Get BonnetBall

Updated 20 October 2026

Community rules

The rules for online friend matches: be kind, keep names clean and personal details out of them, play fair, and how to mute, block and report a player.

Online friend matches are private. You play people you invited, or who invited you, with a link or a 6-character code. These rules keep matches fun and safe for everyone. You agree to them, and to our terms of use, the first time you play online.

The rules

  • Be kind. Play hard, win well and lose well. No bullying, threats, hate or abuse, in your name or in quick chat.
  • Keep your name clean. Your online name is your profile name in capitals, and everyone in your lobby and match sees it. It can be 3 to 14 characters long, using only the letters A to Z, numbers, spaces and . – _ ‘ (a name that is longer, or has an accent or another symbol, shows as PLAYER and a number). No swearing, insults, hate or sexual words: names are checked by a word filter, and a name that fails it shows as PLAYER and a number too. Other players can report a name.
  • Keep personal details out of your name. Don’t use your full name, your school, where you live, a phone number or a social media name.
  • Play fair. No cheating, no hacking and no tampering with the game or its connection.
  • Play with people you know. Share your link or code only with people you know, and don’t post it publicly.

What other players see

The other players in your lobby and match see your online name, your car and how you play, and any quick-chat phrases you send. Quick chat uses the game’s preset phrases only: there’s no typed chat and no voice chat. The game doesn’t show them your PLAYER ID or anything else about you.

Mute, block and report

Tap a player’s seat in the lobby, or in a match tap the pause button and then PLAYERS. Then choose:

  • MUTE hides their quick chat for the rest of your session.
  • BLOCK also hides their name, so they show as PLAYER and a number, and stops them joining any match you host. They aren’t told why. The game remembers up to 50 blocked players, and Settings › Account › BLOCKED PLAYERS lists your eight newest blocks, each with UNBLOCK.
  • REPORT tells us about an offensive name, cheating, harassment or something else. You can send up to five reports a day.

If a match doesn’t feel right, leave it: tap the pause button, then LEAVE. If anyone upsets or worries you, tell a parent, carer or someone you trust.

What happens to a report

Reports go to our moderation log, and we read every one each week. A report holds the reported player’s online ID and the name they showed, the reason, the match code, the game version and when it was sent, plus your own PLAYER ID and online ID so we can follow it up. We keep reports for 12 months, then delete them.

When a report shows a name that got past our word filter, we add it to the filter in the next update. Anyone who blocks a player already sees them only as PLAYER and a number. If a report suggests someone may be in danger, we pass it to the police.

If you delete your account in Settings › Account, the reports you sent are deleted with it. Reports about a player are kept for their 12 months even if that player deletes their account, as a safety record.

For parents and carers

Online play is only with people who have the link or the code, and players can’t type messages to each other. If the device is signed in to Game Center, Screen Time’s Game Center settings apply: with Multiplayer Games off, BonnetBall shows ONLINE PLAY IS OFF IN SCREEN TIME, and with Private Messaging off, quick chat is switched off in online matches. Every other mode plays offline.

Something wrong?

To complain about a player, a name or how we handled a report, or to appeal a decision, see complaints about online play. How we use data from online play is in our privacy policy.