Jennifer Zdenek lives in Seattle and has an 11-year-old son diagnosed with autism. One of the ways he copes with his disability is by logging time on Xbox Live racking up achievements. Little Julias Jackson signed on to play last week, and to his and his mother’s surprise, Xbox Live had taken away his achievements (nearly 1,500 of them) and labeled him a “cheater,” Seattle’s local Fox News affiliate reports.
“It is pretty much his only outlet and his only friend, because of autism,” Zdenek explains. “It disgusts me that they did this to my child… if you have no friends and have no life outside of your home and this is all you do, you know because of your mental illness, then this is pretty devastating to him.”
Zdenek says she called Microsoft and spoke with two people, one of which was a supervisor, but neither was any help. She was then referred to Microsoft’s legal department “by address only.”
Microsoft says, “The only actions that we take are to correct the player’s current Gamerscore, and to label the player as a ‘cheater.’ This label can be observed on Xbox.com and through the player’s view of their Gamercard on a console or computer that is connected to Xbox Live. The player can still legitimately gain future achievements. The player’s experience does not change in any other way.”
Furthermore, HardOCP reached out to Microsoft, who explained that even though it might not have been Julius or his mother who fudged with the account, they feel certain that someone did in order to boost his gaming score.
UPDATE
Stephen Toulouse, Director of Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement at Microsoft, apparently confirmed that somone at the home was cheating on the account in question.
“I confirmed that achievements were illegitimately modified on the account and contacted the customer directly w/ specifics,” Toulouse wrote in a Twitter post.
In a follow-up post, Toulouse said he “won’t be providing any more detail, the only person who gets the proof is the mom.”
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