12.13.2008 11:14 pm
Nintendo’s ‘Scrabble’ said to contain dirty words
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Across the pond, a British mum is irked that her son’s new “Scrabble” game for Nintendo DS may be teaching more than she wants him to know.
Tonya Carrington told the Daily Mail recently that her 8-year-old son Ethan was playing “Nintendo Scrabble 2007″ for DS and saw the computer opponent was giving credit for words that no 8-year-old should be seeing (and no blog on a family website should be publishing).
Not only did certain words turn up, the built-in dictionary gave exactly the definitions these words deserved.
You can see more detail in the Daily Mail’s report here. Blue-mouthed Yanks shouldn’t get their hopes up, however; the “Scrabble” edition in question, pictured above, ships overseas only.
Why? Is censorship the answer we’re going for? Are parents suppose to claim to their children certain words don’t exist? Perhaps a little time explaining to Tonya’s son Ethan why it’s not proper to use certain words is what she should be more concerned about.
This just in: the Oxford English Dictionary contains naughty words! What’s more, it contains their definitions!
One one side of the coin, expecting Scrabble to censor the dictionary it’s using is a little ridiculous… but then, on the other, there are words you can’t say on public TV or on G-rated movies… a video game rated E should probably be held to the same standards.