Xbox has today unveiled its second Transparency Report, which "details the continued efforts to better protect our players and illustrates our safety measures in action". The full report is available to download now on the Xbox website.
The report spans July to December 2022, and some of the key takeaways from that period include an increased focus on getting rid of inappropriate content such as offensive gestures and crude humour, a continued emphasis on catching bots and other inauthentic accounts, and proactive measures being a "key driver for safer player experiences".
Following the publication of the report, Xbox boss Phil Spencer had the following to say on social media:
"Investing in trust and safety is a top priority at Xbox. Today, we released our second Transparency Report, which continues to put clarity behind the work we do to protect our players."
The full report is a lengthy and fascinating read, and it's great to see Xbox continuing to be as transparent as possible when it comes to player safety. The team says it will "continue to invest in innovation, work in close collaboration with industry partners and regulators, and collect feedback from the community" in order to improve things further.
If you'd rather not go through entire thing, here are a couple of key slides we've picked out:
How do you feel about player safety on Xbox? Tell us down in the comments section below.
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[source xbox.com, via twitter.com, news.xbox.com]
Comments 12
Don’t understand what this means by ‘inappropriate content such as offensive gestures and crude humour.’ Does this mean in games or something? I don’t get it.
@Techno92LFC I imagine it means cutting down on drawings of dicks and other offensive imagery (think Germany around 1941) in user-created content.
Being Transparent about the work they are doing is excellent here because otherwise us as consumers would not be aware of so much of this work.
I for one haven't really noticed any 'issues' on Xbox for a while - I admit, I don't tend to play much 'Online' recently - the odd hours here and there, but in general I haven't noticed anything that I would consider 'inappropriate' or 'offensive'.
That is likely because of these 'actions' - I 'expect' banter but even then I haven't really noticed any derogatory or offensive remarks. I enjoy my time online but I also think there can be a fine line between being too 'harsh' with censorship and applying the 'rules' to create a 'safe' place. We expect a 'certain' shape or word to 'offend' and expect not to have to 'see/hear' them, but 'context' also has to be applied and I would hope they have people to understand 'context'...
All I can say is that it seems a 'good' place, but I have also seen people being banned because they use their name or place of residence and got 'banned' because they were 'offensive' in some places - One got banned because their real Surname means something offensive in One place (Cuba or Mexico) and another got banned for living in Fort Gay (a real place) because of that place name...
So I hope they have People to UNDERSTAND and not some AI 'banning' on key words/phrases, shapes etc...
@EvenStephen7 but then how will we tell Todd we want starfield on time? It's the tried and true method, ask Santa Monica studio!
Well I don’t like how rainbow six players act especially the younger players but it is a mature game so I guess i should deal with it
Hopefully they don't go crazy and censor every little thing. I had a friend get banned for a gamertag that was created randomly by Xbox. He used that same gamertag for over 5 years.
The Xbox console community features are terrible and sanitised compared to the OG/360 days, because they're always worried about someone being offended. Discord is a must - which at least you can run on the console now.
That this is even a focus while games continue to come out half baked is troubling.
I've not come across much Toxicity on Xbox, but in fairness I have a pretty twisted sense of humour so probably dont notice. I got booted out of a party for jokingly telling a new player that I would hard carry him in Gunfire Reborn if he sent me nudes of his sister, it didn't go down well
If I'm joining randoms, I tend to go for 420 Lobbies when searching the LFG boards, stoners are definitely more chill and know how to take a dark joke - as well as sharing plenty themselves.
#edit for clarification, the dude was in his mid 20's and it was his older sister who was 35.
It all started because one of the guys was talking about a friends hot sister and things escalated.
I miss the old days playing uno on xbox 360, where everyone with the webcam would just have it aimed at their junk.
When Overwatch first came out, I used to play it with my mate on the PC. The problem with the PC (and it's good side too) is that typing a message is very easy, efficient, and very, very quick. On consoles, it takes way too long to write anything of any substance, and so the issue of being insulted via text (so not vocally whilst in a party) is very few and far between.
In the end, the absolute barrage of insults that people, unknown to me, felt they could say to me, or amongst other members of a team I was on, was frankly unbelievable and was a big part of the reason I stopped playing the game on the PC. Can you imagine life if people said what they say via the anonymity of online in person in the street? You'd be able to spot all the trolls very easily, as they'd be the ones sporting a broken nose...
@Hexamex-Tex The team that deals with content moderation and user reports won't be involved in game development or testing so I don't see this impacting that at all.
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