Either your friend is attacking enemies that are too small, and therefore giving 0 rep, or your friend has reached the limitations of the basic account.
However the levels you've stated dont reflect a maxed basic pirate, so either the friend has a level 7 doll (no more rep), or is likely attacking critters that are too small, attack green/yellow/red tags and leave any grey tags to the level 5's
Or theres an new bug in the latest update.