{"id":229,"date":"2017-04-29T13:20:44","date_gmt":"2017-04-29T17:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/?p=229"},"modified":"2017-04-25T16:26:35","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T20:26:35","slug":"parent-authorization-by-sms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2017\/04\/parent-authorization-by-sms\/","title":{"rendered":"Parent authorization by SMS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For discussion by the community \u2014 please reply on Tootsbook!<\/p>\n

The new login system for children (ages under 13) requires a parental authorization using the parent’s (age 18+) Google account. (Facebook accounts will likely be supported soon, as well, but there have been some pain points there.)<\/p>\n

The current design works like this: Your child enters their Toot character name, and then chooses a \u201cpassword\u201d made up of several symbols. Perhaps: Elephant, 3, Carrot. Once they’ve requested a sign-in, an e-mail message is sent to the parent’s account, with several links allowing the parents to approve an amount of play time; they can just click a link on their PC or smart phone to authorize 1, 2, or 3 hours, or go to the web page and enter in a different amount of time. In the mean time, the child can watch some short, kid-friendly movies from http:\/\/archive.org\/<\/a> and the like while they wait.<\/p>\n

To send and receive SMS (mobile text) messages, in addition to allowing this e-mail\/web system, we can pretty easily do something similar. Imagine receiving a text message like:<\/p>\n

\n
Tootsville.org: \"Catvlle\" wants to play now.\nSend NO to deny, or number of hours to allow.\nHELP for help; STOP to remove your number.<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Naturally, we would require parents to opt-in and \u201cclaim\u201d their mobile number first \u2026<\/p>\n
\n
Tootsville.org: To confirm your mobile number,\nsign in and enter this code: XYZ42\n- or visit http:\/\/toots.one\/YgHe830<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The downside of this feature is that each text message will cost us about a penny (1\u00a2 \/ USD$.01), on average, to US numbers, and sometimes a bit more overseas.<\/p>\n
We’ve been strongly promoting the \u201cnothing to buy\u201d and \u201cReally Free\u201d aspect of Tootsville.org, and I don’t want to seem sneaky or underhanded about offering this as a sort of premium service; but, I also don’t want to run up a $1,000 \u201cphone\u201d bill that way.<\/p>\n
If we offered the SMS service as a \u201cpremium\u201d feature, do you think that would violate our \u201cnothing to buy\u201d and \u201cReally Free\u201d promises? That is, the basic e-mail-based access will be (forever) completely free,<\/strong> but if someone wants to subscribe to the SMS service for a small, additional monthly fee \u2014 I would expect this to be something like a $1-2\/month, $10-20\/year kind of cost for players in the US, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, etc., and maybe a bit more in some countries \u2014 would that be acceptable?<\/strong> If so, how do we communicate effectively that this fee is just to cover the additional costs of the SMS feature?<\/p>\n
Needless to say, there are expenses of running a project like this, and no actual source of income. We’ve already discussed and agreed that sales of merchandise to support the project will be acceptable, and some day in future plan to organize a<\/p>\n
This isn’t happening very soon, if at all, but it is something about which I’d like some public feedback and discussion before putting in any more work on it.<\/p>\n
I look forward to hearing your opinions \u2026 (~BRFP, Benevolent Dictator)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For discussion by the community \u2014 please reply on Tootsbook! The new login system for children (ages under 13) requires… Read more Parent authorization by SMS?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[56,86,58,85],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth","category-violet-volts","tag-coppa","tag-parents","tag-really-free","tag-sms"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Builder-Toot.png?fit=644%2C821&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ZFAu-3H","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":101,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2016\/10\/how-will-child-accounts-sign-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":229,"position":0},"title":"How will Child Accounts sign in?","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"17 October, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Tootsville has always been accessible to children. In earlier versions, in fact, the game was marketed mostly to children! Providing an online, multiplayer video game for children is pretty tricky. We need to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in the USA, as well as common-sense privacy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Herd Social Events"","block_context":{"text":"Herd Social Events","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/herd\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"welcome-big-icon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/welcome-big-icon-150x109.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":477,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2020\/05\/release-0-6-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":229,"position":1},"title":"Release 0.6.5","author":"Bruce-Robert Pocock","date":"19 May, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Release 0.6.5 went up on the playtest servers UltraToot avatar now accepts patternsPattern picker improvements in the New Toot flowNew and improved Toot Square fountain artToot positions are saved at logoutGeneral improvements in login\/logout processLots of improved developer documentation (uploaded to Goethe as well, https:\/\/goethe.tootsville.org\/devel\/docs\/Tootsville\/0.6.5\/Tootsville.pdf )Child logins work with parent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real World News"","block_context":{"text":"Real World News","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/earth\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2016\/10\/the-tootsville-org-placeholder\/","url_meta":{"origin":229,"position":2},"title":"The Tootsville.org placeholder","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"12 October, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As you might have known, the Tootsville.org web site had a placeholder page with some info about what we've been working on for about a year, now. Here's the text from that site, as it's now been taken down: Tootsville.com is gone\u2026 But that's not the end! Tootsville is returning\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real World News"","block_context":{"text":"Real World News","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/earth\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"About.com 2011 Readers' Choice Award","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/f.tqn.com\/y\/familyinternet\/1\/0\/N\/2\/-\/-\/lwg10684.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":548,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2021\/02\/new-test-release-0-6-14\/","url_meta":{"origin":229,"position":3},"title":"New Test Release 0.6.14","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"28 February, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The new test release features some changes that won't be immediately visible, but lay the groundwork for future world-building. As usual, it's available immediately at https:\/\/play.test.tootsville.org\/play\/ The mobile device interface is hidden until you sign in.Items in the game world can be linked to downloadable assets for players.Shop items can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real World News"","block_context":{"text":"Real World News","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/earth\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":289,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2017\/11\/violet-volts-incorporation-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":229,"position":4},"title":"Violet Volts Incorporation News","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"8 November, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the brief news on the latest from the conversion of Violet Volts from an informal association\/club into a \u201cproper\u201d nonprofit corporation: The effective date of the change will be around the New Year, probably within the first week or two of 2018. Our current Benevolent Dictator is paying the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real World News"","block_context":{"text":"Real World News","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/earth\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":114,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2016\/10\/really-free\/","url_meta":{"origin":229,"position":5},"title":"Really Free?","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"19 October, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Tootsville.com used to be a pretty great bargain. Lots of players subscribed for under $5\/month, sometimes even less. Tootsville.org, though? It's free. And I don't mean, it's \u201cfree to play,\u201d but you have to pay money to get stuff to keep playing. 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