How we keep Malta Living safe and friendly

Malta Living is a life sim where people meet: you chat, join clubs, go to parties and visit each other's homes. A game like that only works if it feels safe, so we built ways to keep players safe from the start, and we keep adding to them as the game grows. This post is the overview. The other posts in this section go into each part.

An 18+ game

Malta Living is for adults. Signing up asks you to tick "I'm 18 or older", and the rules follow from that: ordinary swearing is allowed, Gossip talks about nights out, and the Casino and Lottery House are there to play with game euros. Game money can't be cashed out, and nothing in the game pays out in real money.

Being 18+ doesn't mean anything goes. Some things are never fine, and we say which ones, in plain words, in the game's Help and in the Terms.

Report anything that's wrong

Any message someone else wrote can be reported: in a private chat, a group, a club chat or a home's chat. Press and hold it, tap 🚩 Report and pick what's wrong: rude or hateful, bullying, spam or a scam, sharing real-life info, sexual content, it involves a child, or something else.

Three things make reports useful rather than a black hole:

• The context comes with it. The team sees the message and the five either side of it, as you saw them, and keeps them while the report is open.
• Nobody finds out who reported. Not the person reported, and not the volunteer who looks at it.
• Child safety goes to admins only. "It involves a child" skips volunteers, alerts every admin, comes first in their queue and is kept as evidence.

Gossip posts can be reported too. When three players whose accounts are at least a week old report the same post, it's hidden until a moderator decides. And anyone can block anyone from the ··· on their card.

If someone is in danger now, the game says it plainly: call 112.

Volunteer moderators

Our admins can't be online at every hour, so trusted players help as volunteer moderators. They can hide a message, mute someone in chat for an hour or a day, ban them from chat for up to three days, or move them out of a place for an hour. They can't touch money, accounts or anyone's home, and only admins can pause an account.

Every action shows to the player as "Malta Living Team", with the reason and until when. If you think it was wrong, tap Ask the team: an admin who didn't take the action looks again.

Names that don't hurt anyone

Usernames, club names and group chat names go through a name filter that is smart, not strict. It stops slurs, hate, anything sexual about children, explicit sexual words, dagħa (swearing against God, which Maltese treats as its own thing) and drug names. Ordinary swearing stays allowed, and every one of Malta's 68 localities and the common Maltese surnames always pass. When a name already in the game breaks the rules, the team can ask that player to pick a new one, free.

Your account and your data

Settings has the tools to look after your own account: download everything we hold about you, ask for your account to be deleted, log out of one phone, or log out everywhere if you think someone else is in your account. Every password box has an eye, so you can check what you typed.

Built in the open

These aren't promises on a page: each one is a rule on our server, with tests that fail if it ever stops working. We check our safety work against what the EU's Digital Services Act asks of online platforms, and we keep a Team chat pinned at the top of Messages, so anyone can reach a person.

When players tell us something isn't working, it goes on the list. You can follow what we've fixed on the community roadmap, and every change that matters for safety gets a post here.

New to the game? Start with what Malta Living is, or play Malta Living free in your browser.

Questions people ask

Is Malta Living safe for teenagers?

No: Malta Living is an 18+ game. Signing up asks you to confirm you're 18 or older, and the game is written for adults.

Who reads my private messages?

Nobody, unless someone in the chat reports a message. Then the team sees that message and the five either side of it, and keeps them only while the report is open.

Will the person know I reported them?

No. Neither they nor the moderator who looks at it are told who reported.

How do I reach a real person on the team?

Write to Malta Living Team, pinned at the top of Messages, or send feedback from Help. The team replies in that chat.