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I don't think MS/GAS should ban players who are rude in the chat. It would kind of be overkill. It's a game and things are going to get heated on occasion. I think there should be an option to 'thumbs down' a player (or similar notion). And if X people do this within Y time then the user is silenced for Z minutes.
What happens when a group of elitest friends purposely thumb down players they don't like, for whatever reason? You could end up with players silenced simply because a select group of users have it in for them. Good idea, but you'd need a high minimum of thumbs down to ensure the system isn't abused too often (even then it would still be open to abuse). Still, i like the idea.
When the game first came out the complaint system would "auto suspend" you from the Activision servers after 25 complaints. People exploited this in illegal means. They tried to extort people by saying if you don't give me 1600 Microsoft Points I'll have all my friends file a complaint against you and you'll be banned. If you just said to yourself this is a felony then you would be correct. If you don't like someone, place them on ignore. That is the mature way to handle things.
Some people deserve to be given a lifetime ban, some a suspension and some just a mute until they cool down or grow up. Under the Federal anti racial laws that went into effect May 2010, ANY racial comment is a felony so right there that would be an instant ban. I am here to play a GAME and have fun. It's NOT real life. Creating an auto mute complaint system will only create more issues and complaints about schoolyard bully tactics. No developer in their right mind would put that into a game unless their goal was for the game to fail and they wanted to sit at home all summer drinking beer while on unemployment.
Adding someone to my ignore list won’t help every other user of the game, if the person is throwing a bunch of racial slurs, cuss words or generally abusive talk into the chat box. I can't imagine those hiring full time moderators to read every single line of chat. It's possible, after all, AOL have 'host guides" who monitor chats, providing a high level of protection for minors. But I can’t imagine that happening here.
The US does not own the world. I know they often like to think they do, but they don't. So quoting your nations laws aren't going to help much. There are plenty of games where user voting works perfectly fine. Personally I'd prefer if we could all say whatever we want. Whether it is swearing, racial, etc. And anyone who doesn't like it could ignore you. But this is the real world. Won’t somebody think of the children?