Online predators represent a real threat in online games. That’s why Sony Online Entertainment has integrated online threat protection software in its huge online game, Free Realms.
The NetModerator software was created by Crisp Thinking to block online pervs — predators, cyber bullies, and annoying users — in real time. The product also provides automated analysis of online communications which are really veiled overtures between would-be wrong doers who are trying to hide their language. It also analyzes communications to prevent an escalation of cyber bullying.
John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, said the company takes child safety very seriously and it has to implement protections for kids inside its games. He said the NetModerator system has been tested for weeks and it works well and goes beyond anything else in the market. Sony will use it in other online games in the future. Catching online bad guys is not only good business, it’s the law, thanks to the passage of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
NetModerator figures out the intent of dialogue between players as well as the actual words they are using. Hence, it can flag potentially dangerous conversations in chat sessions or other communications. It also immediately calls attention to predators. In tests undertaken by Cambridge University in the United Kingdom in 2007, NetModerator was right 98.4 percent of the time.
Crisp Thinking’s system blocks threats in real time — and it analyzes ongoing conversations between people over a period of time — and takes over some of the moderator tasks, freeing technical staff to do other work. It can spot code or invented words and slang, said Andrew Lintell, chief executive of Crisp. Other clients include Cartoon Network, FusionFall, ZulaWorld and SuperSecret, along with Internet service providers, Sky and Tiscali. The only problem is the name. I think it should be called Perv Blocker.
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