Companies are continually pushing the boundaries of our gaming experiences to be more social than ever, but this can cause an influx of people who abuse the system and attempt to ruin the fun for others. When this happens, Sony can step in to help take appropriate measures, but only if you send them a report first. Here's how to do it.
What can be reported
PlayStation provides a very clear list of what you should not do on your account. If you find anyone breaking these conditions, you may report them.
Do Not:
- Stalk, bully, threaten, discriminate against or abuse other users.
- Encourage other users to commit acts considered inappropriate or illegal in the game or the real world.
- Upload or attach pornographic images to PMs.
- Use online ID's which include profanity, sexual reference or hate speech.
- Speak to or text others with hateful language or images which disparage others based on ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual orientation.
- Exploit issues or environments that were not intended to be accessed to give yourself or others unfair advantages while playing online.
- Use or share codes, software or devices to cheat and do not attempt to hack to benefit in gameplay.
- Purposefully kill your team members in multi-player online games or disrupt another user playing a mini-game.
- Share other users' or your own personal and account information. Similarly, do not ask other people to give you their personal or account information.
- Use PlayStation Network for profit or commercial purposes, infringe on copyright owned by anybody or break the law in any other way.
- Give false information including making false complaints, giving a false date of birth.
- Create false accounts with the perceived intent to impersonate another user or pretend to be an SIE representative.
What reporting does
When a player is thought to be in violation of the above rules and a report is sent to Sony, the company will take a look at the report in question and determine what, if any, punishment there should be. Aside from removing the offending material, the results will vary on a case-by-case basis. Sony does not detail the exact process through which it determines what has or has not violated its rules.
For a serious offense, Sony may either suspend or ban an account. If an account is suspended, an error code will appear when attempting to log-in on the console. An email will be sent to the address associated with the account within 24 hours as to why and how long the temporary suspension will last. A ban, on the other hand, is permanent, and the account will not accessible at any point in the future.
How to report content and messages
Should you see or be subjected to a specific message or content that you feel violates Sony's code of conduct, you can report it by following these steps:
- Highlight the piece of content in question, whether it be a message, video, or screenshot.
- Hit Options on your controller.
- Select Report.
To report a user instead of a specific message, just visit their profile and hit the Options button on your controller and report.
How to block players
If you want to outright block a player who has been harassing you or ruining your enjoyment of a game, you can do so as well. This will block them from sending you messages and being able to communicate with you.
- From the home menu, select Friends or scroll through your Players Met list to find the User ID you'd like to block.
- Select their profile.
- Select the ellipses menu icon on the top right to expand your options.
- Select Block.
Take reporting seriously
If anybody says or does something that demeans or belittles you, especially if you ask them to stop and they don't, don't feel bad if you choose to report them. If they harass you and try to ruin your gaming experience you can be sure they are doing it to others as well. Companies offer reporting services for a reason. Let's keep the PS4 community a respectful and fun place to be!
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