Sony has banned a number of words that it deems to be offensive from being used in the text chat facility of its Playstation Home community service.

The offending words, which include "gay," "lesbian,"bi-sexual," "Christ," and "Jew" are amongst those that have been cut, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The censorship was discovered by Michael Marsh, 18, from Norwalk, Conn. who found that he couldn't set up a gay/straight alliance club.

"I can understand if they're filtering out profanity, but if feel like it's discrimination," Marsh told the website. "By blocking a word like 'gay,' which is a preferred term by the gay community, you're encouraging it as a bad word."

Sony Computer Entertainment America spokesperson, Patrick Seybold, came to the defence of Home by reminding users that its currently in the beta phase and that its listening to feedback from its community.

"The key message is it's a beta and it's evolving on a daily basis. We've said early on that user behavior and feedback will shape where we go with Home," said Seybold.

Source :: San Franciso Chronicle