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Twitter and Facebook on Xbox 360 to have age restrictions

Microsoft is confirming that the new additions of Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm will be restricted to gamers with Xbox Live Gold subscriptions and will be only for users over 18, at least for now.

Xbox's "Major Nelson" Larry Hryb says the move will ensure online safety for those under 18, but does say the Xbox team is working on an update that will allow parental controls to be added to the service through the console's "Family Settings."

"We made this decision because as it stands now, parents aren’t able to use Family Settings to customise 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," says Hryb.

"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," he concludes.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 9 Nov 2009 22:32

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• 9 comments

• TBandit

  Wow i wonder how many parents know about this feature in the first place.

  9.11.2009 23:09 #1

• mediaseo

  Originally posted by TBandit: Wow i wonder how many parents know about this feature in the first place.
  just wondering too...lol.. my father doesn't know anything about it..lol..this is kinda weird

  10.11.2009 00:49 #2

• cdxanti

  Why the hell cant the make it for all members. Not everybody has XBL Gold. For me its not worth the 60 bucks a year since i only play every now and then but if i was able to use last.fm all the time i would use my xbox more.

  10.11.2009 10:41 #3

• xnmalletx

  Well they make it only available to Gold members because developing these programs for the 360 probably cost a little money and when you buy an Xbox live subscription card, that is where your money goes. And check the facts too, look up the cards on Newegg and you will see that the year subscription is only $40 not 60. And frankly sir if you can't afford $40 a year then you are probably not much a gamer, honestly I don't know how you buy your games or bought your Xbox.

  10.11.2009 11:55 #4

• bam431

  And this is why you lie about your age, to get crappy features no one cares about anyways

  10.11.2009 21:35 #5

• Mr-Movies

  Originally posted by xnmalletx: Well they make it only available to Gold members because developing these programs for the 360 probably cost a little money and when you buy an Xbox live subscription card, that is where your money goes. And check the facts too, look up the cards on Newegg and you will see that the year subscription is only $40 not 60. And frankly sir if you can't afford $40 a year then you are probably not much a gamer, honestly I don't know how you buy your games or bought your Xbox.What developement costs that code has existed for many years and knowing MS they will just steal it from some anyway.
  
  The real question is what parent is even going to bother with this feature even if they know it exists, not many I'm sure most people don't enforce these features on their childrens TV viewing.
  
  What they will use as a marketing ploy, what a joke, of course we do have global warming so everyone must go green to save the planet. People!

  11.11.2009 08:12 #6

• TBandit

  Originally posted by xnmalletx: Well they make it only available to Gold members because developing these programs for the 360 probably cost a little money and when you buy an Xbox live subscription card, that is where your money goes. And check the facts too, look up the cards on Newegg and you will see that the year subscription is only $40 not 60. And frankly sir if you can't afford $40 a year then you are probably not much a gamer, honestly I don't know how you buy your games or bought your Xbox.well instead of paying for an online service you could use the 40$ towards a game

  11.11.2009 13:58 #7

• xboxdvl2

  Quote:And frankly sir if you can't afford $40 a year then you are probably not much a gamer, honestly I don't know how you buy your games or bought your Xbox.
  hes probably never paid for his games.its not hard to copy games especially if you dont like paying for them.As for the age restrictions on facebook,twitter&last fm isn't that discrimination against young people???
  

  P3 750mhz
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  12.11.2009 09:48 #8

• Gnawnivek

  Quote:Originally posted by xnmalletx: Well they make it only available to Gold members because developing these programs for the 360 probably cost a little money and when you buy an Xbox live subscription card, that is where your money goes. And check the facts too, look up the cards on Newegg and you will see that the year subscription is only $40 not 60. And frankly sir if you can't afford $40 a year then you are probably not much a gamer, honestly I don't know how you buy your games or bought your Xbox.well instead of paying for an online service you could use the 40$ towards a game$40 can be a lot of things... If you buy $10 games (like Eat Lead right now on Newegg.com) that's FOUR games. If you buy games via game sharing PSN accounts that's TWENTY games (assuming the PSN games are $9.99, which most of them are). Bottom line is, you can do a lot with $40 as a gamer. So yeah, I don't understand why people kept saying $40 is nothing... If you think $40 is good enough for Live, that's fine. Well, as a matter of fact, that $40 is going to add Twitter and Facbook for you. Wow, what a value! Seriously, stop kidding yourselves, i don't see any reason why Twitter and Facebook for the Xbox can't be offered to the Silver members as well.

  13.11.2009 10:39 #9