For Parents
It is our goal to provide a safe place for people as young as 8 years of age to visit while online.

Safety

If you are reading this, it is probably because you are a concerned parent worrying about the safety of your child while he or she is online. We at Kitten Tracks take online safety very seriously. Moderators patrol the website in search of content that could be potentially harmful or in poor taste for children. Suspicious users (those who exhibit signs of potentially being a stalker or sexual predator) are flagged and watched by the moderators. In our effort to maintain a safe environment for children, moderators watch closely for cyberbullying, swearing, cheating, and scamming. Moderators keep in contact with eachother through various methods including forums, cell phones, and voice chatting software. This allows the moderators to quickly deal with any issues that may arise. In addition to this, the moderators have the ability to call Paradigm Programming LLC (the company that owns Kitten Tracks) to quickly deal with the more serious issues.

Controversial topics are not allowed on Kitten Tracks due to the impressionable nature of young minds. Banned topics on Kitten Tracks include but are not limited to: religion, sexual orientation, politics (and many contemporary issues such as abortion, gun control, healthcare, and similar), drugs, and alcohol.

Kitten Tracks is a game, not a social networking site. We discourage the sharing of personal information between members. When a player is caught sharing personal information, the personal information is deleted and the player's account is punished.

Kitten Tracks collects and stores e-mail addresses, IP addresses, and tracks usage of the Kitten Tracks website. This information is kept on a secure server and is not revealed unless required by law. This information is purged regularly. If a member does not log into his or her account every 3 months, it becomes subject to deletion (unless the account is upgraded, of course). When an account is deleted, all information linked to that account is deleted as well. Please read the Privacy Policy for more information.

If you still have concerns regarding your child's safety while on Kitten Tracks, we encourage you to sign on and check out the game for yourself :)

Education

Kitten Tracks is loosely based on the real life aspects of cat ownership as a business. Players must take special pains to ensure their cats are cared for on a weekly basis. Failure to properly provide for cats will cause them to run away so a better home may adopt them. Cats die after the age of 10 if they are not properly cared for!

Genetics play a small part in the game and are a great way to show a young mind just how neat science can be! Good cats pass on more stats which helps to encourage responsible breeding. When a litter of kittens is born, a player must take special pains to ensure they do not die. This includes handling the kittens to socialize them and feeding them to help wean them from their mother. How a kitten is treated in kittenhood directly affects how that cat will act during the rest of its life!

The economy in Kitten Tracks is very tight. There is little inflation, and it truly shows a player how managing one's money is necessary in the game and in real life. If a player owns too many cats, she won't be able to care for them all and some will run away. Once a player has learned how to manage her money, she can concentrate on expanding her business to include more cats, working toward game goals such as winning a Best of Breed show, and so much more!

Proper grammar and spelling are encouraged in the game. Many players find that by communicating on the forums with other members, their vocabulary expands, their grammar improves, and their spelling definitely gets better. The best way to improve a skill is by practice, practice, practice!

Time Commitment

A lot of online games require large time commitments to play. Kitten Tracks is not one of those games! The game can be played in as little as 10 minutes per day. A player who wants to dedicate more time to the game will find plenty of other things to do that go beyond the basic concept of the game. Training a cat for the Best of Breed show will require a little bit more time, as will running a large cattery.

Upgrades and Buyer Bucks

We do encourage members to upgrade their accounts as this directly supports Kitten Tracks and allows us to further maintain and develop the game. As a parent, you are probably very hesitant about spending your money online and who you are sending your money to. We do all transactions through a secure third-party called PayPal. You provide your payment information to PayPal, then the specified amount is transferred from you to Paradigm Programming LLC. We never see your bank account information. Your child's account will be automatically credited with the Buyer Bucks. If there is a problem with a payment, we will work with you to resolve the issue. Contact us as soon as possible (via Paradigm's website) to ensure a speedy response.

Kitten Tracks is free to access and play for an unlimited period of time. However, not all features are available to free accounts. If you would like to purchase an upgrade for your child, you do so through a Buyer Bucks system. Basically, this means you add money to your child's KT account (at an exchange rate of about $1 USD to 1 Buyer Buck [there is a $1 fee on every payment, though]) and your child then trades those buyer bucks for either upgrade time or other in-game perks.

Games such as Kitten Tracks can provide a great outlet for children so long as they are played in moderation. Some parents find creating a reward system for good grades and behavior is a great way to keep their child on track. Kitten Tracks can easily be incorporated into such a system if your child enjoys his or her time here. We typically offer seasonal sales (around spring, fall, and Christmas time) which coincide with most school semester schedules.