Xbox Live forbidden words list keep abreast with Urban Dictionary

Microsoft is definitely making sure that no profanity gets through their Xbox Live gates, so much so that their list of forbidden words include those that even the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) are not aware of. In fact, they’ve even included fictional obscenity used in TV as well as the really obscure sex acts.

Said the XBL bouncer, Stephen Toulouse:

Our forbidden names list is many thousands now. Language takes on new meanings daily. My team spends a lot of time learning as slang evolves, as the Internet drives new communications. We have to work very hard to be abreast on those sorts of things.

So apparently, not only are they on the lookout for what’s gonna be the next big thing in terms of software and hardware, they’re also on the lookout for what’s the next big “it” word when it comes to vulgarity via slang.

You’ll see a meme running through high schools, suddenly you’ll see this phrase popping up everywhere and we have to be on top of it, figure out if it should be banned. My guys spend a lot of time using Urban Dictionary to see if a new phrase is something that should be banned. It requires a lot of research, a lot of time sharing knowledge with each other.

The job of policing the communication of gamers is a tricky one, because it requires trying to decide what’s appropriate for a very wide variety of people.

People are being more creative in the way they express themselves and as more and more families join online services it moves from a service for the hardcore individual gamer to a broader family experience. We try to limit the tension of a family experience running into a hardcore one.

I imagine a section in the Microsoft XBL offices with people thoroughly perusing through Urban Dictionary and asking each other in disbelief, “What the frak is a Cleveland Steamer?!!?”

Via Kotaku

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