NY Moves to Ban Sex Offenders From Gaming Platforms

[Stumblingdrunk]

New York state is working with electronic gaming companies to kick more than 3,500 convicted sex offender accounts off popular video game platforms like Xbox and Playstation — which could potentially allow them to interact with children. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the plan Thursday, the first of its kind in the country, saying it was vital to protect the most vulnerable segment of the population from the most dangerous.

"Online gaming is not just a digital playground," Schneiderman said. "It has the potential to be a 21st century crime scene."

Under New York state law, convicted sex offenders must register all of their e-mail addresses, screen names and other Internet identifiers with the state. It is a felony for offenders to set up accounts under a false identity, the attorney general noted.

That information is then made available to certain companies so they can purge potential predators from their online networks.

This has already been done on mainstream social networking sites, the attorney general said, but this takes it a step further by including interactive gaming platforms where predators can initiate text or audio chats with players.

Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Disney Interactive Media Group, Warner Brothers and Sony all agreed to purge registered sex offenders from their systems.

The companies will ultimately be responsible for purging people from their systems.

Earlier this month, a 19-year-old man from Monroe Country pleaded guilty to sexual abuse charges after luring a 10-year-old boy he met through the online video game system Xbox LIVE to his house, where the abuse took place.

http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-...ing-platforms/
Finally someone thinks of the children.

[Yugl]

"Hey Kiddo, where you going?"

"To meet some guy I met on Xbox live"

"Ok, but make sure to go alone since neither you nor I have ever met him before."

[Xno Kappa]

With all the bitching I hear about 13 year-olds on FPS games, this makes sense. Is there some kind of controversy about it?

[Stumblingdrunk]

listen, we really need to get these people out of their homes and out doing the kids things that they love.

[Pirian]

As long as it's just banning sexual predators, and not the guy who was drunk and pissed behind a dumpster. Unless, of course, he was pissing behind a dumpster on a kid. But then you gotta ask, if you were getting pissed on and you didn't want to be, wouldn't you just get out of the way?

[Indalecia]

With the quality of 6-13y olds on xblive, I say let all the sex offenders loose on them.

Free gold accounts.

[Dotsudoku]

With all the bitching I hear about 13 year-olds on FPS games, this makes sense. Is there some kind of controversy about it?

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, it seems a bit ridiculous. Keeping "sexual offenders" away from video games because of the possibility of children being around begs the question of why we allow them in any other mixed-age social situation in the world. You could make a similar case about their being allowed in supermarkets.

[Xno Kappa]

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, it seems a bit ridiculous. Keeping "sexual predators" away from video games because of the possibility of children being around begs the question of why we allow them in any other mixed-age social situation in the world. You could make a similar case about their being allowed in supermarkets.

Except you don't? They're already banned from most major social media sites. Online-gaming infrastructure nowadays is as good as AIM, which is more then likely what got caught them in the first place. So what's the problem here? Pretty try-hard argument if your comparing it to grocery shopping.

[Dotsudoku]

I feel like it's an over-extension of the law. The issue with having them playing MMORPGs is that they're in situations with children around. Alright, cool, but that describes hundreds of everyday activities. Are we worried about the possibility of some stupid kid meeting up with a sexual predator because he suggested it? Letting your child go to Larry Loveskids's house without knowing who the hell they are sounds like a parental issue.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

I think this is a good law, the people against it are playing all their cards at the wrong time. Party van!

[Xno Kappa]

This is stupid to even argue lol. It's the type of shit conservatives froth at the mouth when they see liberals defending it. Stop giving them ammo.

The majority of these child molesters were either caught by the parents themselves or through social media. Online-gaming nowadays is just as advanced to provide the tactics child molesters used as far back as xx many years ago to prey on naive kids. Just because it isn't in a chat format doesn't make it any different. Why wait on x case of kid y being butt-fucked by adult z because they met on XBL/PSN? I bet you'd be singing a different tune then.

You're interacting with kids as a registered sex offender, regardless of the format. Yeah you need to be monitored.

[Yugl]

Somehow, I don't see conservatives opposing this idea.

[hey]

The majority of these child molesters

This is about sex offenders, not child molesters.

[Xno Kappa]

They won't, they'll spin it to make it look like liberals are protecting child molesters.

[Thiefami]

I'm all for hatin on the pedos but this sounds like a waste of money. Shit, I never use my real name for anything online and never have. How will they find them? What if they use gamecards, alias, and different address? It's just so easy to sidestep this push it sounds stupid and a waste of energy.

[MF Perm tha Fineass]

This is about sex offenders, not child molesters.

Read article, might not make retarded posts

[Kerberoz]

How about banning children instead?

[Jonny]

Holy shit yes, Bann children!

[Xno Kappa]

This is about sex offenders, not child molesters.

Maybe read the article instead of posting out your ass?

[Dotsudoku]

Where does it say "child molesters"?