Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
New York State Bans Sex Offenders From Online Gaming
firefly2003
Member UncommonPosts: 2,527
As part of a new initiative dubbed “Operation: Game Over," more than 3,500 registered sex offenders were banned from online gaming.
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman made the announcement today, adding that participants in the program include: Microsoft, Apple, Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Disney Interactive Media Group, Warner Brothers and Sony.
“We must ensure online video game systems do not become a digital playground for dangerous predators. That means doing everything possible to block sex offenders from using gaming networks as a vehicle to prey on underage victims,” said Schneiderman.
“I applaud all the companies participating in this first-of-its-kind initiative for taking online safety seriously and purging their networks of sex offenders. Together we are making the online community safer for our children, not allowing it to become a 21st century crime scene.”
Operation: Game Over is the first time the law has been applied to online video game systems.
Convicted sex offenders in New York must register all of e-mail addresses, screen names, accounts so websites can remove potential predators. Gaming companies have now agreed to remove their game accounts as well.
“At Microsoft, we continually evaluate ways to manage safety for our 40 million Xbox live members and particularly for children on our service," said Rich Wallis, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Microsoft. "Our partnership with the Office of the New York Attorney General helps further this cause.
"By leveraging the online identity information all registered sex offenders are required to provide, we are able to help reduce potentially harmful situations. We’re supportive of Attorney General Schneiderman’s efforts to make the Internet, including online gaming environments like Xbox Live, safer for everyone.”
The Entertainment Software Association SVP Christian Genetski said, “Our industry welcomes appropriate efforts allowing people of all ages to play games in a safer environment. Online game play with friends is a social experience and we encourage parents to be aware of what games their children are enjoying and with whom they are interacting in the virtual space.
"Through the use of robust parental controls and awareness of the online world, playing games online can be a fulfilling and rich experience.”
Comments
Damn sucks for them I guess
Yes I played SWTOR.
Considering what it takes to be a registered sex offender this is pretty stupid. If you were caught by a cop, getting a bj from your girlfriend behind some bushes in a park a late evening then you can become a registered sex offender. That's just one out of many ways one can get on that list. Not every sex offender is a child predator
don't know what to make of this. on one hand i completly agree with this and think it's a very positive thing. on the other it seems very big brother ish.
I've got the straight edge.
Something tells me you know exactly how false this statement is, so I will leave it at that. As for the OP, I do not have a problem with the state doing this. Unfortunately, it is so easy to work around that it will basically be useless and almost impossible to enforce except after the fact of a predator getting caught again.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
Hmm, good or bad depends on your definition of "sex offender".
Looking how anal (no pun intended) sex offenses can be in the US I don't think this is such a great idea. Not sure about this but I once read an article about a 21ish year old guy having a normal relationship with a 17 year old girl and that making him a sex offender as well. I think that is slightly draconic, but whatever ...
They should only restrict this to the actual "predators", who have been convicted for stalking and trying to groom minors (or worse).
My brand new bloggity blog.
um, yeah a 21 year old with a 17yr old is considered rape. and the 21yr old would be considered, and is a predator. the 17yr is a minor.
I've got the straight edge.
this is true in the US? Or does it depend on state?
wow, didnt know that. In the UK this would be perfectally legal.
Why do legislators bother passing laws whose constitiutionality will only be overturned on first appeal?
Waste of everyone's time and money, in an effort to garner some easy feelgood votes.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
yes 18 is legal adult age.
I've got the straight edge.
Good in theory.
Later on in practice, anyone they don't like is banned. And labelled a deviant that shouldn't be allowed to do anything unless they do as they are told like a good Internet junkie, here's your dose for behaving.
So it begins.
Exactly, stuff like that. The girl probably is his senior in mental age anyway but the guy can never play online games again because of them having a relationship ... That's kind of crazy in my eyes. Where's the law separating people like that from the actual predators who are actually convicted for online grooming of minors?
My brand new bloggity blog.
considering the article states "3500" offenders. i think there are some limits in place. i think New York City has more sex offenders than 3500. and that quote is for the whole state.
I've got the straight edge.
Same as here, though the age of sexual consent is 16.
Hmm, yeah, could be. Let's hope so for the sake of sanity.
My brand new bloggity blog.
First off, age of legal consent varies according to which state you are in. Most states seem to have set it at 18, but some states still allow 14 year olds to marry.
The thing is, where do you set the standard? When is a child old enough to make "adult" decisions? When are they old enough to make these decisions without caving to "pressure" of some sort?
The funny this is, I can remember thinking how grown up I was at 16 and yet by the age of 20 I realised I was an idiot kid that made way more than my fair share of immature decisions in my later teenage years. Even funnier is that every adult old enough, and mature enough, to laugh at themselves has told me the exact same thing.
So like I said earlier, I have no problem with this law other than it is basically a useless law since it will not be enforceable.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
Something tells me that Lawyer's this way come.
MAGA
+ 1
Age of sexual consent is diffrent from legal adult age in many countries. Heck even in some (just in some though) states in USA is lower than legal adult age.
In some countries it is even taken far. For example age of sexual consent depends on what age second peerson you have sex is.
Cause it is uterrly (imho) stupid for in example 18 year old go to prison & punished for having sex with other person which is for example 16-17 year old.
In some countries it is done like for example:
- legal age - 18
- general age of sexual consent - 16 (but under more law protection till 18 , ie law is sticter towards predator if some problem arise)
BUT
- age of sexual consent can be f.e 15 if second person is 17-18 ,etc
Law obviosuly have to give boundaries but at same time it have to be sane. Cause punishing very severely one person of sleeping with "minor" when diffrence between them is like 1-3 years is dumb in first place.
End of rant.
Good luck with that. They can hardly stop repeat offenders now what did they thin this is going to do? I understand the intent but how about focusing on something that would bring money into the state by legalizing marijuana? Then maybe they would have the funds to be able to enforce something like this.
I agree there is some ignorance going on here but it's not coming from me
Look up California Penal Code Section 314
Public Lewdness and Obscenity
Even being charged and convicted for a misdemeanor will have the effect of being registered as a sex offender for life.
Even if you somehow still believe you are "right". Try and look up any sexual offender list for any given area. Then notice the charges. Not all of them involve minors, being a flasher or a peeping tom. FBIs site has lists, maps names and criminal charges open for public viewing btw. If you look up some of them in Oklahoma, you wil even see some charged with peeing in public as being sexual offenders. Imagine that
Now if your point was that there is a "filter" of some sort then I agree there "may be" one. For now that's just an assumption
Probably a good thing you were going to "leave it at that" before you embarressed yourself any further
To me a scaled standard makes much more sense. I.e. it's perfectly fine for a 16 year old to have a relationship with an 18 year old, a 17 yo with a 20 year old, etc. But yeah, I agree there should be a limit somewhere.
Anyway, having a relationship with someone roughly in your own age group and with mutual consent is a very different thing than people stalking / grooming / trying to prey on minors online or in real life. The first group I'd call lovers, the latter sick f*cks.
My brand new bloggity blog.
you may think it's dumb but as a parent i would not want my 15yr old daughter having relations with an 18yr old. and i would press charges and send his child molesting ass to jail.
I've got the straight edge.
Agree with 'scaled standard' thing.
I don't remember which but I remember some scandinavian country had a law like that.
And yeah sure there have to be a absolute limit somewhere. I guess 15-16 is good abolute limit in 'scaled standard law thing'
This is kinda crazy, there are a lot of things stupid about the sex offender laws, in michigan public urination can be a Sex offense and make you register as a sex offender
what bothers me the most is what happened to "do the crime pay the time" you are punished you get sentanced to 5 years you get out and you find that you pretty much still being punished in every way
you would be fine if your daugher had relationship with 17 year old though?
what about if you had 15 year old boy which had 18 year old girlfriend? what if he had 17 year old girlfriend
what about when your girl will have 17 year old? will then relation ship with 18 year old be ok?
anyway - this is not forum for those discussions imho - so this will be my last post
One more thing - don't expect law to make parenting job for you.
If you raise your children good enough then they will not have full sex when they are 15 or at least they will talk about you that they want to and at least you will know it / have infuence to post-phone it or make that they are absolutely sure about it.
Besides I find it funny when people consider 18 year old grown adult when 15-17 year old is "child" lol like this 1-3 years of diffrence made such huge diffrence between people at that age.
I can find you tons of 16-year old more mature both psychically and mentally than 18 year old.
Anyway - law should be just a help and set logical boundaries and should be scalable in this particular case.
16 and 18 can be just boyfriend and girffriend and just simply in love , while 15 year old and for example 30 or 40 year old well almost never
Anyway last post of mine - not a place imho to have conversation about law system.
related article from 2009
Sex laws
Unjust and ineffective
America has pioneered the harsh punishment of sex offenders. Does it work?
http://www.economist.com/node/14164614?story_id=14164614&source=hptextfeature
A report by Sarah Tofte of Human Rights Watch, a pressure group, found that at least five states required men to register if they were caught visiting prostitutes. At least 13 required it for urinating in public (in two of which, only if a child was present). No fewer than 29 states required registration for teenagers who had consensual sex with another teenager. And 32 states registered flashers and streakers.
EQ2 fan sites