360 Messenger useless to majority?

In the recent spring, arguably the top feature is the addition of instant messaging to the xbox 360. However, many of the xbox 360's younger community will sign into their account to find quite a disappointment. To use the new instant messaging feature, you must have been at least 18 years old when you first created your xbox live account. So all child accounts, will not be able to use the messenger, period. To make things worse, you may not change your email that is connected to your xbox live account.

Note: Major Nelson has confirmed their will be an update to let users change emails, and has a small FAQ you can read by clicking on the story URL.

[power of Green]

Its the way it should be(monsters etc.) half the content on XBL isn't fair to the young as it should be. LLLLOOOLLL. The Young majority? I would like to see a poll on that! for sh*ts and giggles. Guess i'v been lucky with Adults and older teens on XBL so far thank goodness.

[Numark]

I may be reading your comment wrong, but the youth(child accounts) definitely make up the majority of the gamers out there. And the real problem is, you do not have to be 18 to use the same messenger on the computer, so I am not sure why it is blocked to child accounts on the xbox 360.

[sajj316]

Because honestly, it seems quite deliberate. For what though? Its the younger crowd that I see on AIM, Yahoo, and Messenger.

[Vfor5]

who uses msn messanger? most of the folk i talk to use AIM.

[Striker D]

This problem is happening to me, I'm 16, use messenger on the PC, yes MS hates me...why?

[TheXgamerLive]

The majority of games on Xbox Live are Not under 18.

[sajj316]

Do you have any stats to support your claim. Maybe its just me but I end up in a Gears session with a majority being kids under 18.

Please save me from these racist munchkins!! Gamertag is sajj316 ... invite me for the sake of my sanity!!!

[Saint Sony]

Will be fixed.

[Striker D]

What makes you so sure?

[BubblesDAVERAGE]

I want yahoo on my ps3.You guys have a nice feature

[NikV3]

my friend has AIM and yahoo on his ps3, just run them through linux

[mcgrawgamer]

That no matter what type of restrictions the government and esrb enforce it's still on the parents shoulders when they allow their kids to have full control of their lives. This is just a small example the majority of xbl users being under 18, but how many of those 13 and 14 year olds are playing Gears of War, or Crackdown? That their parents bought for em

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

that it is like that in the first place is wrong, you should be able to sign up regardless of age.

[Numark]

The thing is, this little update brings up several problems that should be fixed, and arguing over if gamers under 18 make up the majority, isn't really the point.

-Users should be able to change their emails without having to create a new profile.

-It should be up to the parents whether or not their kids have access to the messenger if it is a child account. They do this with many features throughout xbox live.

[Clinton514]

If one needed to use Messenger in the first place, the easiest way to do so would be turning on their PC.

[Hectic_Kris]

M$ wont let me on messeger but it lets me play 18 rated games??? they need to get a grip

[Dukester101]

yeah, i too am included in that "majority."

i'm 21 years old, and when I signed up with XBL in January 2004, they said I needed a (at the time) passport account. so, i "threw" one together, and was able to activate everything, although I never used that address again.

now with the 360, i had to link my gamertag, and since I already had that hotmail account associated, i just "re-" linked it.

now since I never use it anymore, and WLM is integrated into the 360, I'd like to use it, and the messenger. However, i dont want the same e-mail address, and I CANT change it b/c of MS proprietary formats....

so it's good to see that they are working on it, b/c IMO it's utter BS that you cant change something as simple as re-linking to a new e-mail, or changing the one you used to use.

[Kuest]

Doesn't make sense that you aren't allowed to change your adress. At least there gonna change it... But I still can't get the whole "no minors issue". Is it really neccesary?

[calderra]

I would imagine these are legacy parental controls that only came up because of 360's stronger control offerings- for example, these same controls probably also handle at some level whether users can see adult content, recieve more adult-oriented advertising/contant (as in not porn, but from proper channels.. like toys versus financial counseling), and so on and so forth.

Just turning these controls off would probably have larger rammifications than people might initially realize. Again that's kind of a guess, but this IS tied to the age verification system for the whole Passport / LiveID network, in essence.

But as said- there are already fixes on the way for basically every issue raised. And yes, some of these issues are long-running. People have been asking to change the email on your 360 since launch, it's just that now is the time when the team is really forced into action on what was otherwise only an issue for a fraction of consumers.

And BTW: The changing emails issue is basically so Microsoft can verify your email- once you have a Passport, they (theoretically) have a lot of information and security linked together. This was intended for user protection, as you can't drop a Windows Live ID connected email for [email protected] or whatever. But yes, it's sort of a nuisance, and a better system would be appreciated.

[Kuest]

Makes sense what you said. Although I dont'think that minors represent a small fraction, I can agree that they definitely are not in the majority. Still, in the grand scheme of things, this "issue" is just a small problem. Great Post!

[Drew]

Well... I'm only twenty, and I'm using it just fine. I really don't see why so many people are having problems. The only thing that I could think of would be mis-matched info.

[Tausch]

As someone said above who the hell use messenger to begin with most people us AIM And yahoo and the small majority which is some how bigger than it really is are mostly using the above messengers. being that i'm 14 if i was able to us the messenger it would be no use to me because none of my friends use it.

[Lacarious]

but who truly knows nowadays.... things catch fire and take off when they hit the online masses.

[ImTheNumber12]

Well, I have had an XBL account since Xmas '05 and I was 17. They made me have a child account but what they don't tell you is that you never get out of it. I'm 19 now and my parents don't use their credit card so why can't I cancel the parent account. Because MS never designed them to be taken off. How ridiculous is that? They also have no answer to give you except build a new account. It's laziness. This should have been fixed years ago.

[m23]

I hope they update this quickly, I was hoping to test out the hotmail account that I actually use.

[kmis87]

At least MS didn't f this up as bad as Nintendo would have.

Enter a random 16 digit friend code everytime you send a message! Yay Safety!

[Havince]

as soon as i signed up all my contacts were addded and i started using it, i may hav 2 purchase a USB keyboard tho as hate the onscreen board. also, i dont think it tells you when contacts that HAVENT also got a gamertag come online.

Cant understand this address stuff, why would someone use a email address on 360 when registerd it different from the one they use on there PC/laptop ????????/

[willymcd]

it worthless as a messenger anyways, you can't use your headset and you can't use the xbox live camera, you either have to have a key board, or tediously type it out on you controller.

[Havince]

instead of now messing about with my laptop i can use it thru my xbox when playing games........hows that useless. and headset....i didnt/dont use a headset on laptop anyway, or a camera and i own a camera

[gta_cb]

i use it on my xbox 360 =D i think its quite handy