The people at Microsoft have introduced a new text filtering option on Xbox One consoles, giving players more control over what kinds of messages they receive. The company says this is both to improve parental controls and reduce online harassment and bullying.
When it officially launches, you’ll be able to select a set of new automated text filters soon. Those will start with private messages, and then expand into other areas like profiles, Clubs, and your Activity Feed. The filters come in four settings–Friendly, Medium, Mature, and Unfiltered, which you’ll be able to set up yourself manually.
“For example, we recognize that while some adults use profanity without any ill intent while gaming, parents with small children likely won’t find this same experience acceptable. Similarly, there are differences between the everyday speech you’d use with your friends and harmful insults that could negatively impact anyone. With this in mind, we’ve ensured our safety settings are configurable along a spectrum from most filtered to least filtered so you can choose what is best for you.”
When a message comes through to you, it will hit the filter, then you’ll see a message warning that potentially offensive content was sent, and from there, you can click on the placeholder to change the settings. Adult accounts will be able to see the content that has been filtered out. Child accounts will be set to the highest filtering level by default, but parents can change it as needed.
The text filters are live for Xbox Insiders now, and will begin rolling out to everyone else later this month. Once the feature is live for you, you can find it under Settings > General > Online safety & family > Message safety.
