Sexual Harassment on WoW - Harsh Punishment

#0 - Sept. 25, 2010, 4:48 a.m.

I have been sexually harassed on World of Warcraft dozens of times. This involves "unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable content." However, Blizzard does not seem to take these accusations seriously.

Hate speech, such as those directed against gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender players is UNACCEPTABLE.

Speech which is harassing and defamatory to women is UNACCEPTABLE.

Threats of violence, including forced sexual acts, against anyone is UNACCEPTABLE.

Even with multiple people reporting a user for sexual harassment, Blizzard allows these users to keep their accounts without consequence and continue spreading hate speech and defamatory language on public channels.

This issue goes beyond simply pressing the "Ignore" button. Blizzard needs to keep to its terms of use and punish the players who harass other players. These players should not be allowed to continue their hate rampages.

Personally, I no longer feel safe on WoW. I cannot join a city's trade channel or general channel without witnessing defamatory language. Upon asking for the language to stop, players often send even more hateful and harassing messages via whisper. These often involve references to sexual identity, gender identity, disability status, and threats of a violent or sexual nature.

Please Blizzard, help make WoW a safer environment for EVERYONE by enforcing harsher punishments against those found to have harassed, sexually or otherwise, other players.

Nevalistis

#16 - Sept. 25, 2010, 5:42 a.m.

I understand your concerns, Vina, but rest assured that all reports that come to us do receive all proper attention and action per our policies and harassment guidelines. Players that are taking part in the harassment you speak of should be reported to us immediately for investigation - but we are a reactive service and we do require that our players speak to us about these issues when they arise.

A lot of excellent advice has already been provided in this thread, including how to ignore players, to avoid speaking directly to them when provoked, and how our Penalty Volcano works. Should you ever feel truly physically threatened, you should inform your local law enforcement as well - while our Game Masters will do everything within our power and will cooperate with any requests from the law, they are not the police and there is an extent to what we can do on our end.

If you have further inquiries regarding our harassment policies or our penalty system, I've provided our articles for you below for your perusal.

Account Penalties
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20221

Harassment Policy
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20226

Nevalistis

#25 - Sept. 25, 2010, 6:18 a.m.

While I appreciate your feedback, Iag, it has very much derailed this thread. Your idea would best be reviewed and read in our Suggestion Forums.