Safety First!
Supercell games use a language filter as a first line of defense against disruptive content. This ensures a safer environment for players, and prevents certain kinds of harmful or dangerous language from being used in our games.
How Does It Work?
The filter has quite a task to tackle! It looks at every line of chat and every name submission in our games and, in a split second, does the following:
Identifies the language of the content in question; is it Turkish? Spanish? Korean? etc.
Identifies the general topic(s) of the content; does it contain bullying language? Hate speech? Is it simply general chatter?
Decides how risky the content is; if the filter recognizes bullying content, just how harsh is it? Is it intentionally hurtful, or is it just light trash-talk between friends?
On top of this, it needs to consider subversions—using misspellings, similar-sounding words, 1337 sp33ch, etc, to stand in for a word that would otherwise get filtered.
Finally, it must decide if a message is inappropriate within the context of messages that were sent before. For example, instead of writing “bad word”, some players will try to write “bad” [send message] and then “word” [send message]. As you can see, the filter has a lot of work to do!
How Does Supercell Use the Filter?
Player expression is very important to us. However, we must ensure that everyone has an enjoyable and safe experience while playing Supercell games. It’s a hard balance to strike. Some players might get frustrated if their chat messages are starred out, but some players might be offended if certain words get past the filter. One reason why we have different types of Clans and Clubs in our games is so that you can craft a play experience that’s right for you:
Family Friendly Clans and Clubs use a stricter filter. In order to better care for our younger players’ safety, we take special care to ensure we filter content that could reveal personal information or redirect young players to different locations online.
- Standard Clans and Clubs use a more lenient filter. Some standard Clans and Clubs will use more mature language than others, and a lot of this will pass through the filter! It all depends on the unique Clan or Club you’ve joined.
Help Keep Our Games Safe and Fair
At the end of the day, while the filter is pretty great, we know it isn’t perfect! You might find that you got filtered for saying something innocent. Other times you might notice that someone was able to say something inappropriate or dangerous. The best thing you can do in these instances is let us know!
If something was filtered and you think it shouldn’t have been, contact support and tell us about it!
If something wasn’t filtered and you think it should have been, report the player responsible so that we can review it.
Help Your Fellow Players
The filter is one line of defense keeping our games safe. Another one is, well, you! Help make our games even safer by:
Reporting inappropriate or disruptive behavior.
- Respecting boundaries. For example:
Resolve conflicts with one another before a moderator needs to take action.
For Clan/Club/Neighborhood/Task Force leaders: consider setting expectations for members in your profiles.
Be kind and respectful.
Common Questions
“My clan chat is constantly getting filtered for using normal, inoffensive content! Why?”
Are you chatting in a language supported by our game? If the game hasn’t been translated into your language yet, there’s a good chance our word filter hasn’t yet either. While we are always working on expanding the filter into new languages, it might take some time before the language you’re using is supported!
“Why can’t I use my real name as my player name, or even mention it in chat?”
Our filter proactively blocks many attempts to use real names in our games (though you might find you’re still able to do so in Standard Clubs or Clans). Remember that sharing personal information is against our Safe and Fair Play Policy!
It’s also worth noting that the filter looks out for any content resembling a personal name. This means that all attempted player names resembling a personal name might get blocked - even if it’s not your personal name.