My kids are just about grown now, but the digitally-delivered entertainment industry does need to get a handle on how to provide a safe online experience for children. For that matter, they should provide a pleasant online experience for adults who would prefer not to be exposed to certain kinds material and language either. It’s not about censorship; it’s about listening to your customers and providing them a choice when they are using your products. Regarding Liz and Tom’s recent discussion about the vulgar multiplayer chat going on in online gaming, I don’t understand why the console online gaming community can’t be better segregated according to personal preferences.

I remember being pleased when the Xbox 360 was first launched and looked like it had four different kinds of gamer types; if I remember correctly they were Family, Recreational, Pro, and Underground. You got the idea that Family meant what it said, Recreational was for people who don’t take their gaming too seriously, Pro was for people who do take it very seriously, and Underground was kind of an “anything goes” environment (enter at your own risk). However, in reality those categories meant absolutely nothing because the match-making placed Family players in the same games as Underground players.

Regarding the issue of cursing and slurring during online games, it could be policed with technology but these companies choose not to do it. We have excellent voice-recognition software now that we use to navigate airline reservation phone menus and tell our smart phones where we want to go. Why couldn’t that same software be used to filter online gaming conversations in “Family Safe” categories to either mute the offensive language or immediately kick the offender out of the game?