Technology news and Jobs arrow Technology Lifestyle arrow Xbox 360 Facebook and Twitter for adults only
Xbox 360 Facebook and Twitter for adults only E-mail
by Mike Bantick   
Monday, 09 November 2009
Microsoft is playing things safe with the testing of the latest dashboard update for the Xbox 360 game console. Region specific, but containing Facebook and Twitter application integration, the public pre-release preview has been locked down for those over the age of 18.

iTWire pre-previewed (!) the new Xbox 360 dashboard update a few weeks ago.  For Australians this means access to Facebook, Twitter and HD movies on demand.  In other geographic regions the dashboard update includes access to the music and internet radio application Last.fm.

Recently Microsoft allowed a public preview, a kind of open beta test, of the dashboard software to be accessed by select Xbox LIVE Gold members.

Upon downloading the update, it was clear that Microsoft had restricted all the new applications to those over the age of 18 years old.  This, obviously, locked out a significant audience for the social networking applications on offer.

On his official blog , Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, Xbox Director of Programming points out why this decision was taken.

As some of you might be aware, those under the age of 18 are not able to access Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm in our public preview. I want to you let you know that this will remain the case when it launches to the world soon. We made this decision because as it stands now, parents aren’t able to use Family Settings to customize which of these applications their children can access. In order to offer an age-appropriate environment for everyone, we decided to turn off these applications for those Gold members under the age of 18. As expected, this has been a hot topic with the preview users.

We want to make sure everyone was aware, however, that the development team is working on an update that gives parents the choice of which social applications their children can access. This means that Xbox LIVE members between the ages of 13 and 17 will be able to use Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm as long as their parents approve. The team hope to roll this out several weeks after launch and I will update you on the exact date as it gets closer. 
 

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