Sony came under harsh criticism today after it emerged that a couple managed to broadcast a 20-minute live sex session via a ‘chatroom function’ on the new PlayStation 4.
The man and woman, believed to be Russian, were seen having sex on the PS4’s Playroom feature – which allows gamers to use a built-in webcam to communicate with each other.
It is meant to encourage users to share their gaming sessions with people all over the world and the Playroom broadcasts can been seen by people of any age using the console’s service.
This week, Playroom for PS4, which does not have a filter for unsuitable content, was used by one couple to broadcast a seedy 20-minute sex session.
The pair, believed to be somewhere in Russia, performed a multitude of sex acts which were viewed by more than 1,000 people – some of whom commented on the on-going action.
Since its launch last November, more than 4.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles have been sold worldwide.
One of the people who saw the footage was Tristan Holtby-Smith, 34, a Gregg’s manager of Poole, Dorset.
He turned on his PlayStation at about 8am on Monday morning – and the video appeared on the Playroom’s ‘most popular’ section.
Mr Holtby-Smith said:
I often go to the Playroom on my PlayStation when I don’t have much else to do, because you quite often find funny people or gaming sessions there.
But when I turned on the system, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was so shocking. The Playroom is really a children’s game.
Some guy and his girlfriend, I think they were Russian because the zoom button was in Russian, were naked and going at it like rabbits.
There were more than 1,000 people watching them have sex, and I would bet that some of those viewers were under 18.
Once you’ve signed up for Playroom, you don’t need to verify your age, so anybody could have been watching it.
It went on for so long as well, at least 20 minutes. It just goes to show that nobody at Sony is paying attention to what is being broadcast.
The Playroom is a game that comes with every PlayStation 4 console, which allows users to broadcast themselves to other PlayStation users over the internet.
Players can leave comments or send messages to each other, which are shared along with the video stream by a third-party company.
While the service does require a one-off payment, once that has been set up, there is no filter in place to restrict explicit content.
The couple, who went by the online handle g12051992, received more than 150 comments from the thousand people watching their 20-minute lovemaking session.
Tristan said:
There were definitely children watching that. People of all ages play consoles, and since there was no age filter, there was no way that that could be avoided.
It was one of the most watched streams at that time of day. The comments were almost as disgusting as the sex.
The couple were loving it – they kept looking at their TV screen and smiling. At one point she adjusted the camera so people could get a better look.’
Porn causes harm to all of us, including those who have never seen any, on many levels.
Claire Perry, Tory MP for Devizes, who has campaigned for censoring explicit content online, slammed the broadcast.
She said:
Dear God, this is terrible – and yet another example of why we can’t be too vigilant.
Heike Diaferia, Executive Director of Stop Porn Culture, agreed, criticizing Sony for making such explicit content available, even if the broadcast is moderated by a third party.
She said:
Since the beginning of the internet, severely damaging hardcore pornography has always been accessible to children of all ages.
Certainly, the disturbing live streaming in The Playroom, which is supposed to be a safe game for kids, adds a new layer to what’s already available.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe spokesperson David Wilson said: ‘The PlayStation4 system is designed to help gamers share their game play through popular social channels. It is unfortunate that some individuals may abuse this feature and share inappropriate content.
He added that within the PlayStation 4 system is a way of setting up parental controls that bans certain people using the console from accessing any user-generated content, such as online messages or video streams.
He explained that the content being shared by users of the Playroom is moderated by Californian-based company uStream.
Just days after the PlayStation 4 was launched last year, one gamer hit the headlines when he stripped his drunk wife during a live-streaming event.
The man was banned after exposing his wife’s breast before taking off all her clothes in front of thousands of watching gamers.
