Ten Things parents need to know about Xbox Live
by Xav de Matos 
{ Feb 9th 2008 at 2:00PM }
The argument that video games are destroying today's youth reminds us of the movie Footloose. In the Kevin Bacon defining role, a few teenagers are tragically killed when their speeding car crashes. Since the teens were listening to rock 'n' roll music during the accident the town blames the event on rock and bans it. When the gaming industry is blamed for all the tragedy that happens today, someone needed to step up and help educate parents on the content of games. Enter, What They Like Inc. and their first venture, WhatTheyPlay.com. Spearheaded by former 1UP editorial director John Davison, WTP attempts to educate parents on the industry, the ratings system and what games are appropriate for their kids.
In a recent feature, WTP lists the ten things parents should know about Xbox Live, the online gaming service for the Xbox 360. Some telling points made include:
- Restricting voice chat to avoid hearing uncensored language
- Using the Family Timer feature to restrict play times
- Using Xbox.com to customize account settings and check what games are being played
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Amber @ Feb 9th 2008 2:46PM
voice chat restriction is actually a genius tool. I'm 17 and I put that thing on mySELF because I was tired of being called a "faggot" and a "12 year old boy" (because I lack balls, and NO GIRLS ON THE INTERNETS, amirite?).
Wil @ Feb 10th 2008 3:31AM
To be fair, you women do sound very much like 12 year old boys over XBL.
Josh @ Feb 10th 2008 4:22AM
(unrelated to the above two posts, just wanted this at the top...)
We should all buy bumper stickers for this parental information site, send emails, alert family, etc, to help get the word out. Or something. If members of the industry are putting out a site like this to save its reputation we need to do our part to advertise it in any way possible.
Tiggle @ Feb 9th 2008 3:33PM
what's sad about voice restriction? the two examples listed aren't really relevant to voice restriction. the first is sensationalism and the second is poor parenting.
can you clarify?
Xav de Matos @ Feb 9th 2008 3:38PM
It's sad how something as great as the voice support has gone from a selling point to a setting you'd like to turn off an on. Sad that there are some Xbox Live users who try to ruin experiences with the voice support as their primary weapon. Sad that it had to be on this at all.
mattclarkie @ Feb 10th 2008 4:42AM
The other week I was going back to pick-up some Achievements, and I realised I hadn't got the GoW:Always remember your first, because I didn't really like the MP I didn't play it much.
I was on the losing team, largely because one player on the other team was some form of GoW God, and one player on my team just insulted everyone on our team, f#g, g#ys, sh#t, you bunch of co#ks.
I always thought R6V was bad, but just 5 mins of GoW was worse than anything I had heard on R6V in thousands of hours.
Cal @ Feb 9th 2008 3:55PM
Last time I checked voice chat was one of the things which made xbox live great, if we're talking about 13 and under (or somewhere around there), maybe they should suggest setting voice to friends only, not completely off...
ShoppingTub @ Feb 9th 2008 4:42PM
just looking at the live top 10 and u have CoD 4, Halo 3 and Gears of War. In the UK 2 two of the games are 16+ and one is an 18+ so young kids shouldnt be playing these games anyway so that whole article should have started with
1. Only buy your kids games they are old enough to play.
that way there only subjected to stuff that would be in the original game anyway so if your happy for them to hear it one way people shouldnt moan when they hear the same thing online.
just one more thing can anyone think of a kids game that has voice chat
Tim @ Feb 9th 2008 4:55PM
I really think that the game timer is a great way for parents to control how much time is spent on the console without having to be in the room.
ohh and people do send random messages to those they don't know.
Cal @ Feb 9th 2008 5:04PM
Uno? Which reminds me... Why not block video/ make it friends only? Surely video can be worse than just voice chat...
mattclarkie @ Feb 10th 2008 4:48AM
I heard, but I am not sure if it is true, that a 40yr old man was flashing his privates while playing Uno with Video Chat.
As I said I haven't determined if this is true, but something similar happened to me on MSN where some weirdo got my MSN and sent a couple of messages along the lines of "Do you want to see my ####, then accept video chat"
I deleted him immediately.
George Arauz @ Feb 9th 2008 7:41PM
Reason one on why i barely ever chat on there
PeacefulOutrage @ Feb 9th 2008 8:50PM
I guess I'm either in the minority, or the most vocal people are the ones who complain. I've had xbox live for years (got my free points during live is 5) and I rarely encounter buttholes. I can count on my hands how many bad experiences I've had. More often than not I notice a lot of people either don't bother with the headsets or don't speak much. Uno is a blast, Halo is cool too. The last person I had to report was insulting everyone in a Gears match calling us everything in the book. When our team got it together and started cleaning house, he couldn't take it and dropped out.
remer @ Feb 13th 2008 11:21PM
voice chat is the main reason i stoped play halo3 and gears cause its either im getting cursed out by some little punk kid who wont shut the F up or as i like to call them internet gangsters who pretty much do the same as the punk kids with exception of threating me telling me they are gonna come to my house and shoot up my block all the while yelling yo yo yo and quoting their favorite rap lyrics as a threat to me pitiful and then my personal fav is all these racist motherF%&kers who tell me i sound like a "mudbaby"whatever that means and various other colorful names dont know what it is about that game that attracts so many Aholes but it does its probably best for parents to keep there little aholes in training off of xbox live all together it would make all of our lives easier we wont have to deal with them dam youngsters and those ass bastard parents wont have to worry about supposed sexual predators lurking around every corner waiting to frag their children in the ass
p.s. be better parents I'm tired of baby sitting your delinquent children
Tony @ Feb 10th 2008 11:34AM
I guess from a gamer standpoint, we just have to start reporting these people more often instead of just ignoring them and leaving. I get the impression most people do the latter.
It would be interesting if someone started up a gamertag review site of sorts. I've never seen one, personally... but considering all of the other stuff that Live will share, I bet it could share your rep specifics. Then people can leave a comment if this person is especially horrible. It has room for abuse too, but I suppose there are ways to lessen that.
It would make the worst offenders even more obvious (how many are going to buy a whole new live account or change their name for like $8?) and people might be that much quicker to just kick them from a game entirely.