Sony has warned that PlayStation 3 owners who repeatedly abuse its upcoming Home service face having their accounts banned and their console's online access disabled at a machine level.

Peter Edward, director for Sony's Home platform, said at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival that, rather than becoming a virtual police force, Sony will provide different areas within the platform to cater for differing age brackets.

However, Edward warned that those users who consistently abuse the system will face severe penalties.

"Ultimately we know a user's details, we know machine details and we know where they live," he said.

"If you really feel like you've been abused, or that someone has just shown wholly inappropriate behaviour, then you are able to complain about it."

Edward explained that users misbehaving could have their console disconnected at a machine level, so that they would have to move house and buy a new PS3 before they could get online again.

"Clearly that is not something we would want to be doing very often but, as a disincentive to mess round too much, it is in our power," he said.

Sony is hoping that the Home population will essentially police itself and has provided a number of tools allowing users to block communications from other players that they may find offensive.

"It is a hard line to draw because we do not want to be walking around telling everyone off for saying 'bloody' so we have to strike a balance," said Edward.

The age bracketing will allow the platform to offer a more suitable experience for each demographic.

"A large proportion of our demographic is over 18 so we will make a point of catering to that demographic. We certainly do not want to dumb everything down to the lowest common denominator," he said.

Sony believes that by monitoring the login data that players use to access the online network it can easily identify users who are over 18.

This will allow Sony safely to offer adult gamers access to more mature content such as non-game advertising for products like condoms, cigarettes and alcohol.