Dr. Phil tackles Xbox Live racism

via Eurogamer


US telly therapist Dr. Phil has heard how Microsoft is not doing enough to combat racist bullies on Live.

On the show this week, concerned and irate father Terry told viewers he had been called a "monkey" and been threatened with lynching when playing on the service.

"I love playing videogames as much as I like eating food. I've been a loyal customer to Xbox Live and Xbox 360," began Terry.

"Now it's gotten worse with the racial slurs, the name-calling and the bullying online. I've been called 'monkey,' or 'Are your hands greasy from eating all that chicken?' [and] 'I'm going to put a lynch on your door.'"

Worse for Terry is having to prevent his children from using the console online in an effort to shield them from the abuse.

"I've had to stop my children from playing online, my 10-year-old daughter, my 13-year-old son, and even my 5-year-old son. He asks me, 'Daddy, why can't I play online with you? I want to play that,' and I say, 'No.' He goes, 'Why? Are they going to call me names?' I think that's sad for a 5-year-old to know that," said Terry.

But despite the atrocious comments made by spotty boys in their underpants, Microsoft needs at least 10 complaints about a particular customer before it does anything about it, says Terry. And Terry is not happy.

"I called Xbox Live. I gave them all the information they needed to know, and they told me before they can do anything, take any kind of action, there has to be 10 complaints filed against [the other player]," he said, blood boiling.

"That's like you coming to my house, robbing me, and I call the police. Are they going to tell me, 'Well, if that guy comes back to your house 10 times, we'll come out and do something about it'? I think that's disgusting. I think Mr. Gates needs to change that rule, and I think it needs to be changed immediately."

His family are genuinely scared, too, even if Terry tries to hide the worst of it from them.

"I just feel like on the Internet, in this situation, anything is possible. I don't know who these people are. They claim to be the KKK, and I have a really big problem with that," Terry's wife Nydia tells Dr. Phil.

"They're calling my children monkeys, that they're going to hang them, they're going to kill them, they're going to kill me. It's crazy, and it's out of control. Nobody is trying to do anything about this. My husband has contacted Microsoft for many years, and I don't understand why the FBI is not all over this."

As a result of the show, Terry had a Microsoft investigator assigned to him to check it all out and Dr. Phil called the anonymous abusers bullies.