Sony's new PlayStation 3 gaming console – which allows users to met online to play games together – filters out the words 'gay' 'lesbian' and 'bisexual' from conversations and user profiles. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 18-year-old Michael Marsh's attempt to set up a gay/straight alliance club in PlayStation 3's 'Home' interface was blocked by the software. "I can understand if they're filtering out profanity, but if feel like it's discrimination," Marsh told the newspaper. "By blocking a word like 'gay,' which is a preferred term by the gay community, you're encouraging it as a bad word." Sony has responded by saying the censorship rules are "evolving on a daily basis" and promised to shape the service based on user feedback. Many other words, including 'Jew', 'Christ' and even 'hello' – included since is contains the word 'hell' – are also banned in the new console's virtual world.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 31st December 2008 - 9:28am