Hunting Game: a guide for parents

Hunting Game is an outdoor chase game for friends aged 13 and over, played on phones. While a game runs, the app shares your child's location with the other players in that game. Anyone with the game's 5-digit join code can also watch it on our website. So agree on two things together: who your child plays with, and where.

What Hunting Game is

In a game, one team, the chasers, tries to catch the other team, the runners, in a real park or neighborhood before time runs out. The app keeps time, shows each player what their role allows, and records a catch when a chaser types the 4-digit code shown on a runner's phone, so nobody has to grab anyone.

It is not a hunting, shooting or dating app, and it is not a violent video game. There is no public list of games to join: you join one with a code from the person who created it, called the host.

Age

• Hunting Game is for ages 13 and over. Everyone gives a date of birth the first time they sign in. If it shows they're under 13, the app stops there and doesn't save the date, but the account made at sign-in, with its name and email address, stays until it's deleted. Email us and we'll delete it.
• We don't verify age, so a child who enters a false date gets in. If you think a child under 13 has an account, email us and we'll delete it.
• Players under 18 need a parent's or guardian's agreement to use Hunting Game, and shouldn't buy Pro without it. Our Terms also ask them to agree with a parent where and when they play, and not to play alone or after dark.
• Marketing email is only offered from age 16, and it's off unless your child switches it on.

Who can see your child's location, and when

Location is shared from when your child taps Ready in a lobby (or creates the game) until the game ends for them: when it finishes, when they're caught as a runner, or when they leave or are removed. If the host turned on "Caught runners become chasers", a caught runner keeps playing, and sharing, as a chaser.

In a lobby, the app sends their position about every 15 seconds while it's open. During a game, it sends it about once a second, also when the app is in the background. iPhone shows its location indicator and Android shows a notification while that's happening.

• Everyone in the game: your child's display name, photo, role and team.
• Chasers: other chasers live. Runners only at the times the host set (every 2 minutes by default) and not while Stealth is on, though a Scan shows every runner once. In Hide and Seek, chasers see no runner positions at all.
• Runners: depending on the settings and power-ups, the chasers and other runners, only their own team, or nobody.
• A referee (Family mode): every player's live position during the game.
• The host, in the lobby: each player who tapped Ready, about every 15 seconds while the app is open.
• Anyone with the join code: the game on our website, without an account: the names, photos and roles of all players, referees included, and who is hit by a Scan or Blackout. It shows no positions before the head start ends, none of referees, and none at all in Hide and Seek. After that, it shows each team only as the other team sees it: runners where the chasers last saw them, and chasers where the runners can see them.
• Friends: whether your child is online or when they were last seen, game invitations and level-ups.

These rules are applied on our servers: a player's phone only receives the positions their role, the game's settings and their power-ups allow, and our website shows each team only as the other team sees it.

The join code is like a key

Anyone who has a game's join code can join it before it starts, if there's room, and can watch it on our website without an account. Treat it like a house key: share it only with the people in the game, and never post it publicly. To stop people from trying codes at random on our website, it stops taking codes from an internet connection for up to 10 minutes after too many wrong ones.

If someone you don't know joins a lobby, the host can remove them, and that account can't join that game again. They can still watch the game on our website with the code, so the best step is for the host to leave the lobby, which closes it for everyone, and start a new game: it gets a new code. During a game, a referee can remove a player. Your child can leave a game at any time.

Game details also show outside the app. In a lobby, the home screen widget and an Apple Watch can show the join code; during a game, the lock screen, widgets and the watch show your child's role and the timers. Anyone who can see the phone can see those.

Family mode: an adult as referee

Family mode is free and adds a referee. We suggest playing with your child rather than letting them play with strangers, and Family mode is made for that.

• The referee sees every player live on the map during the game.
• During the game, the referee can remove a player, and can end the game early by naming the winning team.
• Once the game starts, the referee is hidden from the other players in the app (our website's player list still shows their name and photo), so you can follow along without changing the game.
• The host chooses who referees, and the host can be the referee. A referee takes one of the 4 spots in a free game.
• The referee map is part of the game, not a tracking or safety tool. Positions can be wrong, late or missing, and they stop if a phone loses signal or battery, so supervise as you would for any outdoor game.

Chat and friends

Players can chat during a game, to everyone or just their own team, with messages up to 500 characters. Chat is not filtered or moderated in advance, and we don't read it. There is no report or block button in the app yet; reports go to contact@hunting-game.com. For anything involving a child's safety, put "Child safety" in the subject so we read it first.

Adding a friend happens at once. There is no request to accept: anyone with your child's friend code or friend link becomes their friend. Friends can see when your child was last online and can invite them to games. Your child can remove a friend at any time, and it's worth talking about who they share the code with.

Roam: games made by players

Roam is the part of the app where players make their own outdoor games, like treasure hunts or capture the flag, and share them. Your child can browse these games, including ones made by people they don't know. Playing one works like any other game: someone starts it and shares its 5-digit code, so only the people they give the code to can join.

Every game has a Report button. A person reads every report, and we look at anything unsafe within a day, such as a game that sends players somewhere dangerous or targets a real person. Talk with your child about not playing a game that takes them somewhere you haven't agreed on.

How long data is kept, and how to delete it

• Live positions and routes are deleted about 5 minutes after the game ends, and chat within about 10 minutes. If someone is removed from a lobby, their messages in it are deleted straight away.
• About 15 minutes after the game ends, it becomes a history record with each player's name, photo, role, team, result, distance and play time. It has no positions, routes or chat.
• Positions shared in a lobby are deleted at most 30 minutes after the last update; a lobby that never starts is deleted after 24 hours.
• When an account is deleted, its personal data is deleted straight away. An encrypted record of the deletion is kept for 10 days, and our backups are overwritten within 7 days.

You can download the data on your child's account, or delete the account. Both are also in the app under Settings. The Privacy Policy has the full list, and the Child Safety Policy explains what we do on our side and where we know we fall short.

Ads, data and money

There are no ads in the app, and we do not sell your data. On Android, the app checks which of our ads led to the install. It then tells our advertising partner when the app is opened, an account is created and a game is finished. The partner also uses this to choose who sees our ads. This happens for players of every age, unless Measure our ads is switched off in Settings; the Privacy Policy names the partner and has the details. Crash reports and usage statistics can be switched off under Share diagnostics. The website sets no analytics or advertising cookies.

Hunting Game is free to download, and free games hold up to 4 players. Pro is an optional monthly or yearly subscription, sold through the App Store and Google Play, and the price is shown before you buy. Only the host of a game needs Pro; everyone who joins plays free. Pro renews automatically until it's cancelled in the App Store or Google Play, and deleting the Hunting Game account doesn't cancel it.

Coins are earned in the app, by playing, from the daily bonus and from some surveys, and can't be bought. Hunting Game has no parental controls of its own. The parental controls built into iPhone and Android can limit app use and purchases.

Rules to agree on

1. You and your child decide where, when and how they play, and you're responsible for that. Hunting Game can't supervise them, and it is not a safety or emergency service.
2. Play with people you know. Never post a join code publicly.
3. Agree where and when your child may play, and when they'll be back. Not alone, and not after dark.
4. Keep roads, railway lines and water outside the boundary, and walk across roads, never run.
5. Agree on a meeting point and a stop word that ends the game for everyone.
6. Keep the phone charged. GPS can be wrong or late, so don't rely on the app to find each other.
7. If a message or a player makes them uncomfortable, they leave the game and tell you.

For a first game, play with them in Family mode, or read the manhunt rules together.

Questions

Is Hunting Game safe for kids?

No outdoor game is free of risk, and no app can make it so. The bigger risks are outdoors, like traffic, water and unfamiliar places, and the people your child plays with. What you can control: agree on the area and the rules, know who's in the game, or play along as a referee in Family mode. Hunting Game is for ages 13 and over, and there's no public list of games.

Can my child play with strangers?

Only if your child joins a game a stranger is in. There's no public list of games to join: you join with the game's 5-digit code, or from an invite sent by someone on your child's friends list. Anyone who has your child's friend code or friend link becomes their friend straight away, so talk about who they share it with. In the lobby, the host can remove a player, and that account can't join that game again; to also stop them from watching on our website, the host leaves the lobby and starts a new game with a new code. During a game, a referee can remove a player. Your child can leave a game at any time.

Does it track my child in the background?

Only from when they tap Ready in a lobby (or create a game) until the game ends for them. In a lobby, the app sends their position about every 15 seconds, only while the app is open. Once the game starts, it sends it about once a second, also when the app is in the background. At other times, nothing about their location is sent.

Is it an animal-hunting game?

No. The hunting in the name is friends chasing each other through a park or a neighborhood, like tag or hide and seek. Nobody hunts animals, and there are no weapons in the game.