Sony’ newest console brings a lot of new features with it, one feature being included in update 8.00, is the ability to record a voice chat and send it in for review. This feature is only available on Sony’ new generation the PS5 and not on the PS4, probably due to hardware shortcomings.
Is All Voice Chat Recorded?
Recorded voice chat is nothing new on Sony’ consoles. When first starting your console you will be asked to accept Sony’ terms of service. Within these terms of service, it states that Sony has the ability and right to record all party chat and store it. Even though a lot of people are angry about Sony recording their voices now, it is actually not a new feature.
What Purpose Does The New Feature Serve?
With update 8.00 other players will be able to record up to 45 seconds of voice chat, and send it to Sony for them to review. Sony implemented this feature to combat cyberbullying, harassment and overall toxicity.
How Will Punishment Look Like?
Sony, as of now, has not confirmed how exactly the punishment will look like. What is almost certain is that you will not get punished by being banned from Sony Plus, which is the paid subscription to be able to play online. Sony needs to be careful here, because they do not want to lose players.
What is most likely going to happen is a punishment system which we already see in different games. When a player behaves toxic or inappropriate, other players are able to report this player and a ban is issued. The ban is usually a chat ban that lasts for a short amount of time. This player then is unable to communicate with others and even his teammates, making it difficult to play team based games. After a cooldown the player will be able to chat again, but if getting reported again, the next cooldown will be longer, with at the end being a permanent chat ban.
Sony will most likely follow a similar approach, to when you get banned, the console will auto mute your mic so you will not be able to communicate.
Who Will Issue The Ban?
The voice recordings will with almost certainty not be checked by a real human, but rather by an AI. This AI will be fed a list of words, phrases and sentences that are categorized as harassment, bullying and so forth. The AI will then scan the voice recordings and match it with the list of banned words and issue a ban accordingly. This feature will not be perfect and no one knows how effective it will be in the end.
What is certain is that this feature is long overdue. To this day there are very limited instances in place that discourage and even less punish cyber bullying or harassment.
We at Streaming Live Academy believe that this feature is not invading one’s privacy but rather protect one. While you should not be discussing very personal or sensitive matters via an open party chat, this feature in particular only serves the purpose of punishing those who abuse the party chat to harm others, and therefore is a well needed and welcomed feature.
