Xbox 360 to include parental-control function
posted Jul 21st 2005 11:25AM
The
Xbox 360 will reportedly include a
function that will allow parents to lock kids out of certain games based on age restrictions (support for NDAs still
pending)—basically all parents have to do is enter their tykes' ages into the 360, which reads ratings data from game
discs and locks 'em out if and when appropriate. (Restrictions will reportedly be based on local rating systems in each
market, so they will presumably be based on ESRB ratings in the U.S.) We give this about two hours before younger kids
learn how to bribe their older siblings to log them in to games they aren't supposed to play — and about two days
before codes and hacks letting anyone override it starts circulating online. Still, can't blame 'em for trying.
[Via The Inq]
Doesn't the current Xbox have something like this?
yet another reason microsoft blows.
MS doesn't care if it's easily circumvented. Like all features in all electronics, it's there as something the make Mom choose the Xbox as the "responsible" choice.
Is that HALO 2 playing on an Xbox 360????? Backwards compatiblity!!!
No, that's a picture of a TV with Halo2 on it, and a picture of an XBox 360 with cables leading to the TV. Nice of them to take a picture of a complete system, in each pic there is something "not shown". there could easily be a XBox off to the left as we don't see proof of the TV being hooked up to the 360.
I think it is a great idea even though there might be cracks eventually, because it will protect children like my 4 year old from accidentally playing games that might affect them negatively. This is just an added tool for parents and it does not take the responsibility away from controlling devices like the Xbox, Internet and TV.
Lectoid also thinks the moon landing was faked.
Dennis Vermeulen: Videogames don't affect children negatively. Ever.
Lectoid (#5) You say that but I don't think I have ever seen a photo of any system where you can actually tell for certain that it's the console that is controlling the tv. It could almost always be powered by another cable or machine hiden away behing the tv.
The only way to tell for sure would be to see an overhead view (so you can't hide connections - well unless it's on a table) or to see the cables connecting into the back of the console and the back of the PC (which would unfortunately stop you seeing what was on the TV)
Not too bothered if that is the real thing anyway, as all it shows is the title screen. That could just be an image or the game could have crashed a little further on. This doesn't prove backwards compatibility at all. We will just have to wait and see for ourselves how good it is.
This is kind of old news, and the current Xbox, in the US at least, has a similar thing for DVDs.
I don't see any reason not to include it, seems like a good idea to me.
At least the moon landing had better pictures...
#3 is exaclty right. MS could care less, they just don't want Congress getting on their back on another pointless issue that they see as "ruining America's youth".
Monkey: anything can be photoshopped... drawing wires is easy
Lectoid: and no ugly kids.. Get a haircut!
I mean comon, if you were going to brag to the world about you having a preliminary 360, wouldn't you provide a better setup? And as far as showing the cables, all the picture taker would have had to do was backup. It's not like the tv is huge.
"lock kids out of certain games based on age restrictions (support for NDAs still pending)"
:D Ahahaha! Best bracket comment ever. Wish they would do a follow up on that youngin.
Apparently it is real.
Kid's dad began work at MS and he got to try out an Xbox360 and Halo2 (to test the backwards compatibility) and took pictures and posted them on the GameSpot forums.
After the users over there asked him about the NDA he started freaking out, removed the pictures and asked the moderators to close the thread. And began making up stories that the Xbox360 is actually a modded PS2 or that he PhotoShopped it.
http://www.360hacker.net/articles/07-18-2005/first-xbox-360-seen-in-the-wild/
otakucode - While I do believe that games should be available for everybody, it doesnt mean that mature games NEVER affect young kids.
For Eg when I first played doom at a very early age, I got a feeling of dread, which didnt last long, but did make me feel shitty nevertheless.
And bad games like....ahem "bikini karate babes" can affect even a battle hardened soldier :-P
The problem with things like parental controlls is that the parents most likely to use them are the ones who are more likely to monitor their children's video game usage anyway. So, you've got one group of kids who are double-protected, and another that still aren't getting any kind of supervision. The way I see it, this doesn't help anything.
I think the kids who are smart enough to apply cracks for such stuff can be considered mature and mentally stable, so some violence in videogames is not going to rattle them so much.
It's the stupid kids who don't know how to apply cracks who need to be "protected" with such locks.
So it's all good.
Vinit, they teach reading comprehension in third grade. It's not difficult to follow along with the bouncing ball when it comes to things like this.
Personally, I don't care either way. I'm 25, and don't have children. Though even if I did, I don't understand why people would slam MS for having them.
You'd think that since that kid's dad works at Microsoft, they could afford some furniture in their apartment.
The way I look at this is simple, the only people that this is even remotely going to bother are small children with very controlling parents who will want a copy of Halo3 when it eventually is being released but wont be able to play it.
I am only going to assume that 99% of parents won't even know that the 360 has parental control and some probably won't care.
For consumers over the age of 18 such as myself, this means nothing.
it's fake
http://forums.gamespot.com/gamespot/show_messages.php?board=909102864&topic=22304507&page=0
that't the E3 mockup
Okay if you care about what your kids are doing then watch what they are doing. Way to half-ass parenting by letting a game system watch your kid. Plus which M$ secruity measure hasn't been cracked.
My mom can't even use all the functions on the microwave. I doubt that she'll be able to set up parental controls on a gaming system. Not that she would. I am a 'responsable teen' :P
Did anyone use the parental controlls on the xbox? Why would they on the 360? And BTW, I'm pretty sure the picture is real. Read skektek's post on page 3.
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=89918
Still think that image is fake?
DM: When I first played Doom I felt a bit crappy after playing for awhile too... pretty sure it had more to do with viewing 2.5D content on a crappy 14" bubbled monitor than anything...
Uhm... doesn't everybody know that the 360 is backwards compatible with most XBOX games?
I would bet money on Sony putting the exact same feature in PS3. The PSP already has a similar age lockout. Each game is coded with a Parental Control Rating, and it's possible to require a password to play games of certain ratings.
These ratings don't, however, correspond directly with game ratings. Both Ridge Racer (rated E) and Hot Shots Golf (rated E10) are rating 1, Mercury (rated E) is rating 0, Lumines (rated E10) is rating 4, Wipeout (rated E) is rating 3, both Japanese games I own (Piposaru Academia and Namco Museum, CERO rating All Ages) are rating 1. It would appear that either the developers or Sony decides on their own rating for PSP games.
Yes, the current XBox does have this feature. AND HEY! Guess what?? It doesn't mean anything, because the parents are not going to read the manual and enable that restriction. Same as they don't take an interest in the ESRB ratings and purchase games accordingly!
Guess, Microsoft's own Robert Scoble has confirmed that the Xbox 360 pictures leaked are REAL: http://www.360hacker.net/articles/07-20-2005/robert-scoble-confirms-xbox-360-in-the-wild-is-real/
"yet another reason microsoft blows."
#2 wins the moron award. LSD is bad for you, greg.
There's no need to lambast M$ fro putting a parental control option on the Xbox 360. you'll either use it or not. Most likeyly not, but at least it is there for that 1% of concerned adults.
Truthfully, if I had any children, I would enable it because there are some games that children should not play that I like to play. Any of the Silent Hill games I would prefer to be unavailable to children. I'm sure you can think of some yourself.
The Xbox currently has that now but most people don't use it and I doubt they will use the one in the 360.