Mother's fury over Nintendo Scrabble game that taught her son a string of vile swear words



Ethan Carrington-Anderson and his mother Tonya with his Nintendo DS Scrabble game that has a tendency to come up with rude words when it is the computer's turn to play

A mother who bought a Scrabble game for her eight-year-old son's computer console to improve his vocabulary has told of her disgust after it produced a string of swearwords.

Tonya Carrington, 36, gave her son Ethan the Nintendo version of the much-loved word game, enabling him to pit his wits against 'virtual' characters.

But she was horrified to discover that the computer-generated players were laying down words containing crude slang and abuse.

Now she is urging other parents considering buying the popular package as a Christmas present to think again.

Mrs Carrington tried out the program for herself on Ethan's hand-held DS console and was taken aback when her 'opponent' laid down the word 't*ts'.

The game also gives a definition of words it uses, on this occasion giving the meaning 'a garden bird' but also 'an informal word for female breasts'.

Any doubt was removed when the next word the computer offered was 'f*ckers', which it defined as 'a slang word for chavs'.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it received a triple score and won the game for the character, whose name was Camilla.

'Ethan is doing really well with English at school, so I decided to get this to help boost his vocabulary - but obviously not like that,' she said.

'I would have been horrified if Ethan had seen that word. "Sh*t" had come up as well. I was absolutely mortified.'

The word 'toke' - defined as 'a draw on a cannabis cigarette' - also came up during a game.

Mrs Carrington, from Lincoln, bought the game, Nintendo Scrabble 2007, from Asda in a two-for-£25 deal after it was billed as family-friendly.

'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,' said Mrs Carrington, who also has a two-year-old daughter, Destiny.

'It's disgraceful. Scrabble is a game for families, but I've had to ban Ethan from playing this version because of the horrible words it uses.

'It's such a shame for him, because he loves Scrabble. Nintendo is on the Christmas wish-list of every kid, and parents need to be warned.'

Foul-mouthed: This is the Scrabble game that shocked Tonya Carrington

Ethan added: 'I love Scrabble, so I was really disappointed when Mum told me I couldn't play it on the DS because of the rude words.'

Along with her husband Paul, who runs a hair salon, they complained to Asda but were told to contact Nintendo.

It in turn blamed the game's publisher, Ubisoft, and told her to contact video-games rating system Pan European Game Information.

She emailed them three months ago but has yet to hear whether any action will be taken.

A spokesman for Ubisoft said: 'We are sorry the game has caused concern, but it includes a "junior" option that stops it using unusual or offensive words.'

But Mrs Carrington insisted: 'I read the booklet that came with it, and there was no mention of a junior version. It should be made much clearer.'