Racism, bigotry and sexism suck. Those are not planet-shattering revelations, but it seems that some members of society haven’t gotten the memo. Though each is somewhat prevalent in our society, you aren’t likely to hear a random streetwalker spew racial slurs in the middle of Central Park.
Xbox Live, Microsoft’s popular online community, has become a haven for individuals who think it is funny to harass female gamers and bash homosexual users. This is due to the veil of Internet anonymity, which provides a sense of security to any insensitive idiot with voice chat capabilities. This sort of thing probably occurs on Sony’s PlayStation Network as well, but since I don’t play online much, I can’t really confirm it. While I don’t think that all of these potty-mouthed gamers are truly intolerant of other groups, their assumption that hateful speech makes them tough is laughably ignorant.
Now I am not opposed to a few dirty words. At the ripe age of 23, I feel like I have heard every curse word that has ever been created. Hell, I grew up on “Beavis and Butt-Head” and “South Park.” Therefore, hearing someone drop an f-bomb doesn’t bother me that much.
However, there are a lot of younger kids playing games these days. With cable Internet connections becoming more prevalent in American homes, it seems that even pre-teens are able to play “Halo 3″ and “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” on XBL. Microsoft’s New Xbox Experience, which will include Netflix movie rentals, is part of the company’s efforts to attract more casual gamers to its hardware. This includes not only children, but parents as well. The Redmond-based company also recently reduced the prices of its three 360 SKUs. The Arcade model is currently cheaper than Nintendo’s Wii console.
Microsoft currently allows gamers to report objectionable material, but this has done little to mitigate the problem. However, the company has just acquired a new patent, which will allow it to more effectively combat the inappropriate behavior of some members of the XBL community.
According to Ars Technica:
Back in 2004 Microsoft applied for a patent for real-time censoring of audio streams, and now the USPTO has granted that patent. The patent involves real-time (or batch) analysis of an audio stream that can recognize inappropriate language based on phonemes, and then overwrite objectionable words with bleeps, other noises, or silence.
I am a huge proponent of freedom of speech, but I have to tip my hat to Microsoft. The First Amendment does not allow you to say whatever you want. Freedom of speech is not an absolute right. Language that is used to degrade, insult and harm another individual has absolutely no positive value. You do have the right to speak freely, but every individual deserves to live without being degraded by some moron via a headset.
I vigorously support the First Amendment because it protects one of our most fundamental rights. It also allows me to share my opinion on this blog. Censorship of language is a very slippery slope. Once an entity decides to ban certain words, it can lead to greater restrictions on speech and thus more stringent censorship. We must always fight to preserve the rights outlined in the First Amendment, but we must also remember that certain individuals choose to abuse those rights by using them as weapons. That should never be allowed.
Source: Ars Technica
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Actually, insulting, offensive speech is protected by the first amendment.
However, the first amendment doesn’t enter into it. This isn’t government censorship. This is microsoft potentially censoring speech on it’s own service. They have every right to control what can be said on XBL. You have no more right to the unrestricted use of their network than I have a right to unrestricted use of this site. Obviously if I post links to dog sex sites and discuss all kinds of stuff that violates the rules here, it is not a violation of my rights for those posts to get deleted.
Im not the kind to normally engage in such things, but this would actually tempt me… just to set off the sensor, see what it sounds like, and maybe try to fake it out/fake out people by immitating it.
They might as well tell me “FREE TOY!” and if I dont normally do that and think like this, you KNOW I wouldnt be the only one. Be ready to hear ALOT of bleeps.
@Riki
I never wrote that insulting speech is not protected. I merely said it has no value.
Finally, although I wish it had a “kid screaming no mom 10 more minuets” filter. That would save my sanity in games from when kids get home from school to about the time their parents pull out the internet connection. Good job MS!
yes! I won’t have to hear the pimply-faced dragonforce worshipper yell random crap! Thank God!
(seriously, some people just have no musical taste)
im sorry but i cant a gree with this what if you want to play with friends who doesnt like to trash talk are they going to sensor that too. it would be nice if people had like a switch for them or w.e not forced every one to the same crap
@ Havok
Well, you did follow:
“The First Amendment does not allow you to say whatever you want. Freedom of speech is not an absolute right.”
with:
“Language that is used to degrade, insult and harm another individual has absolutely no positive value.”
So you can see how a reader might think that you were making such an assertion. Especially since a lot of people out there have some pretty crazy ideas about what the first amendment says and means.
But that wasn’t your intent, so, denial accepted.
@Riki: Would you have a problem with an option that allowed you to select it (even if only for kids?) Your right to cuss doesn’t override my right to not want to LISTEN to you cuss. There’s a distinction to be made and we don’t know whether said filtering would apply at the speaker’s end and affect his voice going to everyone else or is at the receiver’s end, allowing someone to be censored depending on the listener’s settings.
@ sifer
I don’t think this could possibly eliminate trash talking, it isn’t that sophisticated. It can only recognize certain sounds, and (theoretically) identify individual words. It can stop someone from dropping an f-bomb or using the n-word, but it can’t identify people mocking each other. And anyone who can’t trash talk without swearing and racial slurs isn’t worth hearing, and (though it has nothing to do with this) probably shouldn’t reproduce.
@ Rothbart
I don’t have a problem with this, whether it is an optional thing on the receiver’s end or a mandatory prohibition on foul language for everyone. I would be annoyed if they started censoring minor stuff (I remember the good old days of pso, when people had to type po.op and f@rt to be immature) but other than that, it’s not a big deal to me. It’s microsoft’s system, they have every right to run it as they please, and honestly, I think it’s better to make it a more appropriate and comfortable environment.
However, when talking about the constitution (don’t look at me, I’m not the one who brought it up) my right to speak absolutely does outweigh your right to not hear it. You can avoid my speech, ignore it, deal with it, counter it, whatever, but you can’t have the government stop me (the constitution only applies to government action) simply because you don’t like it. Only in cases of obscenity (which is almost exclusively pornography, and even then hard to deal with legally) slander/libel, or dangerous speech, such as yelling fire in a crowded theater, or threats, can the government prohibit types of speech. There used to be a national security exception too, but that got thrown out in a rather questionable decision, and the issue hasn’t really been reexamined in recent times.
Outside the context of the constitution, this discussion of our rights is meaningless. It is the owner of the service we are using that has the rights, and by using their service we agree to their terms. If we don’t like it, we don’t participate. If I don’t like the censorship on a website, I can go to an uncensored one and vice versa. I can even start my own. Don’t like the way one online gaming service is being run? Invest the millions and build your own. And the when your uncensored or hypercensored or whatever network is online, and people complain about it, you can tell them “I spent a fortune making this thing, I’ll run it however I want, and if you don’t like it, vote with your wallet and take your business elsewhere!”
Well, there goes half of Lono’s vocabulary
I agree with you. I think that people have the right to say anything they want, in person. If Microsoft is giving/selling/providing the XBL service, however, they have the right to control to some degree what goes on in there.
Sorry g*** I’ve got to go to cl*** now. Hopefully my test will go without a *****. I’ll be AFRICAN AMERICAN later!
Admittedly, I think a lot of the “Swearing 12 year old problem” comes from the fact that in normal every day life, college students hang out with college students, high schoolers stick with high schoolers and young kids hang out with their own kind (heh). When the older kids curse and say stupid stuff between friends, it goes over well because we know the humor behind it and apply said language accordingly. The problem then is that when you have a bunch of anonymous people in a game together, these age boundaries disappear. Now the 12 year old hears all the stuff that the college kids say and he thinks he can do it too. Except they tend to vastly overdo it or just end up being offensive.
I am curious to see how well this technology works though and as one of the earlier posters said, how people try to get around it.
When playing with a certain segment of my friends, the rules for language go right out the window. We make rather racist jokes about each other and laugh it up. Race just isn’t an issue between us.
However, we we play with the rest or with random strangers in matchmaking modes, we shut up and tone down the trash talking to none or at the very least, socially acceptable words and amounts.
While I applaud the desire effect of this technology, I do worry about what it will do if implemented across the board with no discretion. Ideally, you would be able pull up the gamer card of the offensive person and choose to apply the censor, much in the same way mute works now. Though honestly….I don’t see how it’s any better than mute.
As a parent of gamers and a gamer. I can say that there is no way in hell I will let my children game online until the age of 16. I just do not think it is safe for them.