The Sims 3 Promotes and Encourages Hate and Pornography

The Sims 3. Play with life. What if there are parts of life you don't want to play with, or more importantly allow your children to play with?

In the past, Electronic Arts (EA) has come under some fire from groups wishing to ban the game because the pixilated censor blur can be removed using a cheat code to see naked simulated people and children could see it. Anyone who has played The Sims knows that this is an over-reaction, since Sims look like Ken and Barbie when naked. The Sims 3, as EA designed it, doesn't present a problem. However, this does not mean that the Sims 3 is problem free, and in light of recent events it has become painfully clear that parents need to monitor the game because of third party content and EA failing to uphold their own Terms of Service.

For those who don't know, The Sims 3 is a life simulation game that has become one of the best selling PC games of all time because of user created content. The game was designed where the players could fully customize the game. Not only can you design your own houses, but with a little bit of time anyone can learn to design clothes and objects to put in the game and share with other players. EA has even provided the Sims community with a tool to make their own patterns for the game. These patterns are used to decorate walls and furniture. Not only is custom content expected but it's encouraged.

This presents a huge problem.

This means that adults who play the game have been able to make adult oriented game modifications. Sims no longer have to look like Ken and Barbie. They can be anatomically correct and run around naked and x-rated pictures can now grace the walls of any Sim house. For the most part, the people who make this content are responsible adults and do what they can to keep this content away from minors. Often times this means charging a small fee for the content.

Like most gaming sites, EA has provided a forum for the community to get together and discuss the game, get help and share stories. They have also created something know as The Exchange where custom content can be shared. This is where the problems come in.

EA's Terms of Service states that users will not use the forum or Exchange to: post, transmit, promote or distribute content that is illegal, or harass, threaten, embarrass, or do anything else to another player that is unwanted, such as repeatedly sending unwanted messages or making personal attacks or statements about race, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, etc or transmit or facilitate distribution of content that is harmful, abusive, racially or ethnically offensive, vulgar, sexually explicit, defamatory, infringing, invasive of personal privacy or publicity rights, or in a reasonable person's view, objectionable.

EA does has not, in recent weeks, done anything to uphold their own Terms of Service. They are knowingly and willingly allowing cyber-bulling to happen on their forums despite a number of complaints by a number of people and they are knowingly and willing allowing pornography to be distributed on their web site despite numerous complaints by a number of people. What makes this even worse is that they know that their website is used by minors and yet they fail to take quick and appropriate action and allow the offenders to continue to keep their online accounts despite stating clearly in their Terms of Services that violation will result in your account being closed.

There are users of the Sims 3 forums who being allowed to post messages of hate on user pages, that function much like a Facebook profile page would, encouraging others to pick on and send like messages to other members of the community. These instigators have also threatened to hack into user accounts and sabotage them if they are not sent Sim Points, the currency used to purchase additional content from The Sims 3 website for use in game. These messages reek of blackmail, extortion and cyber-bulling. A number of people have complained that EA will not remove these hate filled messages, that often times contain foul language, from users pages. It will often take EA many hours, if not a number of days, to remove such postings from their forum when someone posts a complaint.

Then there is the pornography. It's deplorable that those who run adult websites are more responsible than Electronic Arts, who claims to be family friendly. EA knows that there are minors on their website and yet it takes them hours to remove objectionable content.

When someone posts something for download, the site generates two pictures, one is a 64 pixel by 64 pixel thumbnail and the other is a 255 pixel by 255 pixel photo of the download. On any given day, one can find pornography uploaded to the site under patterns. EA will only remove something when someone complains, which means it could be up there for an extended amount of time before it's removed, and only then is the larger of the two pictures removed. The thumbnail will remain even longer. This means that children as young as 10 are being exposed to adult content. This content goes well beyond partial or full frontal nudity and ventures into hardcore pornography.

EA knows that people upload this content and yet they don't have anyone policing the site for anything inappropriate or have the content go through any sort of approval process after it's been checked and deemed appropriate. They depend solely on users reporting anything inappropriate. The same goes with the forum. Abusive users are being allowed to keep their accounts and continue to harass other users while EA does almost nothing to stop it after reports have been made.

Unlike adult websites, EA doesn't have any kind of RTA (Restricted to Adults) labeling on their website. This means that filtering software like Net Nanny won't be able to block inappropriate content and anyone who visits the site, regardless of age, will be subjected to pornography as well as foul and hateful language. It means that a gaming website, for a game that is rated T, is not safe for its younger consumers despite what is laid out in the Terms of Service for use of the website.

EA needs to seriously start enforcing their policies and protecting those who use their website. Knowingly and willingly allowing pornography to be disseminated on a website frequented by minors is unacceptable and illegal. Knowingly and willing allowing harassment, blackmail, extortion and cyber-bullying to continue on a website makes EA just as bad as those doing it and in the eyes of many of the sites users, makes them an accessory to the crime. Perhaps EA doesn't understand the seriousness of what is happening or perhaps they just don't care since it's not affecting their sales. Whatever the reason, by the hands off attitude Electronic Arts has taken, they have created a volatile online environment that EA consumers need to be aware of, especially parents who buy the games for their children.