’t matter if they’re in a contract. You should still defend kids and speak out.
@@Gigiy2k6
Oh for sure I agree, but they can get in some trouble and I'm not sure how bad it would be ;( a lot of ex jambassadors have talked about how they were "stuck"
@@captainngooseReminder that no contract can legally prevent you from speaking out about crime.
I used to play animal jam in 2014, words can’t describe how much I miss how it was back then, learning about animals, national geographic everywhere, role playing with friends, trading was big back then, but it wasn’t how it is now. Animal jam falsely deleted my account a few months ago, and since then I haven’t touched the game, it wasn’t just items that was deleted, but memories. Jags I had saved up from old friends.
Why did they delete your account if you don’t mind me asking? My friend said that they delete your accounts if you haven’t played for a long time but idk if that is true
@@AvatarlifeplaysThat’s true, old accounts can get deleted (I think it’s a really long time though) but sometimes they’ll just up and ban you for no reason, or for something vague like “bad behavior” or whatever. They falsely deleted Leamonpuppy’s account but she was able to get it back
The things I lost to get my hands on some items... Back then backpacks and strawhats were VERY valuable, especially the exclusive ones. Some time after I'd finally got these items, Animal Jam put them up in the store.
Completely destroyed my sense of superiority but I guess they taught me not to be a classist mf
@@Avatarlifeplays one of my very old old accounts from when i was about ten was banned, there was literally nothing i did, i was a very nice ten year old and i cried for hours
I used to date someone in aj. I didn't even know that LGBT+ existed at the time, so I still identified as a female, though I pretended to be a boy. I dated someone who appeared female, and it was 100% a role play (at least for me, I can't talk for the other person). Then my "girlfriend" just stopped logging on and I never dated anyone again.
More recently, when I was about 12 (probably) I was playing as a fox that I made to look like Mangle from FNaF. I went to someone's den as Mangle and the jammer who's den I was in said "you know that I like white foxes" and started chasing me around doing the heart eye emote. I didn't date this person because, as I said before, I was about 12 at the time, I was more responsible.
I also pretended to be male on another game, I'm also a girl
lmao i used to do that as a rp to and i got uncomfortable even with just cuddling in rp what was the girls user
The wolf cave has some of the creepiest people in the game. Idk about now but I remember strangers asking for potential minors to go to their den for a "fun time" 🤢
Art studio at times as well.
Then the wolf cave is a fitting name
@@doloresgronenberg5882 Don't do wolves like that. They're amazing animals irl
Should be called the dolphin cave. If ykyk
@@foxpatternedferret476 i do know and i hate that their intelligent enough to do that knowing what they're doing this is why i like sharks more
the strange banning is so real,,,, i got randomly banned for a week while editing my avatar for "language" and i hadn't even been chatting that day
Meanwhile, jammers who constantly curse around the filter are still there... Sigh.
i came back to aj after a long time a little while ago because i was feeling down and wanted to experience the nostalgia again.
i leant on my keyboard, and got suspended.
ah yes, brings back nostalgia of being banned for no good reason.
hyenine got me perm banned because he saw me saying that i didnt like his art lmfao i didnt even realise he had been in the same room
I was an AJ classic player, the amount of people making dens with disgusting words with pillows, making beds, and making tables with poles on top for you... a player to dance on, it was something that actually frightened me when I was younger. People would go so far as to make their animals a brown or apricot color to replicate human skin which... is disgusting, and the jumping animation with the sleep animation had to be addressed, it is good they fixed that due to groomers and such, and it is not AJHQ's fault that some people in the world aren't in the right headspace and prey on innocent children, but I do feel like the system in AJ both Classic and PW is outdated and they need to find newer ways of restricting bad behavior with players while also keeping the game open and fun to play with friends. A good balance is achievable, I just don't think AJHQ is handling it as well as I know they could.
Sadly I think shipping in general has just become so normalized that ppl aren't even considering that, to quote King fom The Owl House, "theres more to life than shipping", and that other relationships legit exist too, whether IRL, or fictitional. I am so sorry this happened to you.
My own *DAD* used to ship my sister and her best friend she's had ever since 2nd grade (yesh their still friends after 9 years) and she's Aroace! (Not actually come out the closet, *BUT STILL* )
i used to have a guy friend but whenever i walked with him people would go "aw are you together?" NO, JESUS. natural assumption to make but holy god i am so sick of romance like friendships aren't illegal yall 💀
One of the things about animal jam I don't miss. I used to play the original animal jam for 8 years. I used to only dress up my arctic wolves and other animals as boys even though I am a girl irl. I only did it because I liked the look of being a guy in the game but I've found so many people trying to hook up with me in the game. And yes I was a minor back then lying about my gender to people.
Now I'm an adult, and eventually, I got tired of playing animal jam because in the roleplays, I realized it's mostly kids, which I didn't find I enjoyed anymore. I missed the old days, but gosh, you are so right. e-dating should never be allowed in a kids' game like Animal Jam.
Not to mention the scamming/hacking, too many scammers in the game also turned me away. It feels like the company drops all kinds of items in the game for money and don't really bring justice for the people who actually do pay for their in-game items.
I also felt highly betrayed about the feral game when I paid for items there. I quit animal jam for so many reasons. I wish there was an animal jam game or similar for the older adults. Because heck, I love role-playing with friends around my age group, and I love animal games.
Well, anyways, this is all just my outlook on all of it. I sometimes get curious about what people say about aj sometimes.
i agree so much on the second to last paragraph (not that i disagree with the rest), I just started playing over a month ago and I love this game but as an older player, I'm trying to go out of my way to make sure that the only people I buddy are also adults. I think even it's just a seperate AJ server with a more relaxed chat filter for older (like ages 16+) players, it would make EVERYONE, kids, parents, adults and possibly even WW alot more comfortable. Of course, they should still keep some moderation in place so people aren't throwing around slurs and stuff but they could allow some more mature language, topics and possibly even animal facts
I don't know how they'd ensure that kids don't enter that seperate server (math questions aren't going to work, especially since kids can use a calculator on the same device they're playing on and not all adults are going to be good at math)
I feel like giving us older players a seperate spot would also be good for the game financially, adults don't need to ask their parents' permission to spend money and will probably also have more disposable income while needing to spend less resources on moderating those servers.
Parents could of course still switch back and forth when they want to play with/watch their kids.
I do wish I knew about fer al when it existed but maybe it's for the better that I didn't go on that roller coaster.
I’m 18 and started playing animal jam in like, 2012? so at age 6. the amount of times I was groomed through this game was absolutely insane. the amount of adults that would convince me to give them my skype and then exploit me was insane. this game is still not safe for kids to this day because ajhq doesn’t want to actually *fix* the issue and many people in the community don’t care enough to speak about it.
edit: I’d like to further explain that the amount of people who started their grooming of me through animal jam is probably in the 20s. I’m not even joking. from ages 6-12, over 20 men groomed me through this game. there IS a problem.
Had a terrifying situation happen on classic a couple years ago now, basically witnessed a literal crime happen and had to remove the victim from the situation. If you ever witness a crime on Animal Jam, take as many screenshots as you can, or even record what's happening, block and report the person committing said crime, and get all of your evidence to the proper authorities. Whether it be AJHQ, an adult you know or a police officer. If none of those are a viable option for you, get that information to someone you trust that can get the evidence to the proper authorities. DO NOT ENGAGE WITH THE PERSON COMMITTING THE CRIME. In my case, the individual was not stable and tried to compromise the the victim's safety, as well as my own and everyone else who witnessed the event. (he was threatening to doxx everyone and hurt their family members)
As a kid I loved animal jam and played it often! I remember seeing the whole relationship thing ( animal jam girlfriends / boyfriends ) as more as just someone to play house with. I used to play house a lot. Adopt from the pillow room, play school, etc etc. I assumed most people viewed it that way? Didn’t know people were seriously dating.
I was the same way, i often roleplayed as either the mom or dad (usually the dad since that was what was avaliable)
@@Mx_Rabbit I also used to assume women only married men for reproductive purposes- later on turns out I was just gay & autistic 🤣
Yeah, I often roleplayed short romance stories for fun. Usually I would do it one time with a person and then never run into them again. At one point though, I did run into someone who friended me and kept it up for a while. Eventually I unfriended them because I had a bad gut feeling and I felt guilty about pretending to be a boy. I optimistically hope that they were just another kid on the internet and not a creep.
Some people have mistaken me and my boyfriend to be e-dating through AJ, especially when I share the fact that he loves to spoil me with items and Sapphires. We are both consensual Adults who met years ago before we both started to play though I don't blame people for thinking we may be children who are roleplaying, I mean we ARE playing a game aimed towards kids. I 100% agree with people on AJ openly telling off others who try to be "Romantic".
i really appreciate this video. when i was 8 years old, i found a youtuber who often had edaters in their den, except the extremely hardcore kind that would do nsfw roleplays. this lead me to go down a gross rabbithole and pick up some concerning habits (which was mainly just watching gross youtube videos and rearranging my toys in weird ways, but i digress), and has effected me longterm, even still to this day, 10 years later. i still find it difficult to talk about, and the fact my mom punished me when she originally found out what i was watching just hammered into my head that it was all my fault, and anything nsfw is inherently bad, no matter how old i am. im so glad weird behavior is finally being called out, i dont want anymore kids to suffer like i did 10 years ago.
I want to thank you sm for handling grooming in such a respectful manner
I've noticed that in a lot of spaces (especially the warriors fandom) grooming victims are either treated like completely innocent babies or future offenders rather than grooming victims. It's really reassuring to know that's not universal
I was once friends with someone who was knowingly buddies with a groomer. Unfortunately i have forgotten the usernames but i remember seeing a very inappropriate roleplay, and decided to unbuddy everyone on my list. I was 9 years old, so i wasn’t really that educated in online grooming safety.
Your video is sensitive and well put together. I rarely find youtubers that are like, actually caring towards the victims, and actively protecting them by not showing/ featuring the things that would harm them. How lovely. Great work!
Thank you! 💜💜
@@kijjikonI got scammed oneced a few weeks later my mom got me to delete it until I was 10 and I'm 7 and I will never see that scammer again ngl because ik it took guest jammer items yay no scammer party yay🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Once*
I remember soooooo many years ago when I was like 7 or 8, I had an animal jam “boyfriend”. I don’t remember much from back then, but I do remember that he persuaded me to do inappropriate actions together in our dens. One day, he just stopped logging on - until recently, when he managed to get into his account and log on when I was playing. We talked a little about the past, and he apologised for what he did. It turns out he’s also 2 years older than me, so he was 9 or 10 when we “dated”. Although the age gap isnt huge, it’s pretty uncomfy when you realise that 10 is a pre-teen and 8 is still fully a child. He added me on discord, but we haven’t talked since and I don’t plan to..
I’ve also seen a lot of weird stuff going on in the Wolf Cave for some reason - dunno why, but the majority of people that are “looking for a fun time” are in there - my guess is it’s because it’s one of the more unpopular and unknown areas, always having at least a few people there but not really anybody that would call you out for it, as most people that go there are just kids playing the game for what it is, as it’s not a trading place or anything.
That age gap is pretty normal between people online and kids brains are still developing. He seems genuinely sorry and likely adults did warp his mind towards inappropriate stuff.
I think the adults have no excuse for this and AJ is one of the worst sites next to Club Penguin for predators online.
10 isn’t preteen
@@777kylo 10 - 12 is a pre teen, google it
10 is still a child
Oh my god guys use google😭
Thank you so much for handling this video so well. I remember the hyenine1 situation, it really was a dreadful time period in animal jam history, and it did leave a dastardly impact on the community. It is so important that this is brought up, thank you for being so honest about this.
0:19
"Its not particularly long"
Not the video being 30 mins long 😭🤚
Anyways, thank you for making this video. These predators need to stop.
I feel gross cause a while ago I bought some art from the hyena dude without realize who he was or what he’s done, and now it’s just sitting on my old classic account because I’m never able to get on and play anymore 😭 and when I do get on, I’m very rare occasions, I always forget to delete it cause I’m too focused on any new updates and it’s so far buried in my inventory and I only remember it when a video like this brings him up 💀
I think it was hyena1
I was a victim of ZeroArro. (Aka iions, aroxi, lisora.. and so many other Alliases.)
They're a scammer, hacker and a Predator. I have a list of hacked accounts they sent me called Hits. They're still online today. They constantly make excuses about mental health. I hope someday they finally stop
I very rarely comment on TH-cam, let alone anything Animal Jam related due to the nostalgia it invokes within me. However by chance I’ve found your comment! I do give you my deepest condolences for everything you experienced from that “person”. Most importantly I hope you know you are not alone in this battle! In 2020 through connections with a friend I was introduced to Arro and their various aliases. My friend told me about the horrific messages they were sent (my friend was a minor too) and I too had access to a list of 1000 accounts. (Another friend and I went through quite a few accounts and got a shit ton of stuff). I attempted to call out Arro’s behavior in their den but was immediately bombarded by fans and was then sent a threatening trade from Arro. After that I left it alone and would promptly later quit Aj. However, that scumbag has not left my mind and I hope you know they will get the karma they deserve! Hope this message wasn’t too long haha. I sincerely do wish you an easy journey of recovery
WAIT WTF SHE'S A GROOMER
SHE'S A TRANS WOMAN (I think)
I honestly think jambassadors should have the right to talk about this messed up behavior on the game, if not in public then in private with ajhq. As someone who was almost manipulated by one of these freaks I appreciate you being very brave to talk about this
I’m glad you are talking about this. I have been playing animal jam for 10+ years now and as a animal jam vet I definitely am very disappointed with how the game is now and has been for years. I personally don’t think animal jam is safe anymore and never has been unless they are under a lot of fire by the public eyes when it comes to behavior like this. It took them a long long time to fix their chat and when they made news headlines that one time, it even took them a long time to correct that issue and that was the only time they actually did anything in general. They literally don’t keep their community safe snd honestly feels like they don’t care about the monsters that still lurk on their game to this day, and I feel like that’s why I quit so many times just due to the constant scammers hackers and groomers that still get away scot free and you are felt there with nothing. It’s very sad seeing a childhood game become like this truly.
I want to point this out... Theres a TH-camr out there named "Poprubyrocks" who ever since 2020, she was framed for being a predator. This was when she was 17, someone said. But a lot of jammers stand up to her. She's not on any watch page still deeming her innocent to many. But a lot of times, someone stirs drama of "her" anyway. "Inappropriate Den" is a VERY hot topic because when she's online, alot of people know (and I saw her channels) that she makes these "franchises" stories and series on her characters. Sure, she can be "rude" and "mean" SOMETIMES. There are times where she lets out her soft side. I do not blame the people for even having NO IDEA at most times WHAT is going on with "her den" as they dont KNOW her or her content that she makes, but once someone says something, it stirs the pot.
I believe you should make a video on this... And if anyone knows this TH-camr or even actually know the person (I saw conversations on AJ so idk) feel free to like and even reply to this comment. Heard she was "autistic" and should be banned?
Thank you for bringing this topic up. And if you want to know who started framing her in 2020, it was the breach guys.
Hope this helps....
23:50 Another reason I had thought of was the risks that come with being close to anyone
You and the harmful individual could have been close enough to have shared addresses to send gifts for Christmas or birthdays, for instance, something harmless when thinking of good people you may have known for years and felt safe with, but. You'd never know in time that they weren't a safe person to do so with.
Manipulation always seems to be overlooked in my exp, so I'm so glad you mentioned it
Sometimes it can even be as simple as 'I was scared to lose all of my friends at once, so I kept quiet about knowing' or 'they said they'd lie and tell everyone I helped them do those bad things, so I stayed quiet'
Thank you for pointing that bit out, it's a very valid point when referring to kids especially, as this is their whole world in a lot of these cases, and things adults might shrug off would be much more heavily weighted for kids.
i really appreciate how respectful you are with privacy and not showing inappropriate material, this is a great video :)
I grew up playing animal jam classic, I will never forget my multiple encounters with predatory adults. Thank you for acknowledging this issue
The problem with IP bans is that they can be easily fixed; you just have to unplug your router, wait a few seconds and your IP is back up again as a result of it changing. So even if AJ does IP ban that person, it won't really do much.
Woah Really
Thank you for bringing awareness to this topic in an even more serious way. For speaking out like this when so many others have not, you are a hero.
Thanks for this. I was hurt a long time ago on animal jam and have hardly played since, It's so so incredibly sad that these kinds of things even happen in the first place.
Extremely heavy but also extremely, critically important video to watch. Important to the point that this video could one day save someones' life. Like I said in comments of previous videos, I'm very new to this game and even as an adult, parts of this community, between the hacking as well as other more serious topics you've brought up in this video and others before it, scare me alot, like, more than many communities which primarily have adults in them. I do realise and acknowledge however, that the vast, vast majority of the playerbase are good, awesome and innocent people that just want to play the game with their friends.
I was looking at my recommended videos on the side of this page and another potential "problem topic" I realised after seeing an example in my recommended, are YTers, who are usually from outside the community, making "funny" (these quotation marks are doing alot of heavy lifting) videos in AJ with inappropriate thumbnails. I don't know what happens in the videos themselves (nor do I want to find out) and while I'm sure most of them don't have any super ill intentions behind it besides trying to be "edgy", I can't imagine they're doing a whole lot of good for the game or the community either. Other similar games like Roblox and Club Penguin (the latter of which I grew up playing) have this issue as well.
Thank you for talking about it in a way that highlights the fact that stuff like this happens yet being careful to not show anything bad. If anything, hopefully this video can serve as a reminder (including to myself) to pay more attention to and report potentially inappropriate conversations, even if you're a third party.
I know I probably got abit rambly in this comment and I did edit parts of it after writing later parts so I hope it all makes sense!
On a much, much lighter note, thank you so, so much for your extremely generous gift in the Vday box! It was already one of my favourite wearable items in the game but to get a fancier version of it is super cool! (I'm being abit vague on purpose unless you specifically ask what it was just to avoid any awkwardness or anything that could come out of saying what I got)
Hey man! Thank you for commenting! I read through the whole thing and, dang I could not have said it better myself. This community is absolutely petrifying for what it is, and if I can do so much as help one person keep safe than the effort has all be damn well worth it.
@@kijjikon Thank you, and agreed!
Thank you for talking about this, and helping more people/kids stay safe online
I used to play animal jam back in the day, I occasionally came back every once in a while to see the new animals and maybe join some rp that dies in like 30 minutes, eventually quit after I found out Parasaurolophus (one of my favorites) was like 5k sapphires now. However, this vid reminds me of something a few friends and I did on a seperate roleplaying game called Feather Family, pretty much AJ but exclusively with birds (from common farm birds to exotic ones to extinct to mythical), and one time walked in on an rp about the Kauai ‘O’o and found countless ships. Got someone who knew how to email the creator and get the rp shut down and the host banned, but we all got kicked from the rp the second the host realized what was happening. Thank god we got pictures before we got kicked
I remember going to someone’s den as a kid with nude colored pandas and it was a stage recording set up and the person asked me if I knew what “horn” was 😭😭😭
despite not playing AJ as much and not encountering any of this myself I agree with all of these points, especially the shipping real people one, I was in a friend group where joke shipping each other was so normalized that it became a meme and was joked about constantly and one person drew inappropriate art (censored but it was still really gross). Thank you so much for making this video and helping me realize that my old friend group was screwed up beyond belief! it really helped open my eyes.
As somebody who fell victim to grooming on this game nearly a decade ago, it is such a relief that present community members are able acknowledge the problem- I’m assuming the reason it wasn’t discussed much back in the 2010’s was due to the fact that most players were very young children. As the original demographic gets older, it’s wonderful that many people can acknowledge long-standing toxic issues that have always been prominent. I’m not in the community anymore, but I wish everybody luck, and hope everyone can keep themselves safe and make wise choices.
yoo im so glad this subject got covered. back in 2023, earlier, I was groomed by a VERY close friend. Glad this topic got covered!
Man remember when Animal Jam was just animals jammin
i personally have been through SO many things on this game. mostly before 2021 i didnt speak to people often and im glad. but now? i see people asking for partners, which is crazy. they treat it like an edating app. when i played on my old account, i had two predators approach me. im just glad i was over the age of 11 when that happened, and i knew what was happening.
thats not even all of it. theres so much toxicity. ive been told to rot, by a popular person, which is crazy. im still in shock to this day, but it doesnt bother me as much as it did back then. what bothers me is that that could happen to someone so much younger, too.
not to mention the manipulation. i watched someone get doxxed less than a year ago in a discord server i created, and the adult who did it, my friend, convinced me it was fine. not to mention the hate post on one of my other friends, and forcing me to post others publicly. it was deemed okay and i didnt understand it was bad at the time. i looked up to the adult.
later, i was told it was ''grooming'' but it wasnt.
all in all, because my comment is very long rn 😭it isnt just predators. the toxicity and harmful things going around in the animal jam community is so scary. stay safe out there everyone and thank you for bringing light to this, kijji.
As a parent with a child who plays this, I'm happy to see someone like you out there who is sharing your knowledge and experience. Although now I'm stressing if she should be playing it at all. We have talked with her openly about being aware of people being gross and saying inappropriate things to her and what to do about it.
I would suggest limiting or monitoring her usage, or using the parent tools to limit her ability to communicate with others in game.
@@kijjikon I think she has the limited communication but I will have to check on all that, thank you!
@@LissaToleneI'm 13 have been banned twice dashboard bcuz my 11/10 yr old me yeah it's crazy
@@LissaToleneif your child gets hacked! I have pegesus gauntlets and galaxy wings!
(I've been editing for 3 years aswell)
If she becomes a TH-camr it's free commissions!
You're a good parent, I used to resent my mom for taking away my multiplayer games after someone tried to gr00m me, but now I understand perfectly.
I hate how I’ve encountered these people before. In my opinion, I feel like Animal Jam is an unsafe community. Kijjikon, we Jammers are grateful that you’re aware of this. Thanks for talking about this! You’re slowly making Animal Jam a safer place. Keep going :)
this brings me back to my childhood unfortunately. the eerie music that i recognise from fluttershy’s lovely home, the grooming, the membership coercion (in exchange for stuff i should have never had to do as a child.)
So true. When I was younger I got groomed so many times by adults in the game and never realised until it was wayyy too late. Looking back now, I can remember so many innapropriate innuendos people used trying to get around the chat filters that I didn't understand at the time. Now I know what they meant and those people were disgusting.
And recently one of my very close friends who I'll keep anonymous was being groomed by someone through wildcraft, aj, and discord. Luckily I was able to get her to block him, but the damage was already done by then.
Animal Jam needs to add a way to report someone specifically for serious things like grooming. Like have a section for serious reports that they look into thoughtfully. I've reported people for grooming many times and contacted AJ through Instagram to let them know how seriously harmful these people are, and they never did anything about it, and these people are still playing without any consequences. While I'm over here getting suspended for weeks for keyboard smashing like 'hsdhhjdhhjshhj' lol
@@DawstheYTboss Last year I've found someone with similar name (idk if they're the same person tho) who asked me to go to their den (their nm is emorano, but without the 13)
They sent me many jags and told me in their den weird stuff like ''can I compliment your beautiful apperance?'', ''can we be an item? As in together?'' and ''you're the prettiest girl I've ever seen''. When I heard those stuff, I right left the game and reported them (I was afraid of them possibly grooming me or asking me to ''do it'')
I thank God still today to see them being offline for over 30 days, but afraid of them be still on the game in another acc and doing similar stuff with other ppl
@@DawstheYTboss were there any numbers on their nm??
@@julia-0526 I dont… think so? Hold on lemme look up the user emorano… did they have low worth items on?
@@DawstheYTboss gosh!! Now I'm even more afraid of this jammer...
@@julia-0526 We might’ve found an active Animal Jam online groomer…
28:22
this is so fr, i hate how people ship catnap and dogday they are canon as friends (possibly)
((pls dont kill me dogday and catnap shippers, this is my opinion))
So let me explain what happen at 27:55. I saw the TH-cam short and commented "if they get shipped I'ma slap them". I DIDN'T MEAN OF SHIPPING THEM IM SORRY!!! In other words, I meant to say " if someone ships them I'm going to be mad" because I would be! Now that Ive watched this, I realized that he was talking about what I said and I started bursting tears. Please forgive me I didn't mean to ship, I've deleted the comment and have been crying about this. PLEASE FORGIVE ME IM SORRY. Please dont report me i really dont want to be banned on animal jam. Ill never do this ever again. And please dont hate me about this because IM SORRY!
I was once shipped by my friends with one of my online friends. It made both of us very uncomfortable until the point they said my REAL NAME to him. I was so angry I didn’t talk to those people for a week or two, then I spoke to one of them but stopped speaking to the other one, their annoying cheeky little nags ruined my day that day, and I do still have problems with shipping ANYONE real to this day. Especially now that they ship me with a fictional character I never had any interest in. They said some FOUL things and it took me a lot to get them to stop.
When I was about 12 years old playing animal jam I too had fallen victim to online E dating I really didn’t understand what I was getting into because I was so young and it was a sort of escape for me at the time. Now that I’m older I realize how dangerous that was… and in hindsight I see how much it unhealthy impacted my mental development in relationships, because often times online e dating can be incredibly toxic and codependent. Me and my sister recently rejoined animal jam classic few months back now as adults because it’s a nostalgic game of our childhood and I’ve been sick to my stomach at how the weird animal jam E dating community is still active. It’s sick.
Thank you for bringing attention to this. Its good that your careing for childrens safety
I used to be friends with hyenine1 (not buddies but we spoke occasionally) when I was 9 and somehow he thought I was an adult so I guess my grammar saved me
I’m so glad to see someone cover this topic I grew up on animal jam and definitely went through some things I shouldn’t have as a young girl due to predators on the site
THE START MUSIC REALLY GOT ME. THE NOSTALGIA!! 0:00 😭😭
Fantastic video as always Sam! You always articulate your words perfectly and get your points across in an easy but serious way. I said to you before but I am glad you arent afraid to speak on these topics as they need to be talked about. Spreading this kind of awareness can hopefully help many people identify when something is wrong. Also on how to go about reporting and speaking out about it.
Stay safe out there everyone, and remember if something does occur theres always sources to help and people to reach out too.
I love how respectful you were during this. And what you said about topics of a sensitive subject being talked about in front of underage audiences, is something more people need to understand.
I used to play this game as a kid when double tail was really cool and blackout spike was like the thing to have. This video unlocked some memories both bad and good. I remember the E daters, scammers, etc...
I'm personally 'okay' with these types of videos, and I'm still glad people make them these days! It's important to know about, and keep up the good work! :)
Honestly I play AJ as an adult because I just like the trading aspect of it and I've been playing for a long time on aj classic.
I'm genuinely concerned for the health of this community. Especially considering most if the population of the game is children. I have a lot of issues with animal jam but especially with the community.
dude, thank you for uploading this video. i was one of the kids who fell in love with someone online and was scolded when my parents found out. it really impacted me as a child and sparked my journey down a path of intense shame. i’ve been working through a lot of my childhood trauma recently and this video kind of appeared at the perfect time. i don’t usually leave comments on youtube videos, but i felt it necessary to tell you that your bravery to even talk about this subject will do good for the world that you may never see. you’ve got my respect and my subscription.
I think this was a good high light of a major danger for kids on the internet in general. I don't think kids should be on any public access or chat enabled games. There is too high a likelihood of encountering genuine creepers on them. And the sad thing is the more a game is marketed towards being child friendly the higher the likelihood a creep will get on there to target them. Club penguin and roblox are two other infamous examples of this.
On roblox there’s a setting to make the account unable to view the chat or speak in the chat though
I remember as a kid I was dressed up as a male wolf and this wolf dressed as a girl was like "you're cute come to my den" so I was like "okay" and went then she got onto a sofa and told me to sit on the same seat as her I was like "oookay" and then she told me to use the wolf howling animation I was too innocent at the time and then she started saying "ooh ahh mmm" I was like this is weird (like I just knew in my gut this was wrong) so I left I told my mom and she reported them I hope they got banned permanently. Its gross and also happens on roblox too. My little sister plays roblox and I have to make sure she doesn't get asked to do anything weird or gross like that cause she's 8 and will not know what's happening.
omfg are u ok now?
@KittenSprite yea I am now I don't play aj anymore but my little sister does but if she thinks something seems wrong she asks me and I sort it for her it's scary how many creeps are on the Internet
@@Jade-yl9nfI have a friend in school who used to like cordo games.
I told him many times stop playin but now he's changed
everything in this video is basically the reason why I feel uneasy on animal jam, everytime I log on to the game I just feel weird, I can never stay on for too long
I actually was also groomed by someone from Google+ back before it was shut down. I actually connected with some people from Animal Jam through it and the groomer in question was a 18 year old woman, while I was 14 at the time, she was not only into Animal Jam but also plenty of my own interests involving of course, anime, etc. It really sucks that people who groom kids even exist and I wish people weren't so twisted.
I am disgusted. Animal jam heat?! Heat?!
Why in God's name is this a thing. Why are children or creepy adults bringing this disgusting topic into the AJ community. I have seen Warrior Cats heat and Gacha Heat and that's there. Kids will be kids, for the best or the worst. The fact that 'Heat' is in AJ and the AJ community is sickening, especially considering the main AJ player base are 6-10 year olds. Vulnerable minors, in other words. This really made me audibly gasp. We need to end this 'heat' in all communities, and I just can't believe AJ isn't an exception.
100%. The amount of abhorrent behavior in the game is despicable. I didn’t mention heat by name but it was vaguely referred at one point in the video (mainly because I don’t want curious kids looking it up! ) it’s gross.
The H**t side of things basically a thing in the past now! Animal Jam recently had an update with the chat filter FINALLY AFTER 7 YEARS! (I think… as it’s really easy to get suspende for doing any sort of H**t) Almost all of the H**t content was made over 1-7 years ago! I’ve fallen victim of Animal Jam H**t when I was 12 years old about 4 years ago! (I’m He/him by the way big trans) but it was vary minor H**t but still disgusting😭 I’ve moved away from all that and now emorano13 (The person that kinda-ish did it with me) is all just a good laugh now! Finally a happy ending!🤣
@@DawstheYTbossAre you okay? It’s concerning you said a person who did “that” was just funny. This isn’t a funny or lighthearted topic
@@TheArtzyAnimal no, no I’m fine! I was just saying the way they “did it” was funny! That’s why I said “kinda-ish” they seemed like a 15 year old of some sorts as they acted kinda childish as the “Heat” Side of things was vary minor…
The “heat” in kids’ fandoms is actually so messed up. I know it’s primarily produced by children but tbh that’s even more concerning, it makes me wonder who exposed them to those types of things and what happened to that child. If you’re an adult and must make NSFW content for a children’s fandom, please at least put proper warnings on it and keep it in adult spaces. The way my innocence was ruined was through Warrior Cats lemon fanfiction, and I know tons of people whose innocence was ruined in similar ways, in fandoms for children’s media that were supposed to be trustworthy. It’s just so gross, why can’t adults keep these things in adult spaces?
I've had people try to e- date me/ force me to be in a relationship where I couldn't say no and I've also had it happen to others on AJ I've also had people groom me on AJ, I've also witnessed "maps" come online and harass smaller jammers
Thanks for not showing any examples! I get really uncomfortable when other content creators show some.
Of course, dude! 💜💜
I believe that e-daters should be spoken about more, especially since one of the most (kinda) known creator is a e-dater. I won’t name them but they are a jambassadors (and adult) although I don’t know if the 2 people know each other in real life. I don’t think a JAMBASSADOR who has a huge amount of fans and followers should show off the romance and relationship they have online, this jammer is OPENLY shows love to their partner relationship to their fans and talk about things like HAVING CHILDREN and other topics with minor fans around them. In game as well. As you said minors are easily influenced and don’t see problems with possibly dating someone online that could be 10 or more years older than them because their favorite aj creator is doing the same. ( I’m not entirely sure, but one of my buddies told me that when they saw this jambassador and their partner, the jambassador was talking about how one of they had a key aka their partner and the jambassador having keyhole or lock…)
I am also SO SO SORRY for anyone who has experienced anything like kijjikon mentioned in his video. And thank you Kijji for creating this video.
ive had this happen before, kinda, i talked to this one person, yknow how you would use to adopt people in like, the clinic thing, i remember adopting someone, and it continued, i got uncomfortable because the "owner and my silly lil pet" sumth like that started to seem more partners, and i just was like "i dislike this, i dont want you following me around like im more than just a roleplay owner, and i wish it didnt continue this long" this was many many years ago but i still think abt it
As a older play wild player. I am disgusted that people do this. I could never treat someone like that. I am so so so sorry to anyone who went through something like this. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to go through something like that
It's mindboggling to me that I, as an adult survivor of online grooming (+ much more), am still hearing about the same issues re: AJ's predator problem that I did when I was a pre-groomed kid.
It really makes you wonder if AJ fits the bill when people say that a game's community issues are more often than not because the rot started at the roots of the devteam. You see this with multiplayer games like The Isle, and how its devteam actively feeds into the same community drama that keeps their ship afloat and profitable. I really, truly believe that the cracks in AJ's innocence showed during the HN1 situation, and their 'drama llama' response is typical rug-sweeping behaviour that is extremely common with enablers and abusers alike.
It's not unusual for those who are given great power- especially over the vulnerable, like children- to use and abuse said abilities, especially to protect their own.
This isn't me accusing AJ's devteam/company of verifiable sussiness (no sue pls), as this is mere speculation.
However, it really is beyond unreal to see a monstrously harmful danger be met with barely lukewarm protections for over a literal decade.
Stay safe everyone, and OP, much love and best wishes to you in your trauma recovery, from one survivor to another. 💜
jesus what in the world happen to animal jam this past years?? i don't play jam anymore but seeing what happening here is both disheartening and gross ,sadly you can't really predict nor prevent this type of creeps from lurking in online social games or any game with emphasize on social stuff
I had a friend on AJ that wanted to host a party and dindnt have a room music so a gave it to her and said "youll give it back right?" And she said yea. Abt 2 days later, i letterd her and asked for her to give it back. AND SHE UNFRIENDED ME! Someone traded me the same music to me and i was happy. But i was soooo sad. When she did that
In my 8 years of playing ive come across soo many disgusting people i cant describe what they were saying or what art work they did but it was horrible someone even made gross mps of the alpha greely and i was horrified... the wolf cave is the main target for gross and incredibly inappropriate people please be safe out there kids ❤
Thank your for making this video kijjikon. this is a topic most animal jam content creators avoid which i dont blame them, its disgusting. Luckily i haven't run into any groomers on animal jam tho i have had disgusting experiences irl. You did a really good job on this video, stay strong sam.
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Animaljam is the first place I ever got scammed in my life. I also believe that I was groomed on it but I can’t remember since I was also being groomed by a family friend that traumatized me for life! I hope anyone that is reading this know that even if an adult has ever hurt you as a kid it wasn’t your fault, you shouldn’t feel guilty or embarrassed the only person that should is the adult in the situation.
In 11:29 minutes in the vid thank you so much for calling that out I’ve seen and heard so much bad things in videos
I've played this game since 2012, i've never encountered anything like that because of how crazy restricted chat is, but I have seen cases of people manipulating others for items and scamming.
Hm. I dunno why I'm surprised to hear this. When I played AJ as a kid, I definitely knew there were scammers and other sketchy folks but I didn't realize it was that bad. It probably got worse in recent years. I used to like role playing on the game but now I kinda worry that the people I played with thought I was _actually_ being serious with the things we did and said. Lol.
it’s great to see this stuff spoken about, one of my most haunting memories was back when I was 8-11? i was “e-dating” (wasn’t sure what it was back then) with some person.. it got really creepy as she wanted to see pictures of me irl and wanted to know where my location was… and ofc… had me do the “play” action with the arctic wolves :/
glad it’s all over though, and it really hurts knowing it’s happened to other people too.. stay safe everyone!
idk why im watching this i quit this game when i got banned for hacking but its very interesting and informating
And I agree people shouldn’t be looking for relationships on animal jam ESPECIALLY since there is mostly people you don’t know that play on that game.
Thank you so much for addressing this. I’ve been sexually harassed groomed manipulated and hacked online before and it was horrible. It wasn’t on animal jam though It was on Roblox but it was still really horrible and this is why I don’t play online games such as animal jam or others because of situations that happen so much and way too often
I remember playing animal jam so much as a kid. However, I ended up being friends with this one guy who wanted to do "activities" with me. I didn't think much of it but I said "yes" not knowing he was a predator and ended up doing sexual acts on my wolf character. I ended up realizing what he's done and left, and unfriended him.
Not only is live people shipping creepy and disgusting. It's the roleplays that make it worse. Another game I play. Someone was looking for a rp buddie for a jack x mark rp. Luckily nobody took this lighly and the rp never happened. But it's the thought people would go as far as to rp as real people dating is uncomfortable.
Oh Ew, I didn’t even know people roleplayed as real people??? That is such strange behavior.
I felt weird when I found out someone made an ai of me on C.ai- that’s even worse!
Eugh, this is nasty. Why do people do this. Im so sorry someone made an AI of you without your consent! @@kijjikon
/gen incase it sounded sarcastic lol
this is the first video i’ve ever watched of yours (it randomly popped up on my recommended) and id like to say i really like the way you put this video together and the issues you addressed!! it’s also refreshing to see videos like this that have more simplistic visuals and audio, as i’m very used to heavily edited overstimulating content (i’m not saying that’s bad but sometimes it kind of stresses me out lol)
anyways tldr, very good video! :D
i remember back in 2019 someone said if i roleplayed with them then id get galaxy wings. galaxy wings were my DREAM item. we ended up doing a roleplay involving making "toys"... yeah. funny part? *I* got banned for 3 days. NOT THE GR00MER. it still makes me mad to this day but ive healed from the gr00ming
one time i was just logging on and happened to spawn in the same room as a buddy of mine, i saw immediately that someone was harassing them and being very inappropriate to my friend so i immediately stepped in to stop it. i fear how things could have escalated had i not been there at that time. even if the person being affected is not your buddy, DO NOT hesitate to step in to help the person in danger, you never know how much impact you could have on that person or if you could have legitimately saved them from being scarred for life. dont just look the other way, you have the power to make a difference.
i was actually personally involved in the hyienine situation, my personal best friend at the time was the victim where a large amount of screenshots came from and i’m surprised both of us being so young managed to figure out a way to get her out of that situation. we’re still friends to this day! even if it’s been years. i remember quite a lot about that situation and the conversations we had etc, i won’t say any publically because it’s her pain, not mine. i just helped her out of it.
Hey, late again to this vid (I've been into aj and talking about this stuff to also spread awareness lately) but i completely agree with your statement. It's honestly disgusting and makes me sick to see all these people grooming young, innocent children. I've been a victim myself wjen i was younger, unfortunately falling into a manipulation trap to make inappropriate choices in the game. I never truly wanted to do that stuff. I was pressured by a player to "heat" with them, and i thought it was normal. I truly did. I was too young to know better and i regret agreeing to it. Now im trying to spread awareness and lookinto this topic to help get some of these groomers banned.
Everyone in my school played it as a kid, we were required to since there was learning stuff. I never really liked it and didn’t play it much, I’m glad I chose not too. TJIS is horrible to see predators on a game that's full of children…
Oh I remember when I was 12 I just witnessed so much pedos.. also ppl wanting me to come in their den and than they wanted me to rp disgusting stuff with them.
I was groomed by 3 people on Animal Jam, and all of them were youtubers who had connections with each other. At the time I was 11 and didn't understand what was happening to me and that nobody around me told me what was happening to me, it was all just so normalized in the community. One of them was Straycat2, who is quite infamous in the aj community, funny enough the second groomer who came into contact with me 'saved' me from him because of his toxic actions only for her to groom me. She was 18, and introduced me to the third groomer I was in a poly with. The things I witnessed with those two on google hangouts and discord was traumatizing. Its unfortunate by the time I realized what had happened to me when I was older that unfortunately I cannot expose them since I no longer had the proof it happened. Now I am 18, I havent touched Animal Jam in years but it hurts that even after all these years, AJHQ still hasnt done much to keep the predators away.
This makes me fear for the younger generations… I’m an older jammer and I love AJ! I still play daily to this day! (Tho only for an hour or two when I find time too. It’s my dream to play this game with my kids one day) It sickens me to know there are these kinds of people! I’ve meet groomers and inappropriate people in this game over the years and it’s awful they exist!
I'm starting to remember that when i played classic animal jam, i was a child (from hell appearently), like i didn't know at the time that my "friends" were groomers (i'm connecting the dots, a bit late but i'm trying), but yet still i made them to give me items and then block them...and i was probably 7 to 8 years old...god i escaped a bullet by being an a**hole how did this happened?
I love how you made this video despite all the back lash you may get. I have seen to many of these situations in the game, whereas a whole server was protecting the groomer aaying they did nothing wrong when they clearly we're trying to groom a 12 year old kid
ive had ajpw since 2017, left the game after almost everything was about membership, including clothes, now i found out predators, hackers and worse are in game. this is so f sad.
Dude same, i stopped playing because everything seemed to focus on in app purchases and my old friends stopped playing and then i see this video
A year ago on animal jam some nonmember wolf was being inappropriate and i found it hilarious so i got his discord and when i did he sent me his genitalia and he was 20s or 30s but definitely an adult i was 14 (i told him) so it's still full creeps on the game even if most of the people playing are adults or old teens now i can't find his discord anymore probably got deleted or deactivated
I quit AJ somewhere around 2016-17 after entering high school, and remember roleplay and dating being prominent, being somewhat aware of the issues with it as a child. Its a shame that nothing changed.