Stalkers and Harassment

From this wonderful post:

I am so sick and tired of being stalked and harassed on Home. I have reported several people for this and still they continue to do it. Something has to be done. Mods are never around and they are totally out of hand. This user is constantly stalking me on Home. I have reported her more than once and she is constantly doing it. It is impossible for people to enjoy Home when they are constantly being stalked and harassed. I have her on block and it doesn't help one bit she is still doing. Please do something about this person. It like she don't give a darn about Sony terms of service and I'm highly upset that nothing is being done about it.

STFU Black Spammer!

Via email:

hi love the blog wanted to say i have a problem! i am a black guy about 16. there is a lot of racism on home. i talked to this girl for a bit and a guy friend of hers came up and called me a nigger. he used seperated bubbles to do it but i was like wtf. she asked him to stop but then he called her a nigger lover. she was like wtf and took him off her list and he got real mad and started ranting that i was a jiggaboo porch monkey nigger darkie anything he could think of. we both blocked him and then he started messaging us on the xmb so we left to another part of home. later i was on the forums and i got like 30 messages from him all racist stuff. i asked her to check hers and she had more then me. so we reported him. this was like two months ago and he still bugs both of us. we report him on home for stalking cause we have him muted. im sure hes saying bad stuff but you cant report what you cant see. we report him on the forums. we posted a topic on the home forums about it asking why no one is listening to us. it got deleted and got a pm saying you cant use ppls names. so i reposted it without his name asking why no action has been done. i got a four day ban for spamming. those were the only posts i posted since may how is that spam?? why cant we get this racist stalker to leave us alone and why wont staff do ANYTHING??? please post this to show ppl home is lazy and would rather cover a problem then fixing it!!

We apologize that you had to go through that. Racism on home is rarely addressed. It's a sad and unfortunate thing. Be sure that if this type of stuff happens, we will be here to allow you to have a voice.

Sexual Harassment? locked.

A few days ago a fairly average post came up:

Dear Forum Admins,

I've been noticing an increase of male avatars who seem to chase after female avatars who may or may not be really female but I have seen more 'men' chasing after women on this game. The reporting feature in the same by pressing select does not seem to work at all so I ask this. Could you setup any alternative means to report sexual harassment through PS home or through a reporting feature that could be implemented to the PS3 itself?

Luckily Locust_Star stopped by to drop a gem of wisdom:

Our moderation team receives all reports, regardless of the pesky Error message that some users receive when using the Submit a Report feature. Please continue to use this feature to report any violations of the Home EULA or PSN ToSUA.

Then locked the topic. We can't have folks thinking there's no way to take care of the HUNDREDS of sexual harassers that women deal with daily. I love the "pesky Error message that some users receive when using the Submit a Report feature." Oh, that pesky error where you can't submit sexual harassment! Crazy!

Worst bowling alley trip ever!

In the topic: Worst bowling alley trip ever! A young lady complains about something that's a real burden. THE REPORT FUNCTION BREAKS AND DOESN'T ALLOW SUBMISSION OF REPORTS.

Don't know if this has been pointed out but the report function seems to have been malfunctioning. I'm usually not bothered by the harassment I experience but it annoyed me tonight when guys kept coming up to me, sitting on me, asking me to take off my bra. Not what they were saying, but the fact that I couldn't submit a report. Just had to a rant a tiny bit. Otherwise it was the worst trip cause I couldn't even break 100 on my score lol. I'm terrible at bowling.

Since that feature is broken, I suggest immediately messaging Locust_Star, CydoniaX, and GlassWalls.

Sexual Harassment, Not Just Happening To Females

Written by: Kapow

So I was hanging around, AFK, in the Central Plaza earlier when i looked up and noticed this fool (a person using a female avatar) was harassing one of my friends (a male). Following him around where ever he went, making sexual innuendos towards him and so on.
The harasser (XxVIRUSxUNDEADxX) was using a female avatar with default clothing but we have no proof of what his/her true gender is. My point is that harassment, sexual or not (in this case both), doesn't only happen to females but you rarely hear anyone talking about males getting harassed.
You never hear any stories of how a male was standing around and then all of a sudden someone got down and started giving him a virtual blowjob and how shocked and traumatized he was that that had happened to him. One could make the argument that males are more laid back, and don't take things like that so serious. Which is true in a lot of cases, but not for everyone.
A few days ago I was standing around in the Central Plaza, not looking at my TV, and when i looked back at the screen there was some random person pretending to blow me. But me being me, I laughed and then walked away. I didn't take it seriously or as some sort of personal attack in any way. But that's me. It could have been a guy like Mr_Lochwood (who I know gets pretty pissed when people do that kind of thing to him or anyone else) and they wouldn't have just laughed it off. Or it could have been a 10-14 year-old boy who shouldn't really be seeing that sort of stuff.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is that while harassment, sexual or not, happens a lot to females, they are not the only ones it's happening to and it can affect males just the same. Also


Home Pro-Tip/ Common Sense:
If you're being harassed, sexually or not, report for harassment then move away. If they follow, tell them to stop following then move away. If they keep at it, report for stalking then jump to another space or instance.
And if you feel like you don't have to leave (and of course, you don't have to) then by all means, stay. But I look at it like this, if something bad or wrong was happening to you, wouldn't you want to get away from it? COME ON!

Girl for a Day

According to this topic:

My Avatar is a male, and the few times I go on it stays that way. Now this is not a bashing post. When the festive tree event was going on there was an event were I had to dress like a girl to get a free item. Wth? It took 5 minutes or more to get that item and it was the worst experience in my life if you know what I mean. In that 5 minutes I had so many dang friend request, male avatars fallowing me around trying to talk to me. I had one ask if I wanted to go to their apartment. So my point of this post is if your straight I see no reason to ever want to walk around home as a female. So I am not buying any of that "well I just like to look at the female avatar." You can go to your apartment and do that. The way Is see those guys trying to pick female avatars up is not funny it's gross and annoying. If you ever watch to catch a predator I bet those are who are doing it. Maybe those default clowns who act up, Sony should make their avatars a permanent female and if they are straight they will never log on again.

I won't mention the user who made this awesome avatar above by name, but ULTRA-UBER-KUDOS him for it!

Indyposted

Now it appears Indyposted has covered PS Home sexual harassment.

Female Claims “PlayStation Home” User Sexually Assaulted Her…Online

My Week as a 13 Year Old Girl on Home

Via Email:

Hey, wanted to let you know about a project I'm doing. It's called "My Week as a 13 Year Old Girl on Home." I am pretending to be a noob 13yo girl, who just got a PS3 for xmas. I'm roaming around, completely ignorant, asking the same questions all noobs ask. Pretending to be oblivious to what people are saying around me. After the week is finished, I plan on creating a web page devoted to the experiences.

You REALLY REALLY REALLY need to send that to us when you're done.

PS3 Home player 'sexually assaulted', roommate claims

Lol, it just won't stop! I love the quote:

The incident has lead to a report in Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph (spotted by NeoGaf poster Puck), which carries the headline "Fears over online sex assaults: Game players traumatized".

In it, the University of Melbourne's Dr Jessica Wolfendale said "unwanted sexual attacks" can emotionally scar victims, even if they are not real.

Man oh man, how many other sites can this be submitted to? Let's find out. Full article here.

God I love Destructoid

God I love Destructoid!

Sexual assault is not funny. Sexual assault in PlayStation Home is hilarious. This is a truth we have all come to accept, but one PS3 user believes it to be serious business. Claiming her roommate was "sexually assaulted," PSN member "Whoef" is seeking a restraining order on a fellow Home fan.

For the full story, head here.

Creeps

Decided to capture this post before it's deleted, edited, or banished to the tech support graveyard. It involves creepy guys.

So I went on Home for the very first time all excited to explore and look at all the different stores, and some guy starts following me around. He kept going in front of me everytime I stopped saying hi asking where I was from and how old I was, and me, not seeing how this was relevant, told him I was not here to make virtual friends. He then proceeded to message me twice harassing me asking how old I was and what not. I don't think it's right that people can message you just like that, you should have to accept a friend request before people can message you from home. I felt very invaded in my personal space. And now I find out there is no way to report him unless he actually happens to be in home at the same time I am? There has to be another way, so if anyone knows one or can help me out that would be awesome. His name was stephenvasquez if that helps at all. Thanks.

Thanks for the post, and I hope the creeps lighten up.