Electronics giant Sony was slammed today after a randy couple broadcast a live SEX session – on the new PlayStation 4.
The man and woman were seen having a live romp on the PS4’s Playroom feature – which allows gamers to use a built-in webcam.
It is supposed to allow users to share their gaming sessions with people all over the world and can been seen by people of any age.
But the service, which does not have a filter for unsuitable content, was used by one couple to broadcast a seedy 20-minute sex session.
The pair, believed to be somewhere in Russia, performed a multitude of sex acts which were viewed by more than 1,000 people – some of whom commented on the on-going action.
Claire Perry, Tory MP for Devizes, who has campaigned for censoring explicit content online, slammed the broadcast.
She said: “Dear God, this is terrible – and yet another example of why we can’t be too vigilant.”
Heike Diaferia, Executive Director of Stop Porn Culture, slammed Sony for making such explicit content available, even if it did not sanction it.
She said: “Since the beginning of the internet, severely damaging hardcore pornography has always been accessible to children of all ages.
“You don’t need a PlayStation 4 to choose from millions of unfiltered free porn films that come up when you type porn into Google.
“Kids have also been playing Grand Theft Auto for years, in which a player can have sexual intercourse with prostitutes and earns points for killing her afterwards.
“Certainly, the disturbing live streaming in The Playroom, which is supposed to be a safe game for kids, adds a new layer to what’s already available.
“In any household that has access to the internet, our kids are never more than a couple of mouse-clicks, or game console clicks, away from grossly degrading content.
“It also impacts the way their young brains develop in ways that then often lead to health problems later. This already creates a massive public health problem.”
Since its launch last November, more than 4.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles have been sold worldwide.
One of the people who spotted the footage was Tristan Holtby-Smith, 34, a Gregg’s manager of Poole, Dorset.
He turned on his PlayStation at about 8am on Monday morning – and the video suddenly popped up on its live ‘most popular’ section.
Gregg said: “I often go to the Playroom on my PlayStation when I don’t have much else to do, because you quite often find funny people or gaming sessions there.
“But when I turned on the system, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was so shocking. The Playroom is really a children’s game.
“Some guy and his girlfriend, I think they were Russian because the zoom button was in Russian, were naked and going at it like rabbits.
“There were more than 1,000 people watching them have sex, and I would bet that some of those viewers were under 18.
“Once you’ve signed up for Playroom, you don’t need to verify your age, so anybody could have been watching it.
“To think that young children, who just wanted to throw little virtual robots at strangers, could be exposed to hardcore sex is sick.
“It went on for so long as well, at least 20 minutes. It just goes to show that nobody at Sony is paying attention to what is being broadcast.”
The Playroom is a game that comes with every PlayStation 4 console, designed to be used with the PlayStation Camera.
The service allows gamers to broadcast themselves to other PlayStation users over the internet, similar to smash hit TV show Gogglebox.
People can play mini-games, where users’ movement is required to battle tiny virtual robots or play air hockey.
Users can leave comments or send messages to each other, which are shared along with the video stream by third-party company uStream.
While the service does require a one-off payment, once that has been set up, there is no filter in place to restrict explicit content.
The couple, who went by the online handle g12051992, received more than 150 comments from the thousand people watching their 20-minute lovemaking session.
Tristan said: “There were definitely children watching that. People of all ages play consoles, and since there was no age filter, there was no way that that could be avoided.
“It was one of the most watched streams at that time of day. The comments were almost as disgusting as the sex.
“The couple were loving it – they kept looking at their TV screen and smiling. At one point she adjusted the camera so people could get a better look.”
“Porn causes harm to all of us, including those who have never seen any, on many levels.”
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe spokesperson David Wilson said: “The PlayStation4 system is designed to help gamers share their game play through popular social channels. It is unfortunate that some individuals may abuse this feature and share inappropriate content.
“Our social media partners are experienced in monitoring and disabling users who violate their terms of service, and we are working in full cooperation with them to minimize these instances.
“PS4 users may block sub accounts from accessing social media feeds and viewing live broadcasted content on the PS4 system by setting the sub account’s User Generated Media parental control to restrict.
“We have actually had some great and innovative use of this functionality with people broadcasting ‘game shows’ for reviews and game related chat – unfortunately it seems that is the downside of people abusing this situation.”
He said hidden within the PlayStation 4 system is a way of setting up parental controls that bans certain people using the console from accessing any user-generated content, such as online messages or video streams.
He explained that the content being shared by users of the Playroom is moderated by Californian-based company uStream.
Just days after the PlayStation 4 was launched last year, one gamer hit the headlines when he stripped his drunk wife during a live-streaming event.
The man was banned after exposing his wife’s breast before stripping her completely naked – to a shocked audience of thousands.
