How to Stop and Prevent Harassment on Xbox LIVE

Xbox LIVE allows you to chat, message and play games with other gamers all around the globe. You should not be surprised if you cross paths with an overly offensive player. If you prefer to limit the people who can contact and play games with you, or you are seeking ways to stop a certain player from annoying you further, there are steps you can take to limit your exposure to such harassment.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Avoid competition-intense game genres. First-person shooters, like the "Call of Duty" series, can be much more intense than other genres and you are more likely to run into other players’ trash talking and other aggressive behavior when playing these types of games on LIVE.

2. Adjust your privacy settings. If a player is harassing you by leaving voice or text messages, adjust your privacy settings so that only the people you have added to your "Friends" list can contact you. Select your gamertag on any screen on the Xbox Dashboard. Go to “Edit Profile,” then select “Privacy Settings.” Select “Voice and Text” from the list and change the setting to “Friends Only.”

3. Mute players. Players who abuse their in-game voice privileges by screaming to annoy other players, engaging in excessive trash talking or by otherwise being annoying to other players through the in-game voice capability, mute the player. Many games provide options during play to mute, and even kick, players.

4. Submit a negative player review. Submitting a negative review will decrease a gamer’s “rep” and star count and will decrease the likelihood that you and the gamer will encounter one another during online gameplay. Simply select the gamer’s profile from the Players tab in the Community section of the Xbox Live dashboard. Go to “Submit Player Review” and choose “Avoid this Player.” You will then be prompted to select a general category describing your reason for avoiding the player.

5. File a complaint. All Xbox LIVE users have agreed to abide by LIVE’s terms and conditions and can be banned in a number of ways from Xbox LIVE if they violate this agreement. To report sexual harassment, hate speech, and similar behaviors to Microsoft, simply follow the same steps you would follow to submit a player review. Instead of selecting “Submit Player Review,” select “File Complaint” and follow the prompts for selecting a reason for filing the complaint.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep in mind that all types of players are on Xbox LIVE and you should anticipate encountering some degree of poor behavior.