Remove custom profile avatar and create ones that are ESRB E Rated approved

[WolfEisberg]

Players have proven to not be trust worthy at all, and there are a lot of softcore to hardcore porn avatars out there, and when a game, even an E Rated game, uses those avatars in an MP game people are exposed to crap they should not be exposed to given the game's rating.

Parents shouldn't have to fear their kids will end up playing with a disgusting person in a game that is E rated.

Reporting it is useless, because I can't report someone that I don't know exists until I see they do and at that point my kid already saw the image from that disgusting person.

If you can't do that, then at least remove the ability to use Steam profile avatar in games, remove it from Steamworks so that it cannot be used.

But it would be better if you just have a bunch of kid friendly avatars that people can choose from and only choose from those, no custom ones.

[Edifier]

Absolutely not.

Just because a few do it doesn't mean everyone has to be hurt by it. Just report the avatar and move on.

[WolfEisberg]

Originally posted by Edifier:

Absolutely not.

Just because a few do it doesn't mean everyone has to be hurt by it. Just report the avatar and move on.

ok, now tell me how I can report the avatars before I even know they exists, before my kid or even myself know they exist?

Anyway, Valve is literally ruining MP games that also supposed to be played by kids not legally allowed to even see porn.

Valve has the moral obligation to do something about it, before underage can even see it and not after. It's time for Valve to stop being a company that is simply reactive and actually be proactive for once and do the right thing.

Tired of this degenerate behavior that Valve supports.

[Gwarsbane]

Obviously you can't report them before you know of them, but far more people have custom avatars that don't break the rules.

If you see one that does, report it and move on with your life.

Parents shouldn't be letting their kids play games without them being there, or even surf the web without being there at the computer with them.

They can get away with making new things Valve approved only stuff, but trying to take away peoples custom avatars because a few people abuse them.... that would cause a LOT of trouble.

[WolfEisberg]

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

Obviously you can't report them before you know of them, but far more people have custom avatars that don't break the rules.

If you see one that does, report it and move on with your life.

Parents shouldn't be letting their kids play games without them being there, or even surf the web without being there at the computer with them.

They can get away with making new things Valve approved only stuff, but trying to take away peoples custom avatars because a few people abuse them.... that would cause a LOT of trouble.

umm, I am there, how do you think I know he saw this degenerate crap? being there doesn't all of a sudden make that stuff not appear.

Doesn't matter if it causes a lot of trouble, doing what is moral or what is ethical is not always popular can make a lot of people mad, but a moral and ethical company/person will not let what popular opinion dissuade them from doing the right thing.

[Mailer]

Originally posted by Edifier:

Absolutely not.

Just because a few do it doesn't mean everyone has to be hurt by it.

Well... I think we might run aground on this dilemma a lot more often on this platform than you think.

Still, some games already have a platter of premade avatars you can choose from, although recently it's been made unnecessarily difficult to browse from all of them. I don't know if the ESRB rates them but they sound about the same as what the OP is asking for confinement to. New accounts might notice them and use them for the most part but eventually people want to distinguish themselves and I think that is okay, because...

We have been living off of Avatar reports for a while now and there hasn't really been an uncontrollable influx of mature avatars so far. That said, there is definitely yet room for some AI learning in noticing these blatantly identical advertisement avatars that some people cling to. Maybe we'll see such technology migrated to avatars at some point and that we can be more confident in a safe MP environment as a consequence of the same technology.

[Zekiran]

I personally would LOVE to know what you consider to be "degenerate crap". Because frankly having been a comic store manager I have had people whining about the Sports Illustrated calendar claiming it was "pornography".

"but a moral and ethical company/person will not let what popular opinion dissuade them from doing the right thing"

So, YOU are the 'moral correctness squad' then?

Get off your high horse. report things that you believe are *actually breaking the steam system's rules* which include *actual nudity*, depictions of hate images, and overtly gory violence.

You can tell your kid why you're reporting these images. You can work it out with them, as a "moral and ethical parent" might do.

But you don't get to decide for the rest of the world what is or is not 'degenerate'. Because I guarantee that it isn't to most of us. I've seen this stuff from people on moral crusades since the mid 80s. It is *almost literally* never what you claim it to be.

[Azure Fang]

The phrase "Online interactions not rated by the ESRB" comes to mind.

Beyond that, Steam has a requirement that all account holders must be age 13 and up to have a Steam account, and the ESRB's regulations are in no way law as they are an industry regulatory organzation (for North America) rather than a legal body. They have no actual power, and it's up to individual states/provinces to enact laws to enforce ratings. Valve has the power to control content on their storefront/platform and all you can do is report violators; the ESRB has no control over Steam itself as Steam itself is not a rated video game.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Skeletor:

Doesn't matter if it causes a lot of trouble, doing what is moral or what is ethical is not always popular can make a lot of people mad, but a moral and ethical company/person will not let what popular opinion dissuade them from doing the right thing.

Morals and ethics aren't a given, nor are they set in stone. They're both made up constructs that people use to further their own agenda/opinion. As is "doing the right thing", btw.

[WolfEisberg]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Originally posted by Skeletor:

Doesn't matter if it causes a lot of trouble, doing what is moral or what is ethical is not always popular can make a lot of people mad, but a moral and ethical company/person will not let what popular opinion dissuade them from doing the right thing.

Morals and ethics aren't a given, nor are they set in stone. They're both made up constructs that people use to further their own agenda/opinion. As is "doing the right thing", btw.

There is a certain level of human decency that is universal, not showing certain kinds of images to kids is definitely one of those things.

[Azure Fang]

Originally posted by Skeletor:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Morals and ethics aren't a given, nor are they set in stone. They're both made up constructs that people use to further their own agenda/opinion. As is "doing the right thing", btw.

There is a certain level of human decency that is universal, not showing certain kinds of images to kids is definitely one of those things.

And that's your opinion, though you have yet to qualify "degenerate crap" is in context with a Steam account held by a 13 year old or older child.

[WolfEisberg]

Originally posted by Azure Fang:

Originally posted by Skeletor:

There is a certain level of human decency that is universal, not showing certain kinds of images to kids is definitely one of those things.

And that's your opinion, though you have yet to qualify "degenerate crap" is in context with a Steam account held by a 13 year old or older child.

Does it matter? my suggestion is that since the avatars can be used in E Rated games, then Valve needs to make it so we can only choose from E-Rated avatars in their system, and remove all custom avatars. Even T-rated stuff can be degenerate, like what largely anime is with their sexualized under age girls/teens like we see on the points store.

[Zekiran]

Yes, it absolutely does matter.

Because as I stated before, and will doubtless have to repeat again when another "morally outraged parent" wants to shut other people's enjoyment down, your impression of things is YOURS.

Not Steam's. Not the game industry's. Not the folks who understand how morals work.

"Degenerate"

Again, what you believe to be this, is usually rather tame.

So yet again: report the images if you believe they are *actually breaking Steam's rules*.

And tell your child, WHY you are doing this.

If it is a realistic picture of an underage child with a very strong sexual intent visible, yeah, report that.

If it's an unrealistic anime character who YOU BELIEVE MIGHT MAYBE POSSIBLY be 'under age', ... i would not bother. Because they're not.

Scantily clad =/= nude.

Trust me: I've reported *actual porn images* - from real film, photographs that are very clearly from an adult movie intended to be pornographic. They are out there on the site.

They are not from games. Ever. Not even one of them.

And as someone else pointed out: the ESRB is not in any way shape or form a legal outlet. It's a guideline at BEST, and - in times of politicians trying to garner favor with old white christians, disturbingly easy to sway to different points of view on their actual guidelines.

But hey, if you raise your child right, they won't be looking at those things.

They will be too busy gunning people down in violent multiplayer games.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Originally posted by Skeletor:

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

Obviously you can't report them before you know of them, but far more people have custom avatars that don't break the rules.

If you see one that does, report it and move on with your life.

Parents shouldn't be letting their kids play games without them being there, or even surf the web without being there at the computer with them.

They can get away with making new things Valve approved only stuff, but trying to take away peoples custom avatars because a few people abuse them.... that would cause a LOT of trouble.

umm, I am there, how do you think I know he saw this degenerate crap? being there doesn't all of a sudden make that stuff not appear.

Doesn't matter if it causes a lot of trouble, doing what is moral or what is ethical is not always popular can make a lot of people mad, but a moral and ethical company/person will not let what popular opinion dissuade them from doing the right thing.

So you want to kill a platform by pre-emptively censoring the use of custom avatars and angering the vast majority of the user base. Risky strategy Kotton.

[Frostbringer]

Originally posted by Skeletor:

Originally posted by Azure Fang:

And that's your opinion, though you have yet to qualify "degenerate crap" is in context with a Steam account held by a 13 year old or older child.

Does it matter? my suggestion is that since the avatars can be used in E Rated games, then Valve needs to make it so we can only choose from E-Rated avatars in their system, and remove all custom avatars. Even T-rated stuff can be degenerate, like what largely anime is with their sexualized under age girls/teens like we see on the points store.

In some cultures, it is highly offensive to show skeletal remains since it is seen as disrespectful of ancestors, so much so that Blizzard had to release a modified version of one of theirWow expansions to change the graphics entirely.

Since you want to define what is offensive with your own set of rules,
how would you feel about your own avatar pic being judged as offensive since it goes against not what one person thinks is offensive, but an entire culture?

[Tito Shivan]

Report stuff that breaks the community rules.