Try Chesskid.com. iIt is kid friendly. No chat is allowed.
The minimum allowed age for Chess com is 13.
https://support.chess.com/en/articles/11070988-why-do-i-need-parental-consent
Chess com tries hard to discourage abusive chat but it is impossible to monitor millions of players.
Try Chesskid.com. iIt is kid friendly. No chat is allowed.
The minimum allowed age for Chess com is 13.
https://support.chess.com/en/articles/11070988-why-do-i-need-parental-consent
Chess com tries hard to discourage abusive chat but it is impossible to monitor millions of players.
Yes but kids under the age of 13 are allowed to play on chess.com with parental consent. Also chesskid does not have bughouse, and as the guy said this would all easily be fixed if chess.com just brought back blocking chat in bughouse
It is likely impossible to cover all such words, especially "replacements" for already forbidden words
Bughouse is too toxic sometimes, there are many toxic players that use abusive language just because someone didn't do well. I experinced it many times too.
Live chats are not moderated enough, even if you report them it won't do anything at all. There should be a chat filter that detects spam and abusive language. This is just a bad way of chess.com which I dislike. I agree with you but on the other hand Bughouse is a team variant, which means you'll use the chat to communicate. And that makes it toxic sometimes. You might rather playing Bughouse in OTB or in more kid-friendly sites instead of chess.com.
Also, I just wanted to say playing and knowing Bughouse at 6 years old is impressive!
Yes but kids under the age of 13 are allowed to play on chess.com with parental consent
It is interesting how the article about Parental Consent differs from the User Agreement.
From the "Parental Consent" article (https://support.chess.com/en/articles/11070988-why-do-i-need-parental-consent):
"If you're younger than the minimum age required in your country, your parent or legal guardian will need to complete our Parental Consent Form", i.e. users under the minimal age (e.g. 13, depends on a country) are allowed if there is the consent from an adult
From the User Agreement (https://www.chess.com/legal/user-agreement):
"To enter into this Agreement, use the Services, and/or create an account with us, you must be at least 13 years of age. If you are not of legal age in your jurisdiction -- but are at least 13 years of age - then your parent or legal guardian must consent to this Agreement on your behalf prior to your use of the Services and you may only use the Services with the consent and involvement of your parent or legal guardian", i.e. users under the minimal age (e.g. 13) are not allowed, and users between the minimal age and the legal age (e.g. 18) need the consent of an adult
Bughouse is too toxic sometimes, there are many toxic players that use abusive language just because someone didn't do well. I experinced it many times too.
Live chats are not moderated enough, even if you report them it won't do anything at all. There should be a chat filter that detects spam and abusive language. This is just a bad way of chess.com which I dislike. I agree with you but on the other hand Bughouse is a team variant, which means you'll use the chat to communicate. And that makes it toxic sometimes. You might rather playing Bughouse in OTB or in more kid-friendly sites instead of chess.com.
Also, I just wanted to say playing and knowing Bughouse at 6 years old is impressive!
Chess.com could easily address this by giving parents the option to disable free chat and allow only the preset partner communication buttons to go through - like "knight," "rook," "no knight," "trades good," etc. ChessKid already uses a system like this, allowing for safe but limited communication such as "good move" or "good game." Unfortunately, ChessKid does not have bughouse.
Chess.com used to have this safeguard in place, but for some inexplicable reason, it was removed.
Reinstating this feature would preserve the teamwork aspect of Bughouse while protecting players, especially children, from toxic or abusive messages. It’s a simple, effective fix that could make a meaningful difference.
I only find bughouse fun with my friends IRL. It is too frustrating online with randoms.
(1) I've witnessed accounts closed for less so, no, it isn't true that they don't care. I hope you reported the abusers.
(2) I don't know why turning off chat isn't an option with Bughouse. You're right to complain and I'm confident they'll change that.
I don't think they will try to fix it any more than they need to do with forum posters spamming forums with adult content links and other content that has nothing to do with chess. I hope I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure I am not.
It wouldn't be difficult though and I can't imagine anyone objecting... but maybe I'm missing something, I don't know. I took a minute and submitted a ticket about it, though I don't even know what bughouse is actually... ha ha.
Spam is much more difficult. As long as accounts don't require anything more than an email address - even a phone number is optional, they mostly just have to play "whack-a-mole", I think. I've been known to argue in favor of verification, not just for spam, but for abuse in general, not least of all cheating, but I appreciate the concerns of those who don't want it... about convenience/ ease of access for one thing, and about privacy most of all. A lot of players would say, "oh, hell no", if Chess.com started asking them for personal information. Many would just head over to Lichess, no doubt. Another disincentive, of course, is the difficulty of maintaining a good (meaningful) verification system... very "resource intensive". So, unless things get drastically worse, I don't see Chess.com going that route.
I’m posting this publicly because Chess.com support has repeatedly ignored my requests, and this issue demands serious attention.
My 6-year-old son loves playing chess—especially Bughouse. Unfortunately, when he plays, he’s often exposed to verbal abuse, inappropriate language, and hostile behavior from both teammates and opponents. Some players lash out when they lose, bypassing profanity filters or using emotionally abusive language that no child should ever see. While this doesn't represent all players, a small but harmful group is allowed to behave this way with zero accountability.
In the past, I enabled Safe Mode for his account. I also disabled game chat and turned on every available privacy filter. These settings work for regular chess games, but they do not work for Bughouse. At one point, they did—but that changed. Chess.com seems to have quietly removed protections for Bughouse, and now abusive players can once again freely communicate with young children.
I’ve contacted support multiple times asking for the Bughouse chat filter to be restored or for new protections to be added. Every message has been ignored.
My son is too young to know how to report or block users—and again, he shouldn’t have to. No abusive message should ever reach a 6-year-old on a platform that claims to be family-friendly and educational.
Again, Bughouse chat is not safe for children, and puts them at risk, even with all available protection and privacy settings enabled.
Thank you for reading. I hope this reaches someone who can make a difference.
Several points:
1. Any player should be able to play free from abusive chat, so definitely crusade on this point all you like.
2. Your son is 6. This is less than half the age required to play here without parental consent.
3. You have given consent, apparently judging the fun of Bughouse to be greater than the downside your son suffers.
4. You could have pushed for Chesskids.com to add Bughouse rather than for Chess.com to police the 13+ userbase to accommodate you specifically. If you give that consent, you are essentially saying "my child can handle any content a 13 year old can, in my estimation".
5. Your chosen subject line implies something far worse than what is actually occurring here, and you knew this and chose the subject line anyway hoping to press Chess.com into your preferred course of action.
6. You are ultimately responsible for keeping your 6 year old safe from any perceived psychological damage you wish to avoid. So I will assume that you are not letting your son play Bughouse until some resolution is reached. If you are continuing to let them play, then clearly the harm you are claiming is overstated.
Hi @ChipThePips,
I hope you’re doing well.
My name is Richard, and I help manage Community Moderation here at Chess.com. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your concerns. I know how upsetting it can be to see unkind or abusive messages, especially when they’re directed at us or those we care about. It’s completely understandable that this would be distressing, particularly for younger members of our community, in this case your son.
I’ve looked into the situation and also passed your feedback along to the relevant teams so it can be addressed properly.
Regarding offensive language, we do have filters in place, however, some users unfortunately try to get around them by using creative spellings. We’re always working to improve these systems, but please do report any messages you come across that are abusive or cross the line. You’re also welcome to send them to me directly via DM if that’s easier for you and we’ll make sure it’s handled.
As for chat settings, we do offer an option to disable game chat, however due to the nature of Bughouse this wasn’t applied to Bughouse team chat. IAfter consideration with the team, ’m happy to let you know we’re now updating that feature. If a user turns off chat in their settings, it will soon also disable teammate chat in Bughouse games too.
Thank you again for looking out for our community and helping to make it a better place. It’s always appreciated.
Warm regards,
Richard
If you read the old forums from 2022, you will see complaints from bughouse players about how the chat filters then in place made it impossible to play bughouse. I think that's why they removed them.
If players disable chat, I think they will be at a big disadvantage.
" IAfter consideration with the team, ’m happy to let you know"
This unfortunate edit snafu tells the story here. Note how it started as "I am happy to" and was edited to "After consideration with the team, I am happy to" but the "after" phrase was pasted in the middle of "I am happy". This helps imply a carefully considered decision arrived at by consensus of experts dealing with the issues every day, rather than appearing to be placating a revenue-generating userbase even when their complaints/demands are not really reasonable by the site's established policies.
Attempted deductive translation:
"I stepped in and did this for appearances, and the team tried to tell me why it was implemented this way when I came down on them for this post with little or no context, but Chess.com's revenue is almost entirely built on children now (or, more precisely, on parents who believe that chess is better for their children than other pursuits...you know, spelling-bee style parents), and Chesskids.com is a kind of a sham at this point that props up our children-friendly message but without getting any development resources or policies that promote its use. We don't do that. We strive to force fit our entire userbase into one giant mass, because it's cheaper to implement scalable systems that way."
This policy change will have the same type of effect as, say, allowing Votechess teams no mechanism for requiring team discussion participation before casting votes. It helps kill off the team aspect of play by allowing more and more frequently "uncomfortable" customers to play in a bubble even when the variant calls for interaction and is designed for teams...teams of players capable of discussion beyond a 6 year old.
So, later down the road, Bughouse will suffer...people will grouse and whine about team members that don't interact, the same way that long time Call of Duty players complain about people in cartoon cosplay running around ruining immersion. But...they will never post a purposely incendiary message about children being "abused", so, they will will just drift away, and Bughouse will slowly become a graveyard, like Votechess.
They will ask for features that encourage team play, and mechanisms that allow them to avoid players with chat disabled. But those new complaints will never rise to a visibility that catches the attention of a Richard, so, everything will continue to deteriorate inexorably toward Chess.com becoming as sanitized as a hospital nursery ward and just as bereft of meaningful interaction between adults. When the bubble finally breaks and kids find some new game and website that allows them to chat during school without being blocked, the userbase will shrink, and when those waters recede, they will finally notice that all the bigger fish swam away long ago. No skin off the top, since they are raking in the cash now and will be comfy regardless.
Just my opinion on the direction of Chess.com for the past 5 years or so, and nothing personal intended to Richard, who steers the course as charted and does the job he was hired for admirably. This thread does not encapsulate that direction, it's merely the latest in a litany of small concessions and capitulations that are removing value from this site over time. Feel free to ignore, since that will be the ultimate result anyway 
.
But two separate pools could work.
Pairings take longer, I can't wait to see.
Ok.
And - who cares, I know - but I've been looking into Bughouse thanks to this discussion and I'm going to try it. Looks like fun.
I’m posting this publicly because Chess.com support has repeatedly ignored my requests, and this issue demands serious attention.
My 6-year-old son loves playing chess—especially Bughouse. Unfortunately, when he plays, he’s often exposed to verbal abuse, inappropriate language, and hostile behavior from both teammates and opponents. Some players lash out when they lose, bypassing profanity filters or using emotionally abusive language that no child should ever see. While this doesn't represent all players, a small but harmful group is allowed to behave this way with zero accountability.
In the past, I enabled Safe Mode for his account. I also disabled game chat and turned on every available privacy filter. These settings work for regular chess games, but they do not work for Bughouse. At one point, they did—but that changed. Chess.com seems to have quietly removed protections for Bughouse, and now abusive players can once again freely communicate with young children.
I’ve contacted support multiple times asking for the Bughouse chat filter to be restored or for new protections to be added. Every message has been ignored.
My son is too young to know how to report or block users—and again, he shouldn’t have to. No abusive message should ever reach a 6-year-old on a platform that claims to be family-friendly and educational.
Again, Bughouse chat is not safe for children, and puts them at risk, even with all available protection and privacy settings enabled.
This issue warrants serious attention. I urge the Chess.com team to pursue all appropriate avenues to ensure that children are protected from abuse on this platform.
Thank you for reading. I hope this reaches someone who can make a difference.