Andre Yoskowitz
29 Dec 2008 18:06
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sony PlayStation Home virtual world uses a severe filter that censors choice "offensive" words.
The problem however is that some of the words that are filtered don't make much sense. A few of the censored words include "Jew", "Christ", "gay", "lesbian", "bisexual" and most other terms relating to homosexuality.
At its most ridiculous, the filter censors the word "hello" because it begins with the banned word "hell."
The filters were discovered by Michael Marsh, a beta user who tried to create a Gay/Straight Alliance club within the service. Marsh contacted Sony on December 11th, before Home went public, but nothing came of it.
For its part, Microsoft employs a filter as well on Xbox Live profiles which bans words such as gay, lesbian and bisexual. However, unlike Sony, words can begin with banned words.