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Nintendo Scrabble Teaches Naughty Words

Filed under: In The News, Weird But True

The game of Scrabble is a great way improve spelling skills and expand vocabulary. I play the old-school board version with my 8-year-old and sometimes go online to play by myself. When playing online, I have often found myself in possession of the necessary letters to spell out something naughty. Like F*CK or SH*T. But when I try to play those words, they are rejected for not being in the dictionary. Often, the rejected words really are in the dictionary, but I guess they are trying to keep in clean for the kids who might be playing.

Nintendo, however, clearly has no interest in keeping Scrabble clean for the sake of the kids. Their Scrabble 2007 game for DS not only allows the use of profanity and slang, but actually has the virtual opponents playing and defining those words.

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UK resident 36-year-old Tonya Carrington learned first-hand the extent of vocabulary expansion to be had playing this particular game. When trying out her 8-year-old son's game, she was horrified when her virtual opponent laid down the word "T*TS". The next word her opponent played was F*CKERS, defined as a slang word for chavs (a derogatory term in the UK for an aggressive white teen or young adult). To add insult to injury, that word was a triple scorer and won the game for her virtual opponent!

Carrington complained to Nintendo,who in turn blamed game's publisher, Ubisoft. A spokesman for that company said: "We are sorry the game has caused concern, but it includes a "junior" option that stops it using unusual or offensive words." Carrington says she never read anything about a 'junior' version and thinks there should have been some sort of warning on the package. "The worst thing is that there's an age rating of 3+ on the box and no advisory warning about adult language on the packaging at all," she said.

Would you let your kid play naughty Scrabble?
Absolutely not! We dont' use those words, why should a game?897 (56.8%)
What's the big deal? If it is in the dictionary, then it's all good.419 (26.5%)
My kid wouldn't play Scrabble if I paid him.263 (16.7%)

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AdviceMama Says:
Start by teaching him that it is safe to do so.