My kid is spamming my Facebook friends with Dragon City invites. Help!

August 23, 2014 5:45 PM

My 9 year old loves Dragon City. I de-authorized the FB app to post on my behalf through Facebook settings, but it's still very easy to send invitations to all Facebook friends through the Dragon City app (which my son usually plays on my iPad). As far as I understand, there's no way to play Dragon City without linking it to a Facebook account. Is there anyway to turn off the ability to invite Facebook friends?

I've looked at Facebook and the Dragon City apps settings, and I just don't see a way to do this. My 11 year set up his own pseudonymous Facebook account just for Dragon City, but I don't think I want to do that for my 9 year old. My friends' kids also play Dragon City, so I sometimes get invites from them that I suspect are accidental.

I have suggested my friends block the app, but of course not everyone knows how to do that or wants to deal with it. (Though that's been my preferred way of dealing with Candy Crush, etc.)

I know the big picture solution is for my 9 year old to stop sending invites -- or for me not to let him play Dragon City -- but I'd love to know if there's a software or settings solution, rather than relying on user behavior (and it may be that Dragon City incentivizes inviting people).

posted by bluedaisy to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Could you make a Facebook account just for Dragon City and other games? No need for your 9-year-old to have the password or to even know. It could be a friendless account used for this single purpose.
posted by Nightman at 5:51 PM on August 23, 2014 [10 favorites]

Back when I was playing Facebook games, yeah, I had a separate account under a fake name to do it with. I mean, like, obviously fake. The other advantage of this was that I could go into the communities where people were adding each other and getting help and whatever and add tons of people without worries about them finding out anything else about me, but with a kid, yeah, you could just leave it friendless.
posted by Sequence at 6:25 PM on August 23, 2014

When in place Facebook games I set all advert past to the privacy settings of only me. But it's been a long time and you may not be able to do that anymore.
posted by AlexiaSky at 6:59 PM on August 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

if you think it's something your kid is doing intentionally to get game points, then yeah maybe talk to him about it with the potential for angry mom/punishment mom. but it sounds more like something accidental. i'd go with setting him up a fake name account. Maybe let him pick a funny fake name, but you get control of the password, and when he's 11 (or something) he gets full access?
posted by ghostbikes at 8:21 PM on August 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

I know the big picture solution is for my 9 year old to stop sending invites...but I'd love to know if there's a software or settings solution, rather than relying on user behavior

You're his parent. This is one of those small learning moments. You really should opt for telling him directly, parent to son, to not send out invites, rather than trying to find a secret nanny option.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:11 AM on August 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

These games strongly incentivize inviting new people to become friends in the game. New friends are needed to get beyond certain levels and also give the player additional assets/points. You need to talk to your son and make it clear that he's not allowed to try to invite your friends. I'm sure he's long-since exhausted his own friends list and is desperate for more. Finding a software hack won't be enough. Also, make sure he has no ability to buy anything through the game. That's the other way you can jump levels if you don't have enough friends.
posted by quince at 9:15 AM on August 24, 2014